One Nation’s win in the Secret Harbour by-election in Perth saw it take a safe Labor seat with a swing of 18.7 per cent. This shows how much of threat Hanson really is.
There is no room for complacency about One Nation’s surge. The far right is on the rise globally, with the rise of Donald Trump and racist parties across Europe. Labor’s failures are opening the door to the far right here.
The high school student protests against One Nation show the kind of response needed. Thousands walked out of school to rage against Pauline Hanson’s racism and transphobia, defying a right-wing media campaign against them.
But we will need a much wider campaign against racism and the far right to turn things around.
Victoria’s state election in November looks set to see the state Labor government booted out of office. As pollster Kos Samarras put it, “Unless something changes, a swag of Melbourne seats with the same profile as Secret Harbour will go the same way.”
It is likely that the Victorian Liberals will form government in coalition with One Nation. Such a reactionary government would be a boost for One Nation and see a series of attacks on workers, migrant communities, trans rights and climate policies.
Anthony Albanese denounced Hanson as “dangerous, divisive and downright dishonest” following the result in WA. But Labor’s own attacks on immigration have been feeding her racist lies.
Instead of rejecting the efforts to scapegoat immigration for the housing crisis Labor has given them oxygen through conceding that immigration is too high.
For months Albanese has been saying that Labor was “getting the numbers down”. But it’s now proposing more cuts to restrict migration.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke has delayed their announcement, but Labor has already flagged cutting work rights for asylum seekers whose claims are being processed, restricting family visas and sending out more immigration officers to ramp up deportations.
This is the kind mainstream racism that legitimises Pauline Hanson.
Opposition to immigration is the key issue driving One Nation. More One Nation supporters cited immigration as the country’s biggest problem than any other issue, in recent polling for the Nine Papers.
“Migration is the real thing motivating One Nation supporters”, pollster John Utting concluded.
But immigration is not to blame for the surge in prices of housing and rents. It is the rampant property speculation by rich investors over recent decades that is the main reason for the affordability crisis.
House prices are currently falling, down around 5 per cent in the last three months in Melbourne and Sydney. But it’s not because of reduced migration. Rising interest rates and the modest change to capital gains tax are discouraging investors.
The number of new properties built has actually outpaced population growth for the past 20 years.
Israel’s outrages
Albanese has also fed racism through his support for Israel and efforts to demonise protests for Palestine.
So his response to the Israel Defence Forces’s decision not to open a criminal investigation into the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and her colleagues in Gaza stinks of hypocrisy.
Albanese branded the decision “an outrage”. But his government continues to help arm Israel’s genocide, through allowing the export of F-35 fighter jet parts, explosive material and military-grade steel. And it continues to provide Israel and the US intelligence for missile targeting from the Pine Gap spy base. IDF members were give visas to run in the Sydney marathon.
We need to keep fighting for sanctions on Israel to stop the flow of arms, and to cut Australia’s ties with the US. Everyone should join the day of action on 20 September that will link opposition to AUKUS with Israel’s genocide.
Building resistance from below is also crucial to reversing the rise of One Nation. The misery of falling wages and rising rents is fuelling their support.
Alongside anti-racism rallies and organising, a more serious union fight for wage rises would help turn the tide. Workers have lost 5 per cent in real wages since 2021.
Victorian teachers and school staff have shown the kind of rank-and-file organising that can push our unions to fight. They showed how strikes can win gains for workers on pay and conditions–and how to fight Labor governments that deliver austerity and real wage cuts.
Following the teachers’ strikes, HSU health workers, medical scientists, pharmacists and audiologists won a 28 per cent pay increase over the next three and half years.
In Victoria council workers and doctors have taken strike action, as well as university staff at Melbourne Uni and Sydney Uni.
This is the kind of struggle that can pose a real alternative to Labor’s failures around the cost of living crisis and the racist scapegoating of One Nation.
