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Chapter 1: What has been Pauline Hanson’s influence in Australian politics?
I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to 7am. For decades, Pauline Hanson has been on the fringe of politics, sometimes mocked, often ignored, occasionally courted. Even from that position, she's been influential. Her presence can be felt in our immigration policies, dating back to Howard. But her power and her popularity have never been greater than they are today.
A recent poll had One Nation as the most popular party in the country, surpassing Labor in primary support. So, just how possible is an Australia governed by One Nation? Today, host of The Conversation's The Making of One Nation podcast, Ashlyn McGee, on the party's popularity and what it will try to do with it.
Chapter 2: Why is One Nation currently the most popular party in Australia?
It's Wednesday, June 3.
MUSIC
Ashlyn, you've been a journalist for a long time, including time in the press gallery in Canberra, which means that you've watched Pauline Hanson's career as she's been in and out of parliament, national television, jail. But right now, she is the most popular she's ever been. So what's your sense of why that is?
It's so interesting, I have to say, Ruby, and I never thought that we would be in this position and we would be having this conversation. So if we look at the position we're in right now, 31% of Australians, so that's like one in three Australians reckon they would vote for One Nation if an election was held today.
Only 28% would vote for Labor, the government, and 20% would vote for the coalition. That is absolutely mind-blowing. If we think about how we've ended up in this position, I think there's a couple of things that have led us here. The first thing, and I think this one really can't be dismissed, is that the coalition is in complete disarray.
Now, the second part of it is you've got house prices through the roof, absolutely through the roof, inflation through the roof. You've got interest rates that keep rising. You've got wages that aren't keeping pace. And people are looking for someone to blame for that. They're looking for a boogeyman. And in doing so, they find an outsider.
They find the foreigner and they say, well, you're the one to blame. And One Nation is sitting there encouraging that. And then I think the third factor in all of this is how people find One Nation, right? Like One Nation is in the media constantly. We're talking about it. Everyone's talking about One Nation. But they're also online constantly. The algorithms favor polarization.
They favor what One Nation's sprouting. So you can't go online without seeing One Nation. So I think if you look at the coalitions in disarray, the world we live in is in a fair amount of chaos. And then you've got a party that's been waiting in the wings for essentially 30 years now, practising how to do this far-right populist politics.
And it's no wonder people are turning to One Nation. And so, as you mentioned, One Nation is in the media constantly. And there's no doubt that Pauline Hanson has benefited from spots on Dancing with the Stars and Morning TV. Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What factors have contributed to Pauline Hanson’s recent popularity?
There's so much racism around here.
And essentially what that show is doing is taking One Nation's worldview to an entirely new group of people... And it's washing over the misogyny, the racism, you know, the really objectionable politics of that with humour and going, well, if you don't laugh, you're just a bit too woke.
That's right. Take a good look at this. Get him out of here. Nah, you can't call me a he. I'm a woman. That's hate speech. That's the law. Yeah, read it, Penny. Not only can I force my way into women-only gyms and brunches and bathrooms, but you also have to be nice to me.
But the party itself has actually been hugely innovative in how it uses technology. So, for example, they were one of the first, or in fact, the first in Australia to have a website. It's pretty funny when you look at it, actually. It's like a blast from the past. They were one of the first on Facebook. They were one of the first on Instagram.
They've got some of the biggest followings on YouTube and TikTok. They know how to talk to people directly and they don't need us anymore.
And to what extent do you think that her popularity intersects with her gender? Because I think there is this case that can be made that other far-right leaders, people like Giorgia Maloney in Italy, have been able to make their politics more palatable because of how they're seen as a woman and all of the stereotypes around that.
So do you think that that's a factor here, that Pauline Hanson's politics are softened for the public by her gender?
It's a really interesting question, how her gender influences her politics. I think it's actually helped and hindered her as well. I think in the first way, if we think about it, she was underestimated in those early days and dismissed and ridiculed and not taken very seriously. I don't think we would have treated a male politician like that, quite frankly.
I think she would have been taken far more seriously and perhaps as a more genuine threat given the kind of rhetoric she was using. But because she was ridiculed and dismissed and belittled, people flocked to her as sort of the anti-hero. So that was actually the start of her popularity. The more she was ridiculed, the more people moved towards her.
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Chapter 4: How does Pauline Hanson utilize media to maintain her public image?
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