One Nation’s support may have dropped slightly after Pauline Hanson put her full agenda on show in her speech at the National Press Club.
But One Nation’s rise has exposed a deep crisis in Australian politics.
The prospect of Victoria having a Liberal-One Nation coalition government after November’s election is shocking.
At the Press Club Hanson spewed racist bile at Indigenous people, Muslims, multiculturalism and migrants in general. Her backing from billionaire Gina Rinehart puts the lie to any idea that One Nation is a party for workers doing it tough.
But that is no reason for complacency. While most of One Nation’s support is coming from previous Liberal or National Party voters, Hanson’s openly racist, anti-immigrant stance is pulling mainstream politics to the right.
And it is clear that Hanson is getting support from some working class Labor voters too. This threatens to entrench higher levels of racism within the working class, misdirecting workers’ rage against migrants instead of against the bosses and the system.
Internationally, the far right has grown. Trump attracted support posing as a political outsider, capitalising on disillusionment with the Democrats. In Britain, the Labour Party’s failures have resulted in Nigel Farage and his racist Reform UK leading in the polls.
The Liberals are already trying to outdo Hanson’s racism. Leader Angus Taylor’s response to Labor’s budget declared that the Liberals would “put Australians first”, announcing a vicious plan to cut welfare benefits to non-citizens, including permanent residents.
Tony Abbott, the newly installed national president of the Liberal Party, used to argue to put One Nation last. Now Abbott is open to preference deals with them. Taylor has also refused to rule out preferencing One Nation.
The media is also increasingly treating Hanson as a legitimate political alternative and providing a platform for her racism.
Labor’s failure
But the biggest blame lies with Labor. Firstly, Labor has helped Hanson by normalising racism. It has continued its anti-refugee policies, introducing deportation laws to send non-citizens to indefinite detention on Nauru. Labor has inflamed Islamophobia with its support for the genocide in Gaza. And it has conceded to Hanson’s anti-migrant racism about housing by claiming they are already making cuts to immigration.
Secondly, Labor has done nothing about the cost of living crisis that has left so many people struggling to pay the bills. Falling wages and rising inflation have been powerful drivers of support for One Nation. Labor’s budget announced cuts to the NDIS while pouring billions of dollars into nuclear submarines and military spending. And Labor’s changes to capital gains tax will do little for housing affordability and nothing to reduce sky-rocketing rents.
How we can fight back
The rise of One Nation has seen many unions respond by exposing its anti-worker policies. But just asking workers to “think again” isn’t enough when people are angry at Labor’s failures. We should campaign to “put One Nation last”—but we can’t rely on an electoral solution.
It is going to take a strong anti-racist movement to combat One Nation. Broad anti-racist protests at One Nation events, declaring “Migrants are welcome, racists are not” can show there is opposition to her racist policies and help marginalise One Nation.
Not all One Nation supporters are hardened racists. Naming and shaming One Nation’s racism can split softer supporters from the extreme racists that are at the party’s core.
The left also needs to take on and debunk One Nation’s racist lies.
The housing crisis is not the result of immigration. Australia Institute research shows that over the past ten years, the population has increased by 16 per cent, but the number of dwellings increased by 19 per cent.
Protests against One Nation are going to be crucial. But these have to be linked to the fight against the mainstream racism of Labor and the Liberals and the cost of living crisis.
Every struggle for real wage increases points to a collective answer to Hanson and Labor—to fight together against the system. Teachers and school staff in Victoria have set an example of how to organise at a rank-and-file union level to push for a serious fight.
We need to raise demands for real alternatives to Labor’s cuts. By scrapping the AUKUS submarines there would be more than enough money to build public housing and fully fund the NDIS.
Hanson is trying to scapegoat migrants and refugees for the problems created by capitalism. Labor is managing the capitalist system. Racism grows in the despair that the system creates. Hanson and the bosses use racism to divide and rule the working class. By fighting together we can fight racism, fight Hanson and in the process build a movement that can take on the capitalist system itself.
