THE RISE and RISE OF PAULINE HANSON

 When One Nation Was Born

By January 2026, One Nation had surged ahead of the Coalition for the first time as voters abandoned the major parties and Albanese’s net approval rating plunged to  minus 11. Core support for One Nation was on the rise.[i]

Albanese described the growth in support for One Nation as a “worry”, saying the party was a “pretty divisive lot”. Hanson reacted saying “I’ve got no time for him. The worst Prime Minister this country has ever had. I tell you what, Anthony Albanese, I’m coming after you. I want to see you gone from being Prime Minister at the next election and I’m going to work my butt off to make it happen”. She claimed that his lack of action on anti-Semitism since 7 October 2023, proved he was a “hypocrite” and he was unaware of the concerns people had about radical Islam. She added, “Instead of worrying about how we are going to deal with hate speech, don’t bring these people into the country in the first place”.[ii]

In 1996, Pauline was a single mum, running a fish and chip shop in Ipswich, Queensland. She decided to run for politics as the LNP candidate for the seat of Oxley in the 1996 election but her alliance with the LNP quickly soured when she made racist remarks about indigenous people, and she was sacked from the Liberal Party. Her reaction – “Okay, I’ll run as an independent for Oxley”. No one in the mainstream thought she had a hope but, on election day she rocketed into Parliament with one of the biggest swings against the sitting Labor member ever recorded.

She was ridiculed for her lack of education and when she was asked, “Are you xenophobic?” When she asked what that meant she was subjected to widespread derision. However, the more she was criticized the more people came out to support her.

A Resurgent One Nation

In her maiden speech, Hanson complained that Australia was being “swamped by Asians”. She formed One Nation in 1997 and  won 11 seats in the 1998 Queensland state election. She has since moderated her approach and would probably not use the phrase “swamped by Asians” today, but her visceral 1996 stand against high levels of immigration follows the same theme which underpins her resurgence now. A large share of the voting public have come to her way of thinking.[iii]

Pauline Hanson has outlasted her critics and now presides over a resurgent One Nation, wielding political power which few anticipated. She is the politician who will stand up and say what she feels her supporters are thinking but may be too fearful to say out loud, but for her, “Bugger the consequences”.

Early in 2026 a $500,000 animated film, A Super Progressive Movie was released by One Nation. The revenue from the movie will contribute funds for One Nation’s 2028 election campaign. One Nation’s most recent annual return to the Australian Electoral Commission shows that the party received $3,323,609 in donations and other payments in 2024-25.

Hanson Goes to Jail

In 1998, One Nation fielded 139 candidates but, after a concerted smear campaign from the LNP, Hanson lost her seat and only a single One Nation candidate was elected. Tony Abbott set up a fund to support a case for electoral fraud against Hanson and in 2003 she was sent to jail. It was the absolute rock bottom moment of her life. She had always prided herself on being an honest, upstanding and law-abiding Australian citizen and yet the court found her guilty of fraud. However, after 11 weeks, her conviction was overturned and she was released. Her time in jail gave her a steely edge and gave her the kind of backbone and mentality which enabled her to survive and thrive.

Racism

After 1998, Hanson ran for Parliament nine times and failed each time. However, the 2016 election campaign marked a new kind of Pauline Hanson. She emerged as a serious, strategic, experienced, and a battle hardened political operator. These days her brand of “racism” targets Muslims, not Asians. However, she was justifiably criticized for her remark in March when she declared “How can you tell me there are good Muslims?”  Albanese took the opportunity to unfairly link her comments to threats against a mosque in Western Sydney. Hanson did not take a backward step and she has doubled down on her calls for a ban on the “Importation of radical Islam that hates Western society, freedom of speech and equality before the law”. She has since teamed up with James Ashby, a strategic operator schooled in Conservative politics. This is seen as one of the reasons why One Nation is now surging.[iv]

Janet Albrechtsen wrote in The Australian that Josh Lees could be one of the best things that ever happened to One Nation. Every time he and his bunch of protesters chant “Globalise the intifada” or “From the river to the sea” and when Grace Tame screams similar slogans, another cohort of otherwise peaceful Australians decides they’ve had enough. Many Australians don’t think mainstream politicians do enough to re-establish Australia as a socially cohesive country and they are now throwing their lot in with One Nation. Albrechtsen suggests that sensible control over migration and tough, but fair crime policies could have avoided the looming left-right battles to come. She pointed to a recent poll by The Guardian which found that 62% of respondents supported stronger police powers to curb protests.[v]

Advance One Nation Fair

There was early speculation that One Nation might seek to merge with the Liberal and National parties to defeat Labor but Hanson was “not interested”. Strong polls suggested that One Nation had become the second most popular political force in the nation.[vi] 

In the South Australian election in March 2026, One Nation, led by Cori Bernardi secured 22.5% of the Lower House primary vote, gaining four MPs and three Upper House members. The most recent federal Newspoll shows One Nation ahead of the Coalition on the primary vote, by 26% to 21%. One Nation’s next electoral test will be in the NSW Federal electorate of Farrer, a by-election on 9 May triggered by the resignation of Sussan Ley. Party supporter, Paul Moodie comments, “One Nation win will shake Labor and the Liberals to the core”.

Immigration is the most potent issue driving up the One Nation vote. A large number of migrants, many of whom don’t integrate well have come into Australia from all corners of the world and this his has turned a sizeable proportion of the Australian population against immigration. The massacre of Jews at Bondi Beach in December 2025 also inflames hostility to immigration as did the scene in late March when Prime Minister Albanese was heckled and abused at a Lakemba Mosque.[vii]

In the months since the Bondi Beach massacre in December, public support for Labor, the Liberals and the Nationals has plummeted while One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has taken her party to historic highs. Albanese’s leadership, since the Hamas terror attack in Israel on October 2023 and his inconsistent response to a Royal Commission and to anti-Semitism since the 2025 Bondi massacre have turned voters away leading to a record low in support. Many voters now prefer One Nation.[viii]

Albanese Attacks Hanson

Albanese did himself no favours with his statement that “Pauline Hanson appeals to our darkest forces while he appeals to light, to optimism, and to unity, because that’s the way our country will go forward”. He later claimed that he did not call One Nation supporters the “darkest forces” but was “only describing Pauline Hanson”. Hanson is now the leader of the second most supported party in the country – appealing to “darkness” while Albanese appeals to “light,  optimism  and unity” as if this was a battle  between Good and Evil . To cast Hanson as appealing to our “darkest forces” paints her supporters as people hypnotized by an evil force into voting against Australia’s best interests. It was neither smart nor helpful for Albanese to recreate Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” in the way he spoke about Hanson.[ix]

Hanson Aims to Get Australia Back

Labor and the Coalition are facing a One Nation bloodbath in Queensland as young Australians, women and voters shift away from Albanese whose support has suffered a dramatic fall, particularly in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack, rising inflation, higher interest rates, fuel shortages and a worsening cost of living crisis. Recent Newspolls show that One Nation is leading the Coalition in every major state except Victoria and it has the highest primary vote of any party in Queensland.[x] 

In a recent national YouGov survey, One Nation had the strongest support of any party amongst men, the working class, Millennials, Generation X, outer metropolitan voters, rural voters, the working class, parents with children under 18, mortgage holders, and renters.

Hanson has responded saying, “They want their country back and that’s what I am going to do, I’m going to get Australia back”.[xi]

AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM – HEAR THE OTHER SIDE

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[i] The Australian (AU), One Nation ahead of Coalition, 19 Jan 26

[ii] Sky News (Sky) What a hypocrite, 20 Jan 26

[iii] AU, Hanson’s rise, due to consistency, 7 Feb 26

[iv] The Conversation, Pauline Explained by Anna Broinowski, 4 April 26

[v] AU, Out of touch Judges driving Australian voters to One Nation, 18 Feb 26

[vi] Sky, Hanson rules out a super coalition with Liberals and Nationals, 9 March 26

[vii] AU, Liberals forgotten patriotism, Now One Nation owns it, Alexander Downer 23 March 26

[viii] AU, Truth behind One Nation “poll vault”, 8 Feb 26

[ix] Sky, Albanese’s “basket of deplorables” 27 Feb 26

[x] AU, One Nation leads Labor and Coalition in Queensland, 6 April 26

[xi] SMH, From a hypothetical to an existential political threat, 4 April 26