The conspicuous absence from the NSW Liberal Party meeting

There was a conspicuous absence during the rousing addresses of Liberal leaders Kellie Sloane and Angus Taylor to the party’s faithful on Saturday morning.

It wasn’t the empty chair reserved for federal Liberal president and former prime minister Tony Abbott – it was the lack of any mention of One Nation or Pauline Hanson in Sloane and Taylor’s combined 43 minutes of speeches.

Yet the spectral presence of Hanson was impossible to miss.

Sloane’s announcement that a Coalition government would freeze the gun buyback and scrap gun ownership caps for farmers and sporting shooters – a backflip seemingly coming for months — clearly had been influenced by the policy’s deep unpopularity on the right.

“While Chris Minns and Labor have pledged multimillions to join Albanese’s half-baked gun buyback, a Liberal government will be focused on taking the guns out of the hands of the terrorists and the organised crime,” she said.

Sloane’s advisors insist she has been publicly critical of the gun reforms for months and the policy has nothing to do with One Nation, but the politics is difficult to ignore. That policy might appeal in the regions and outer-suburban seats, but it could backfire in a string of marginal Liberal seats in inner Sydney.

The latest Resolve Monitor poll showed 63 per cent of voters supported the NSW government’s gun reforms, including two-thirds of Coalition voters. Support plunged to 45 per cent among those backing One Nation.

More than half of all respondents supported the gun buyback, compared to 20 per cent who opposed.

Sloane – who looks to be going all-in to fight an election campaign on law-and-order issues – spent two-thirds of her 18-minute speech talking tough on crime. She spent about three minutes talking about the economy.

“I believe in tough love,” she declared.

Judging by Sloane’s address, even if One Nation wasn’t mentioned, the Liberals appear fixated on areas where Hanson’s outfit will likely perform best: regional NSW and western Sydney. This is despite five of the 11 seats the Liberals hold on less than a 5 per cent margin being close to the city.

Even Taylor – having watched the seat of Farrer go to One Nation in May, then witnessed Hanson and her supporters condemn his Liberal colleague (and leadership rival) Andrew Hastie as a traitor – could not find a moment in his 25-minute address to mention the populist outfit.

Taylor and Sloane apparently believe criticising One Nation will be taken badly by Coalition voters who are wavering or those who have already decided to jump ship.

The Liberals’ strategy of avoidance is diametrically opposed to that of Chris Minns and Anthony Albanese, who have become increasingly strident in their criticism as they treat One Nation as if it is their primary opposition.

With six months to the state election, the diverging strategies provide an insight into how each party will deal with the unprecedented dilemma of One Nation, while raising an important question: will either strategy work?