The evolution of Pauline Hanson
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How did Pauline Hanson first rise to national attention in the 1990s?
Six weeks ago, hardly anyone had ever heard of Pauline Hanson.
I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians.
Now she's the name in just about every radio bulletin, every television newscast and newspaper.
I'm not there to keep the bastards honest. I'm there to get rid of the bastards.
When Pauline Hanson was at the previous peak of her political popularity in the late 90s, one journalist was there chronicling it.
We could see that the cult was real. I'll never forget going to a little town in fine north Queensland called Melanda and the entire town turned up. There were men there who said, oh, could you please autograph my arm so I can tattoo it?
Margot Kingston followed Hansen on the 98 campaign trail and has followed her career ever since, pulled in even when she wanted to walk away. So what do Pauline Hansen's beginnings tell us about her future? And what are the parallels between 1996 and 2026?
What were Margo Kingston's earliest encounters reporting on Pauline Hanson?
I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to 7am. Today, Margot Kingston and what Pauline Hanson has come to represent and how she's using her past to fashion her present. It's Wednesday, July 15th. Margot, hello and welcome to 7am. Hello Ruby. It's fantastic to have you on the show and the reason I wanted to speak with you is I think because for a whole lot of people in Australia, including me, you're one of the first names that comes to mind when you think about people who've spent time with Pauline Hanson. I wondered if you could begin by just taking me back to when you first became aware of her, of Pauline Hanson, the politician.
Well, obviously the first time I was aware of her, I was on the bus with Keating in the 1996 election campaign and there was a huge brouhaha over racism because some Nats had called, talked about de-wogging ceremonies and, you know, really nasty stuff. And John Howard said, well, look, that's the Nats, that's their problem. And then Pauline Hanson wrote a letter to the local paper saying making various derogatory comments about Aborigines and the push was on and John Howard disendorsed.
We felt that she couldn't carry the Liberal banner. Having made those remarks and with my support, the Queensland Party organisation withdrew her endorsement.
Do you regret now making sweeping generalisations like Aborigines are a privileged class?
Now, I said they receive privileges that other people don't receive because they're Aboriginal, and which is true, and you cannot deny that.
And on the night of the election, she got the biggest swing in the nation in a safe Labor seat. And I was chief staff at the Sydney Morning Herald Bureau. She was isolated. No one talked to her. She basically didn't even attend question time. And then that huge poll came in the middle of the Queensland election in March 1998 and it showed that she was doing really, really well.
Something extraordinary happened in Queensland yesterday. A woman who just a week ago the Prime Minister called deranged changed the face of Australian politics. At the Queensland elections, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party took around 25% of the vote to win nine, possibly ten seats, leaving the final...
So all of a sudden she came into her own and sort of paraded down the press gallery corridor. And then the Herald said, all right, Margot, go down and do an interview with her because you've got to take her seriously now. So I wandered down during question time. She's sitting on her own reading a newspaper. And I said, oh, could I interview you about what it would take to support a minority national party government in Queensland? And she said, oh, well, you've got to, you know, anything goes on guns and abolish native title. And I'm writing it all down. And at the end, she said, Margot, I know you think differently to me, but I like you because you say it to my face.
And I've been watching a lot of the footage from the 90s, again, of Pauline Hanson at sort of the peak of her popularity, opening One Nation branches across the country, the kind of flurry of attention that surrounded her. And I think one of the things that struck me was how similar a lot of what she was saying back then is to what we're hearing today, a lot of the kind of rhetoric, a lot of the lines that
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
How did Pauline Hanson first rise to national attention in the 1990s?
0:03–1:19
2
What were Margo Kingston's earliest encounters reporting on Pauline Hanson?
1:19–6:07
3
Which events transformed Hanson from a marginal politician to a celebrity figure?
6:07–8:13
4
How has Hanson's messaging stayed consistent between 1998 and 2026?
8:13–19:55
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from 7am
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