The radical is becoming normal under Hanson. If you’re not worried, you should be

September 17, 2026 — 5:00am

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Things are going swimmingly for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party, that’s for sure. The emerging narrative is that Hanson leads an unstoppable national movement. The latest Resolve Political Monitor suggests that One Nation is a mere point behind the Labor Party on the primary vote nationally, with the Coalition parties in third place, and is actually leading Labor and the Coalition in NSW and Queensland.

Further bolstering One Nation’s chances are the declining fortunes of the Labor and Liberal parties under their current leaders. Anthony Albanese’s hare-and-the-tortoise political strategy, built on policy incrementalism, was fashioned when he took over as leader in 2019 and the country and the world were very different. The tortoise is now on life support. His opposite number Angus Taylor is a store-bought Liberal leader who looks the part but will eventually have to make way for Andrew Hastie.

So as One Nation marches on and prospers, it warrants an audit, because if public opinion keeps trending the way it’s been going over the past year, the next election, no more than 20 months away, will be the most momentous national event since Federation.

One Nation is unlike any mainstream party Australia has ever seen. You would need an advanced degree in Kremlinology to fully understand its inner workings and who’s in and who’s out, but it is essentially an expression of Hanson’s personal views. These angry views are not so much of the world – she rarely opines about complex international matters apart from her full-throated and........

© The Age