One Nation’s surge in popularity since the December 2025 Bondi terrorist attack shows no sign of abating.

After decades on the political fringe, one recent poll has even suggested Hanson is now the preferred prime minister. The consistently high polling has been matched with success at the South Australian state election and the federal byelection for Farrer.

A significant RedBridge poll has suggested that if an election were held today, One Nation would win the second largest share of lower house seats, and officially replace the Coalition as the opposition. This tectonic change in the political landscape has naturally spooked both Labor and the Liberal Party, the latter of which faces the prospect of annihilation.

Embracing this new political gravitas, Pauline Hanson addressed the National Press Club to outline her vision. Critics of One Nation were quick to point out questionable logic and outright errors in Hanson’s speech. Her claims that migration is in a “state of crisis” and is a major factor on housing has already been discredited.

The suggestion there is a “growing language problem” because about 23% of Australians speak a language other the English at home misleadingly suggests they cannot also speak English. The Age, Australia Institute, and other media published fact check articles refuting these and many other claims that distort or ignore evidence.

Of course, journalistic fact checking serves a vital function in a democracy, but this alone is unlikely to stop One Nation’s momentum.

The new political power

In a post-truth world, the emphasis is on how a politician makes voters feel, even if their claims are technically incorrect. Populist leaders like Hanson do not draw their appeal from policy positions but from an emotion-based “us versus them” narrative that divides society into those who belong and those who do not. Dutch academics have described this as the “authentic us” and the “alien them”.

Another key element in populism is a nostalgic nationalism, the sense that everything was somehow........

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