Barnaby Joyce has defended Pauline Hanson's leadership abilities after one of Australia's most respected press gallery journalists declared the One Nation leader was "not equipped" to be prime minister.
Debate over the prospect of Ms Hanson taking the top job has surged after a new poll showed One Nation's primary vote had climbed to 31 per cent, ahead of Labor's 28 per cent and the Coalition's 20 per cent.
Asked on Sunday by Sky News whether she wanted to be prime minister, the One Nation leader said she was not going to underestimate herself.
"Do I want to be prime minister? Well, I tell you what, I won't knock the job, because I believe that I have the ability to do it," she said.
The comment led to a blistering critique from veteran press gallery journalist and editor-at-large of The Australian, Paul Kelly.
"Pauline Hanson is not fit to be prime minister of Australia, she's not equipped to do the job, she can't do the job," he said.
Kelly said those saying "she couldn't be worse than Albo" needed a reality check.
"I'm here to tell you, she could be a lot worse than Albo. She could be a lot worse than Albo and, at some point, Australian common sense and resilience and capacity to assess politics has got to come into play with some sensible assessments of the limitations of Pauline Hanson," he said.
However, Mr Joyce, a former deputy prime minister, has defended Ms Hanson's leadership abilities.
"Paul is an incredible scribe and one of the icons of the fourth estate, but on this issue I'm going to disagree," he said.
"I would say that Pauline Hanson has had 30 years' experience now in parliament. I think a lot of people who've been around with Pauline see the Pauline that arrived in parliament, not the Pauline that's there now."
The former Nationals leader, who ended a decades-long association with his former party to join One Nation late last year, argued most prime ministers were not up to the role when they first took to the job.
"I'd also suggest that most prime ministers are probably not up to the job when they first arrive there," he said.
"They've never run a business and they've never done anything, but they surround themselves with the skill sets to make sure that they can do it well."
The One Nation MP claimed everyone in parliament wanted to be prime minister, before saying the party was keeping its "feet on the ground" despite its recent surge in the polls.
"There is not a person in this building that's not wanting to be the prime minister," he said.
"When you ask someone, do they want to be the prime minister, everybody in Parliament House wants to be the prime minister, even the journalists want to be the prime minister, even the cleaners want to be the prime minister.
"But we're not going to get carried away with ourselves (over polling).
"We're incredibly honoured... it's merely an indication of the support we have and we are not going to start counting the chickens before they vote."
