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The cracks already showing in Hanson's carefully curated facade

25 0
09.06.2026

South Australia, Farrer, and the latest opinion polling have put One Nation ahead of any third force in Australian politics in the past 80 years, even the Greens and the Democrats, let alone the Australia Party, the United Australia Party, the Centre Alliance, or the Nuclear Disarmament Party all of which have had parliamentary representation.

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It is tectonic that a minor party is now polling higher than one or even both major parties. We have less than two years to see how it will play out in a federal election and how well Australia's institutions, especially the Parliament, the media, and the political parties themselves can cope.

It is especially important because One Nation regularly displays destructive Trumpian characteristics, such as accepting expensive aircraft as donations; accepting other large donations from the big end of town; prattling off ill-thought-out xenophobic and nativist policies; swinging between inconsistencies with impunity; ignoring valid criticism; attacking norms; and so on.

Australians should be wary. Just as President Donald Trump has shown his true disruptive and destructive colours after getting power in 2024, so will One Nation if it gets any power in 2028, such as in the Senate.

We are getting samples of that now.

In the past week, three One Nation MPs behaved like cats in the kitty litter as they qualified and contradicted each other over a "policy" that would expel "foreigners" from their houses so Australians could occupy them. It had an alarming similarity to stuff from 1930s Germany.

Would permanent residents be allowed to own homes? Would there be any grace period for them to get citizenship?

One National leader senator Pauline Hanson, National Party deserting One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce, and NSW One Nation senator Sean Bell made such a hash of it that even friendly right-wing media interviewers were forced to stop recording interviews and send them away to straighten it out - like a naughty schoolboy being told to do his........

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