Editorial
Despite the polls, One Nation is still a fringe party
Cory Bernardi, the former conservative senator from South Australia, has thrown his hat into the One Nation ring. Bernardi represented the Liberal Party for a decade, before falling out with it, highlighted by his conflation of same-sex laws and bestiality, and forming his own party, Australian Conservatives; he then served as an independent, before leaving politics. Now, he has turned to One Nation, with whom he will seek election to the South Australian parliament’s upper house at next month’s election.
Bernardi is one of a string of politicians who have embraced Pauline Hanson, or whose name has been mooted as stepping towards her party. Bernardi’s reason for his move is telling. One Nation was the “only genuine and viable alternative to the major parties in SA”.
It is this sentiment that is playing out nationwide. One Nation’s support is surging, according to opinion polls, while it is sliding for both Labor and the Coalition. In the latest Resolve Political Monitor poll for The Age, One Nation recorded its strongest primary vote – three times higher than its 6.4 per cent share of votes at the last election. The Age’s Resolve Political Monitor from January showed the Coalition at 28 per cent and Pauline Hanson’s party at 18 per cent. A Redbridge Group/Accent Research poll in The Australian Financial Review this week shows One Nation as the second-most popular party, ahead of the Liberal or National parties. The combined Liberal and Nationals vote was 19 per cent, down from 26 per cent in December. One Nation was up to 26 from 17, while Labor was down one point to 34 per cent.
To that end, the party is preparing to field candidates in all 88 Victorian lower house seats and an unspecified number in the upper house at the November state election. Federally, it has one member in the lower house in Barnaby Joyce and four senators. In Victoria’s parliament, One Nation’s only representative is upper house MP Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell.
One Nation’s most prominent policy has been its anti-immigration stance, but its other sentiments towards, for instance, COVID-19, possession of firearms, global warming, attaining net zero, placing coal as central to Australia’s energy needs, and rolling “back brutal and extreme abortion law” place it on the outer rim of political trends and mainstream thinking. Its thinking veers into ultra libertarianism with it wanting “the introduction of a Citizens Initiated Referenda, enabling Australian citizens to put forward legislation or a referendum question without waiting for politicians to listen and act”.
The highest-profile politician to join One Nation has been Joyce. Former Victorian state MP Bernie Finn, who was ejected from the Liberal Party in 2022 for social media posts which included his call for abortion to be banned, even for rape victims, has also recently joined the state branch of One Nation. Others rumoured to be considering a move are Liberal senator Alex Antic, and former NT chief minister Adam Giles.
A surge in popularity, however, does not mean One Nation is moving to the centre or into the mainstream. Bianca Colecchia, Victorian state secretary for One Nation, posted a film online last month of people walking in the city’s CBD on New Year’s Eve.
The theme was “spot the Westerner”. The exercise was condemned by Labor, Liberal federal politicians and multicultural organisations as being divisive. Indeed, how else could it be seen? This is a prime driver of One Nation, a political calling to arms against the outsider.
The splintering, infighting and disunity of the Coalition illustrates a scientific maxim that translates to politics: nature abhors a vacuum.
With the Coalition struggling to stay as one entity, voters may see in One Nation an alternative that will fill their expectations of an alternative to Labor. But electors should be wary of mistaking One Nation’s monochrome view as a coherent vision for the country. Despite the surge in the polls, their philosophy of us and them can only ever put them on the fringe.
Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter.
The Age's View – Since The Age was first published in 1854, the editorial team has believed it important to express a considered view on the issues of the day for readers, always putting the public interest first.