How Pauline Hanson is controlling the narrative
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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.
This week, Pauline Hanson said again she could become prime minister at the next election. So could she? Or will her recent European tour and string of controversial comments on anything from immigration to domestic violence be starting to turn people off? Today, Tony Barry, a former Liberal Party strategist and director at Redbridge Group, on what voters are saying and why Pauline Hanson is now running the political agenda. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily.
Tony, the amount of attention Pauline Hanson has received in the past week is extraordinary on mainstream media, on social media, and, well, as they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity. Is that true here, though?
Well, I think C, all of the above. There is certainly always a political reward for running the agenda and whether you agree or disagree with her positions on things, she is running the agenda. She's the most dominant political force in Australia right now. The risk for her, and all these propositions are a risk versus reward proposition, is is that she's offering policy prescriptions whereas previously she was just identifying grievance and she's been exceptionally effective from a political point of view at identifying grievance. But when you start offering policy prescriptions, you give your opponents a bullseye to hit.
All right, well, we'll come to the policy aspect in a moment, but, of course, this all came off the back of Pauline Hanson's trip to the UK and Europe, which created great controversy, you know, from chatting with the far-right convicted criminal Tommy Robinson, her comments about the White Australia policy, being pictured with Gina Reinhardt, of course, at a ritzy hotel. It just came flooding in, didn't it? It was non-stop. Yeah. And it still hasn't stopped.
No.
Fresh from her tumultuous tour of Europe, Pauline Hanson returns to clean up a mess in her own backyard. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says she doesn't regret being interviewed by controversial far-right commentator Tommy Robinson. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is facing widespread backlash following comments describing domestic violence as a two-way street. One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson has today declared she's ready and willing to be Prime Minister.
Well, I think, again, risk versus reward in our research to date. We have found that her relationship between her and Reinhardt isn't costing her votes. And when you prompt them, most people hadn't heard about the gift donation over the plane. But when you prompt them with that piece of information, they actually sort of say, well, it's great. It's great that an outsider is getting the sort of baubles and rewards that insiders get, you know. But I think with all these things, there is a threshold where suddenly she starts looking like an insider and not an outsider. And so she needs to be very careful of that, I would think.
But what about the funding of that trip? When she got back, she appeared at this business breakfast that was hosted by the West Australian newspaper. She was asked about who funded the trip. Not the taxpayer, she said.
Will taxpayers be footing that bill? that bill for that trip? Or will you be putting Mrs Reinhardt's name on the register of interest when that time comes?
Chris, look straight at my eyes. It didn't cost the taxpayer one cent for my trip overseas.
What recent statements did Pauline Hanson make about becoming Prime Minister?
Not one cent.
Does the typical voter care who paid for that trip or do they just really not?
That has been a response in focus groups that we've done of One Nation voters in North Queensland and they did go to that proposition.
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