The seat Taylor warmed

Back-to-back interviews with Karl Stefanovic produced the moment that seemed to sum up the day. Taylor left the interview chair and Hanson took the seat he had just vacated - a spot, as the reporter saw it, that Taylor had warmed up for her, a gesture that felt symbolic.

The reception across the Saturday session suggested Hanson was effectively the preferred opposition leader, with Taylor relegated to leading what read from the room as a minor party. Hanson had, in any case, been operating as de facto opposition leader through 2026, filling a void left by Taylor, who has struggled for mainstream cut-through.

Two speeches, two receptions

The billing never quite matched the seating. Taylor, leader of the second-largest bloc in parliament, risked equal billing with Hanson, whose party room numbers five others besides herself. His office called his opening address a keynote, but CPAC had effectively advertised all three leaders - Taylor, Hanson and Matt Canavan - as co-headliners.

Hanson arrived to most of the room on its feet before she took the stage, a hype video set to Vanessa Amorosi's Amazing playing her on. What followed was a more scripted speech about economic pain, anger at climate policies and "mass migration", and criticism of "elitists", and it drew applause on nearly every line.

Taylor's address carried the heavier policy load:

• •an opening mea culpa apologising for his side's role in immigration increases, pandemic spending and net zero, conceding they "made mistakes" but were now "unashamedly on the right"
• •pledges to cut taxes, index tax brackets and allow instant asset write-offs
• •conservative talking points running from "big government" and "climate bureaucracy" to "NDIS fraud", with six mocking references to "socialism"

His biggest applause came when he railed against socialism and big government. He is the first sitting Liberal leader to feature at CPAC, which usually gives slots to about half the Coalition frontbench each year.

Keeping the door open

Hanson spent much of her time needling the Coalition, to laughter, while keeping open the possibility of some kind of arrangement to defeat Labor. Talk of how to "unite the right" echoed around the Brisbane convention centre throughout the session.

Her sharpest line questioned what conservatives could actually trust the Coalition to deliver, telling the room that Australians don't want a "smarmy management consultant" replacing Anthony Albanese.

That was Hanson's answer when the subject of cooperation came up against her continued attacks on the Liberals - a verdict that put the ball squarely in the opposition leader's court.

The fine print came at her press conference. Hanson ruled out One Nation taking ministry positions in a Coalition government - and, by symmetry, Coalition ministers serving in a One Nation government - which appeared to close off any formal agreement even as she left the informal door ajar.

Boos from the base

The crowd's patience with Taylor had frayed before he took the stage. Days before CPAC he announced an immigration crackdown under which net overseas migration would rise from 100,000 to 160,000 under the Coalition plan, and a handful in the audience booed the figure when it came up in his Stefanovic interview.

More boos followed when he dodged Stefanovic's questions about why he wasn't trying harder to work with Hanson. The tension sits against a bleak backdrop for his party: eight months after Sussan Ley's dumping, the Coalition vote is still cratering, with One Nation's rise carving off rightwing voters - the very people CPAC had gathered in Brisbane.

Hanson has ruled out ministry positions in a Coalition government, leaving any rightwing cooperation up to Angus Taylor.