CPAC Brisbane: The Right Splits on Preferences and How to Beat Labor
Conservatives met at the Royal International Convention Centre in Brisbane on 10-11 October 2026 for the CPAC National Conference. The main topic was preferences, and how the right removes Anthony Albanese and Labor from office at the next election.
The worry in the hall was a third election loss in a row. Organisers did not leave the maths vague. "If you support One Nation but won't preference the Coalition, or support the Coalition but won't preference One Nation, you risk reinstalling Labor," attenders were told The Guardian.
For students of the system, preferences are rankings on the ballot paper. If your first choice cannot win, your vote flows to your next choice. That flow decides close seats.
The program included a Donald Trump impersonator. He worked the room and spoke with rightwing campaigner Monica Smit. Opera singers performed the first verse of the national anthem twice. Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and her folk-singer husband then sang the anthem themselves The Guardian.
Journalists were asked to wear large red media accreditation lanyards marked "FAKE NEWS". Stickers depicting Anthony Albanese with a Pinocchio nose turned up in the hall and in men's urinals. They carried no authorisation message and did not appear to be officially endorsed by CPAC. Barnaby Joyce handed out notes as props during a lecture about the value of money and the historical silver content of Roman coins The Guardian.
Karl Stefanovic emceed parts of the program. He jokingly thanked CPAC for "rudely interrupting my unemployment" and interviewed Nationals leader Matt Canavan and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson on stage The Guardian.
The program billed Angus Taylor, Hanson, Canavan and Tony Abbott. Taylor, scheduled to headline in Brisbane, was the first Liberal leader to attend CPAC ABC News. He used the slot to call for the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation to share preferences at the next election. He warned about ego and infighting over minor differences ABC News.
Hanson offered a different prescription. She urged voters to abandon the Coalition in her Brisbane speech ABC News. She also pledged to launch a royal commission, a major public inquiry with strong powers, into Australia's net zero emissions target ABC News. Net zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to the point where any remaining emissions are balanced out.
Net zero ran as the other fault line. Price called net zero "communism" in her speech and called for the Liberals to drop it. The Coalition's keynote address to CPAC Brisbane on 10 October 2026 pledged to "stop activists running Australia's resources projects and prosperity".
In my view, that is the tension CPAC could stage-manage but not resolve. Taylor asked for discipline and a three-way preference pact. Hanson asked for defection first and cooperation later, if at all. The organisers tried to split the difference by making preference-splitting the villain, not either party. Subtle it was not. It leaves unanswered who concedes what, where, and on whose how-to-vote card, the party guide that tells supporters where to direct preferences.
The broader context here is that the dispute is less about principle than sequence. A preference deal needs a retail offer voters accept and a mechanical agreement on flows. Taylor spoke the language of unity. Hanson spoke the language of leverage, with net zero and a royal commission as markers of difference. Price sharpened that difference by framing net zero in ideological terms and urging the Liberals to walk away.
To put it in perspective, Canberra has heard this argument before in different costumes. The right agrees Labor must go. It does not agree whether the path runs through consolidation or insurgency. Brisbane put both theories on the same stage, separated by an anthem or two, and asked the crowd to applaud each. They did. The hard part, deciding whose voters move and whose candidates stand aside, was left for later.
