One Nation’s newly named “treasury spokesman” Barnaby Joyce says the party is prepared to cut worker entitlements to safeguard small businesses struggling to deal with inflation and high power prices.

At One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s address to the National Press Club on Tuesday, the senator said she would seek to rebalance workplace laws in favour of business, saying some workers were “lazy” or “don’t turn up”, but the law made it too hard to sack them.

Asked by 7.30 whether One Nation had made a decision to back business over workers, Mr Joyce said small business was the driver of the economy.

“You don’t have a job if the small business goes broke, you don’t have a job if the small business is unable to employ you,” he said.

“What Senator Hanson was saying is you have to have a holistic look at this.”

Mr Joyce, who has been given the party reins on its economic policy, said One Nation would take a “pragmatic” approach to managing the economy.

“If you arbitrarily say, ‘Well, we’re just going to put up wages’, and somehow magically the small business that’s already struggling … is going to be able to somehow charge $10 for a cup of coffee and everybody will buy it — well, it won’t,” Mr Joyce said.

Earlier, Senator Hanson suggested she was prepared to consider winding back some entitlements for workers, including protections from termination and paid parental leave.

“If you are a male or female you do get the same pay … you do the work, same pay,” the senator said.

“If women take time off, and they are not paid their wages because they are not working, fair enough, why should business pay them if they are not at work?”

She also suggested income tax owed on hours worked overtime could be relaxed, and that more money could be returned to workers if government spending was reined in.

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But One Nation’s position on workplace laws will open the party to a fierce campaign from Labor and the unions, who had already begun to paint Senator Hanson as an opponent of workers based on her voting record in parliament.

Activist group GetUp also used a stunt during Senator Hanson’s address to attack her opposition to wage increases — a matter now being investigated by federal police.

Business groups expressed frustration at a recent Fair Work Commission decision to lift the minimum wage to $26.44 per hour, saying it had been increased despite productivity remaining stagnant, adding more burden to businesses already struggling with interest rate hikes, high inflation and high energy prices.

Mr Joyce said with record levels of business insolvency, the country first had to make sure businesses could be run sustainably.

After Senator Hanson’s major address, Labor frontbencher Murray Watt said Senator Hanson “hasn’t changed”.

“She was asked about her record in terms of industrial relations and she doubled down and said that the workplace laws that are seeing wages rise need a complete overhaul,” he told Sky News.

“She said that it’s too hard to sack people. I mean, you’ve got to ask the question, how is that going to make life easier for working people in Australia at a time when they’re already doing it really tough?”

Joyce asks for grace period to let One Nation develop policy

With successive polls suggesting a surge in support for One Nation has it in contention for government, the party’s policies have come under closer scrutiny.

Mr Joyce asked that the party be given grace to develop its economic policies, noting an election was still two years away, because it was operating with only a handful of staff, compared to the resources of the major parties.

Senator Hanson said in her Press Club address that One Nation would release a comprehensive economic position before the election, but was not ready to do so now.

“Let’s get closer to the election to roll out policies,” Mr Joyce said.

“We will give you the intention.”