One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts is facing calls to resign after media scrutiny of his podcast and social media posts, where he called Covid-19 vaccines "killer" "bioweapons," claimed a secret group of powerful investors created the pandemic, and said it was "highly likely" the US military was spraying chemicals from planes.

The Guardian published its investigation on July 18, 2026, listing Roberts' conspiracy-theory statements across podcasts and public appearances going back more than a decade. Roberts is 71 and was elected to the Senate ten years ago. He is the longest-serving One Nation member after party leader Pauline Hanson. Before entering politics he was a mining engineer who campaigned against the idea that global warming is real. He has previously backed conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Sandy Hook school shooting (InDaily).

In a June 2026 podcast, Roberts claimed without evidence that Covid vaccines were "killer" "bioweapons" and that the US defence department had a "major say" in their development. In a November 2025 podcast, he said the United Nations and the World Economic Forum were destroying democracies by doing the bidding of ultra-wealthy investment firms to create a "new world economic order." In separate podcast appearances, Roberts claimed three large investment firms — BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street — secretly control the world's major events and started the Covid pandemic. He also claimed a group of ultra-elite figures was behind the global shift toward green energy (The Guardian).

ABC News reported on July 18, 2026 that Roberts falsely claimed half of pregnant women vaccinated against Covid-19 had a miscarriage (ABC News). Nine News reported on July 15 that the controversy also referenced a 2012 London mural by graffiti artist Kalen Ockerman, known as Mear One, which contains antisemitic conspiracy-theory imagery (Nine News).

Roberts has also praised US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, calling him a "beacon of hope" in 2024, and praised Russian president Vladimir Putin after the invasion of Ukraine. On the chemtrail claim — the idea that aircraft are secretly spraying chemicals into the sky — Roberts admitted he had no evidence but said it was "highly likely" the US military was conducting trials (The Guardian).

Independent MP Allegra Spender called for Roberts to resign. Spender's electorate of Wentworth has the highest number of Jewish people in Australia, and she made the call in response to the mural reference and the broader pattern of conspiracy commentary. Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship Dave Sharma called Roberts' comments "sickening" and "grotesque" (Sky News Australia, via Facebook).

Opposition leader Angus Taylor, who on July 9 warned of an "eternity of pain" if One Nation wins government, turned the pressure onto Hanson. He asked what she planned to do about Roberts and pointed out she was "in Italy living it up." Hanson has been photographed on a Mediterranean trip with Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart — images first published by the AFR. She also met with far-right activist and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson during a "fact-finding" trip to the UK (The Guardian).

Roberts responded on social media on Thursday July 17, 2026, calling the reports "selective cherry picking and dishonest distortions by mainstream media to mislead Australians on behalf of their uniparty mates" (The Guardian).

All of this is happening as One Nation has surged in the polls over the first half of 2026, beating the Coalition and briefly Labor too, though support has dipped slightly in recent weeks. Taylor's "eternity of pain" warning on July 9 was an early sign the Coalition knew One Nation was a serious electoral threat. One Nation party members Sean Bell and Tyron Whitten were named alongside Hanson and Roberts in that same Guardian piece (The Guardian, July 9).

The broader context here is about political strategy. Taylor is going after Hanson for being absent rather than directly arguing with Roberts' claims. That lets the Coalition put pressure on One Nation's leadership without having to debate the conspiracy theories themselves. It keeps the spotlight on whether Hanson can manage her own team. But it also carries a risk: if One Nation's polling stays strong despite all this coverage, the tactic looks like the Coalition has given up on winning those voters back. The calls for Roberts to resign from Spender and Sharma keep the actual claims on the table. Whether anything comes of it depends on whether One Nation's dip in the polls is temporary or the start of a real slide. A senator who calls vaccines bioweapons and praises Alex Jones is not a new problem. He has been saying these things for years. What's changed is that his party is polling higher, which makes the claims harder to ignore. The real question is whether anyone in Parliament House has the will — or the political standing — to actually do something about it.