How Labor Should Fight One Nation: Polls, Strategy and Victoria
The Guardian published a new Back to Back Barries episode titled 'How Labor should fight One Nation' on 8 October 2026. It is presented by Tony Barry with Jessie McCrone, a former senior Labor adviser. The Guardian
The episode works through the latest Redbridge poll, which showed support for the prime minister and Labor falling. On respondent preferences, meaning who voters pick when asked to choose between two options, Labor led One Nation 52-48, unchanged, while the Coalition led Labor 54-46, a two-point gain for the Coalition. The poll also recorded a slump in Anthony Albanese's personal ratings. The New Daily
Within that frame, Barry asks McCrone how she would counsel Albanese to lift Labor's chances against One Nation. The question is direct. No talking points. Just a former insider asked what advice she would give the prime minister.
The episode also looks at the coming Victorian election and what it could mean federally for both major parties. That is the second strand. A state contest, with a federal read-through on what the state result might signal in Canberra.
The Guardian describes Back to Back Barries as a series on the strategies behind the week's politics. Its listed co-hosts are Barry and Barrie Cassidy, with this edition pairing Barry with McCrone. Production credits go to Bertin Huynh, Lu Hill and Rachel Herron, with Hannah Parkes as executive producer. The Guardian also published a video under the same title, 'Back to Back Barries: How Labor should fight One Nation'.
This edition follows an earlier Back to Back Barries episode about how One Nation is influencing Labor's migration policy, published on 29 August 2026. Migration policy first, electoral strategy now.
In my view, operatives will hear two different contests in those Redbridge respondent-preference figures. Labor holding at 52-48 against One Nation suggests the direct Labor-versus-One Nation contest has steadied, at least on that measure. The 54-46 Coalition lead over Labor, with a two-point shift to the Coalition, points to a different problem. It is about votes leaking to the Coalition and the crossbench of independents and minor parties, and about leadership ratings, not only One Nation's first-preference vote.
The broader context here is preselections and messaging, and that makes Victoria a handy test case. A state campaign forces both majors to settle their lines on cost of living, law and order and migration-adjacent issues in outer-suburban seats. Those are the seats where One Nation preferences and messaging cut through. Party headquarters will read the Victorian result less for who wins on the night than for swings in those corridors, and for whether Labor's reply to One Nation limits the damage without turning off its own base.
