Do Pauline Hanson’s economics add up?
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ABC Listen. Podcasts, radio, news, music and more. Hi, I'm Patricia Carvellis, the host of Politics Now. And sometimes it can be hard to cut through all the noise from the Canberra bubble. But on the Politics Now podcast, bursting it wide open is our core business. I'm joined by the brightest minds at the ABC to break down the polyspeak and have a chat about what's actually going on behind the scenes. It's called Politics Now and you can find it on ABC Listener.
Pauline Hanson has been on a European tour. She's been spruiking her anti-immigration policies, which are already pretty well known to Australian voters. But what about her ideas when it comes to the economy, which have barely raised a mention? Today, business and economics reporter Gareth Hutchins on what Australia's economy could look like under One Nation. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily.
Gareth, Pauline Hanson, she's been on this European jaunt that's been receiving a fair bit of attention. She even sat down with the far-right figure and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson on his podcast, where she made some very controversial comments. But that's all pretty true to form, isn't it? These are the sort of things we expect from her.
It is. Yeah, it is what we expect from her. Now, she blamed the end of the White Australia policy as the beginning of Australia's migration problems. I've seen some crazy videos coming out of Australia. How has that happened when you have such a strong immigration policy?
Well, it started in 1973 with Gough Whitlam. So they opened up and got rid of the White Australia policy. Then they started bringing in the different migrants.
That interview with Tommy Robinson, she claimed that migrants were coming to Australia purely for the welfare system.
A lot of people coming to Australia purely for the welfare system or to get on our NDIS.
She also mentioned a couple of other things which I think she's probably going to be wanting to backtrack on.
There are false allegations that I wanted to introduce the white Australia policy. Not the case.
Now, anti-immigration policies, that's always been part of Pauline Hanson's platform. But what I want to actually do with you is talk about her ideas for the economy. Now, it is worth noting, Gareth, that Senator Hanson, she was pictured with Gina Reinhart during this European trip at a very expensive Italian hotel. And we know, don't we, that Pauline Hanson does take policy advice from the mining magnate.
Yeah, and she has said that she considers Gina Rinehart a personal friend of hers.
I consider her a friend and I'm very grateful, grateful is the word, for her support. She's one of the highest taxpayers in the country, the amount of people that she employs.
And earlier this year, she was gifted a plane by one of Gina Rinehart's companies. So they are quite close.
Well, Gareth, last month, Pauline Hanson, she made her inaugural appearance at the Press Club in Canberra. And since then, her economic credentials have started to receive a bit more scrutiny. So just tell me about her key ideas that she has outlined so far.
Well, so One Nation's website lists many of its policies, and a lot of them we already know about. So it wants to see three new coal-fired power stations. It wants to ban offshore wind farms. It wants to abolish the Department of Climate Change. So these are the things that we already know.
What economic questions arise from Pauline Hanson’s European tour and public statements?
But when Angus Taylor, the leader of the Liberal Party, took a real swipe at some of her more expensive policies, this is when the scrutiny seems to have really turned towards One Nation.
Right, because Angus Taylor said at a speech at the Sydney Institute recently, some of these policies, four main policies in particular, would lead to an eternity of pain. They're his words.
Their top four financial commitments alone could cost the budget in the order of a trillion dollars over a decade, averaging about $100 billion a year. And they had made no clear or credible plan for how they'd pay for those commitments.
Yeah, so when he was talking about those four main policies, he was referring to One Nation's plan to increase defence spending to 3.5% of GDP, to introduce income splitting for families, to index income tax brackets to inflation,
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