One Nation is now polling at more than 25 per cent, having won 22 per cent in the South Australia election and 39 per cent in the Farrer by-election, which delivered One Nation its first ever federal lower house victory.
These results cannot be put down to the ideological export of Trumpism, nor the leadership of Hanson’s chief-of-staff James Ashby. One Nation’s rise is evidence of a sick system, beset by economic malaise and resurgent racism.
Hanson openly champions the interests of small business and has a staunch record of opposing working class demands (see below). But her support base is wider.
Hanson is winning over a section of working class voters. Pollster Kos Samaras points to key factors linked to One Nation support: work in blue-collar industries, TAFE qualifications, being over the age of 55 and living in regional or some outer-suburban belts.
How is an anti-working class party winning such a base of support?
The crisis of the Liberal-National Coalition following last year’s election defeat has created an opening on the right. Particularly in the regions, former Coalition voters are flocking to One Nation. The Liberals have legitimated this by preferencing and supporting One Nation.
But just as important are Labor’s failures.
There are two principal factors leading to Hanson’s rise.
The first is the economic misery doled out by the system. Decades of stagnant wage growth have been followed by a collapse in real wages since the COVID pandemic. High inflation is hitting workers the hardest, while home ownership has been driven out of reach for most workers.
Labor’s role is summarised by their budget, tinkering with tax handouts to the wealthy but doing nothing about the cost-of-living crisis other than a promise for a $250 payment in the second half of 2028. Of course, workers are rejecting Labor’s stale promises.
The second factor is the way immigrants have been scapegoated for economic concerns over housing. One Nation is a racist party that has demanded cuts to immigration for decades.
Labor and the Coalition have fuelled this through matching each other with a racist race to the bottom on refugee policy and immigration. As Malcolm Turnbull said earlier this year, “If you follow [Hanson] down that rabbit hole, as they have done, and if you try to outdo Pauline Hanson… [voters] will find her more attractive.”
Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns have also paved Hanson’s road with their attacks on the Palestine movement, which have encouraged resurgent Islamophobia.
Building an alternative
These gains for Hanson have quickened every anti-racist’s pulse. But her rise is not as inexorable as the fawning coverage by the Daily Telegraph and Sky News suggests.
Just a year ago, voters rejected Dutton’s Trump-style campaign in the 2025 election.
One Nation party membership has reportedly now surpassed that of Labor and the Liberals, with more than 60,000 members. But there are 1.6 million trade union members in Australia.
If these workers could be won to a strategy of fighting Labor, rather than the present union officials’ focus on applauding Labor’s mediocre offerings, Hanson would be less of a threat.
Hope and confidence, living struggles for better wages, public housing and secure jobs, are what can stem the rise of the right. Every working class struggle is a blow to the politics of hopelessness that Hanson champions.
But it’s not enough to simply point out that One Nation continually attacks workers and sides with the Liberal Party. The racism and reactionary ideas that they promote also need to be challenged.
Social movements also have a critical role to play. Struggles against sexism and homophobia can undercut her reactionary politics on abortion rights and trans rights.
But most important is the struggles against imperialism and racism. The movement for Palestine needs to take on the Islamophobia and anti-migrant racism used against it.
And every racist lie that migrants are to blame for housing or inflation needs to be challenged.
The only real antidote to Hanson and Albanese is a fighting socialist movement that builds working class struggle where it is strongest.
Pauline Hanson: friend to billionaires
- Supports Trump’s devastating and inflationary war in Iran
- Funded by Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart
- In 2017, voted to strip workers of penalty rates
- In 2019, voted for tax cuts for the rich
- In 2020, voted against the Robodebt royal commission
- In 2020, voted to increase university fees
- In 2024, voted against criminalising wage theft and banning industrial manslaughter
By Sophie Cotton
