A day after an awkward run-in, a premier has dismissed Pauline Hanson as a hypocrite and pretender in response to One Nation's "remarkable" surge ahead of a state election.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas on Thursday stepped up his criticism of Senator Hanson, accusing her of flying around the country on the nation's richest person's plane while advocating for battlers.
The premier took aim at the One Nation leader ahead of Saturday's SA election barely 24 hours after Senator Hanson appeared to ambush him.
She confronted Mr Malinauskas over his recent One Nation comments as he headed to the final leaders' debate in Adelaide on Wednesday before their uncomfortable meeting ended with a handshake.
However the premier wasn't as civil on Thursday as One Nation maintained its surge before the weekend poll.
"These hypocrites flying around on private planes … that's one thing, but having no plan or policy for the future of the state … that's unforgivable," he said.
"Pauline wants to project that she's for the battlers, but she's on, apparently, the plane owned by the richest person in Australia (Gina Rinehart).
"If you don't have a policy or a plan, you're a pretender. And I haven't seen any policy or plans from One Nation, none whatsoever."
Polling by DemosAU/Ace Strategies published on Thursday showed a dip in Labor support of six per cent across the state, but still comfortably on track for victory.
That poll also showed that in regional and rural areas, One Nation is on 39 per cent of the vote compared to the Liberals' 15 per cent.
By contrast, 36 per cent of voters felt negatively towards One Nation's state leader and upper house candidate Cory Bernardi, and only 20 per cent were positive.
Ms Hanson approached Mr Malinauskas on Wednesday, telling him that he had "put people down" and she "didn't appreciate that".
It was in response to his comments at an election forum last month about immigration being necessary to provide workers for the state, such as in aged care.
Asked what he would say to One Nation voters, the premier told the forum: "Who's going to feed you and bathe you and wipe your bum when you're 90?"
Mr Malinauskas on Wednesday defended his response, telling Senator Hanson they were reasonable when put in context.
One Nation had the premier in its sights again on Thursday, with Mr Bernardi accusing Labor and the Liberals of spreading misinformation about the party having no policies.
"Obviously, our surging support has them worried for their own necks," he said.
"One Nation's policies are readily available on our website for anyone to see.
"Voters who've taken the time to look can see we've got policies backing them, and they're liking what they're seeing."
University of Adelaide Emeritus Professor of politics Clem Macintyre told AAP polls were showing One Nation pushing the Liberals into third place at the SA polls "which will be a remarkable occurrence if that happens".
"I think we can still say One Nation is a party of disaffected voters," he said.
If One Nation polled strongly but without winning seats it would be tempting to start talking about the end of two-party politics at the federal level and across Australia, he said.
"We'll have to wait until One Nation proves themselves as a plausible alternative government".
