Like Trump, Hanson’s rise is beyond politics. That’s why she’ll be hard to stop

June 13, 2026 — 5:00am

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One Nation appears to be breaking free of its political moorings to become something bigger – an Australian countercultural movement. It offers itself as a political party with some policies. Remove excise on beer in venues, for instance, and allow income splitting for couples. Its policies are neither complete, coherent nor costed. Neither are the Liberals’, however, so they’re not alone in this.

More important than One Nation’s policy specifics is its posture overall. Its attitude of rejectionism sets it apart and suits it to the mood of a disgruntled people.

It doesn’t only oppose the existing political establishment and the supposed elites. It rejects the mainstream, middle-class consensus on a wide range of social and cultural matters.

It’s anti-immigration, of course, but it’s also pro-gun and anti-abortion, putting it outside bipartisan politics and beyond mainstream opinion.

And it doesn’t politely disagree. Central to its character is its bad manners. It is rude and rule-breaking. Pauline Hanson routinely offends, the party organisation misbehaves.

It’s populist, it’s nativist, and Hanson herself has a 30-year history as a racist. It’s long been scandalous and dysfunctional. And, even as the party ascends to the top in the poll rankings and a billionaire hands it a free plane, it manages to maintain underdog status, Hanson the perennial victim.

Her history of speaking the unspeakable has inoculated her.

The core of One Nation’s support is, as its new MP, David Farley, told me last week, that a growing number of Australians feel financial “desperation” in a struggle for “survival”. As persistent inflation eats more deeply into people’s incomes and living standards, the sense of desperation spreads. Amid despair that the main parties can solve the problem, One Nation’s support rises.

Among established parties and observers, there’s been a quiet confidence that the party’s rise will falter and flop under the weight of its own meanness and malfunction. But the evidence of its momentum suggests increasingly that its appeal goes beyond the economics of voter self-interest to a countercultural nihilism.

“Pauline Hanson has gone from being the least-liked politician in the Australian Electoral Survey ever since she’s been in politics to now, when suddenly she’s the most favoured,” says an academic........

© The Age