Politics is being shaken by polls showing a surge in support for the far-right Pauline Hanson One Nation party (PHON).

A May 31 The Australian Financial Review/Redbridge Group/Accent Research poll showed One Nation had leapfrogged the incumbent Labor Party with 31% support. A June 1 Roy Morgan poll had One Nation and Labor on level pegging, with 27% each.

Below is part of the speech given by Max Chandler-Mather, executive director of the Green Institute, to the “Building The Next Green Wave” public forum on Gadigal Country/Sydney on May 3.

Chandler-Mather discusses why some working-class people are voting for One Nation and the social context behind declining support for the major parties. He highlights the disconnect between the political establishment and ordinary people, noting that Labor’s 2025 federal election win was “a mile wide and an inch thick”. He emphasised that building “transformational politics” means moving beyond negotiating with the Labor Party to seeking to “replace” it.

The Green Institute is doing a social and economic survey of the country. We’ve been door knocking for the last two months and last weekend we were in Inala, a working-class outer suburb of Magan-djin/Brisbane, sort of like Western Sydney; it is very multi-cultural.

We were asking people detailed questions about financial stress, social isolation and alienation. The first door I knocked on was this guy in his 30s, a dad of four kids, a renter and really financially stressed. His main issue was that every Christmas, he couldn’t buy all the presents he wanted for his kids. He worked 51 hours a week as a landscaper; he had taken a second job just so they could afford the rent and fuel costs had really pushed him into the red.

We spoke for about 30 minutes. The last question we asked was “Who did you vote for in the last federal election”. He said “I donkey voted. I hate them all.” I said “OK, who are you thinking about this time?” He said: “Look, I don’t like Pauline Hanson, I think she’s a racist. And I live in this really multicultural suburb and she’s wrong. Multiculturalism........

© Green Left Weekly