One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has declared that she doesn't much like Canberra, but says her right-wing party has a strong base of support in the ACT.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Barton, the party leader - who this month overtook Anthony Albanese as preferred prime minister in a Resolve poll - accused the federal government of letting public servants run the show and said she would abolish agencies if given the chance.
Asked by The Canberra Times how she rated the nation's capital, Senator Hanson said: "I try to keep out of it as much as I possibly can."
But, she said, "I love my job."
As for why so little has been heard from One Nation's Canberra branch, which launched in November, she said it had held its first meeting and "they had over 200 people there, so it's going extremely well".
"We've got strong support in Canberra," Senator Hanson said.
"Go to the Kingo. I tell you what, I just get so many people come up to me, wanting their photos and talk to me and they're really pleased with me."
On how a One Nation government would approach the Australian public service, Senator Hanson said there was "a lot of work to be done".
"The public service has been, I think, poorly run for a long, long time," she said.
"We've got bureaucrats in there who have the attitude, 'oh we're here for long term, you just come and go, we're actually going to do what we want to do'."
She said the blame lay with the Albanese government and "the ministers who hold these portfolios, because I deal with them".
"I've spoken to them on the floor of Parliament. I listen to their comments. They are incompetent and they are useless. They don't know what they're doing, they don't know how to run their portfolios, and they're relying on the departments and the bureaucrats to give them the information."
"I want to run a government that they, the ministers, will be across their briefs," Senator Hanson said.
"They will know what they're talking about. They will tell the bureaucrats what's going to happen under One Nation rule. We will go in there and say: 'Right, we'll get legislation passed. This is what we want to do.'
"We'll go through the departments, their heads, and say, 'this is it, this is how you want it,' not the other way around."
Senator Hanson took aim at federal agencies for supporting transgender workers, saying that if she was prime minister, she would sack Australian Human Rights Commission President Hugh de Kretser and Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody, who she blamed for the shift.
"A woman must have female anatomy, and a person without a penis is not a man, yet we have almost every instrument of government dedicated to a transgender ideology that seeks to redefine humanity," she said.
One Nation wants to get rid of the National Indigenous Australians Agency - which Senator Hanson referred to as "the Aboriginal department" - along with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW).
Health and Education needed to be pared back to remove "duplication with the states," Senator Hanson said.
"We can cut a lot of spending," she said.
Community and Public Sector Union secretary Melissa Donnelly said Senator Hanson had "ripped off the mask and revealed that if One Nation gains power, it will also slash and burn the public service that so many Australians of all walks of life rely on every day for crucial functions."
"Australians already rejected this Trump-style approach to the public service, but it seems like Pauline Hanson has missed the memo," Ms Donnelly said.
"When she stands at the lectern at the National Press Club and casually talks about axing departments and agencies that undertake critical work and employ thousands of people, she gives Australians a glimpse into a frightening future where ideology and vindictiveness would rule."
