The Hanson paradox: How a populist surge became Labor’s best friend

March 22, 2026 — 10:53am

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Pauline Hanson says it’s “just the start”.

On one level, she’s absolutely right. A large section of voters has clearly had a gutful – of rising costs, of political drift, of feeling like neither side is speaking to them. You don’t get 20 per cent of the vote accidentally. That kind of surge is earned, seat by seat, grievance by grievance.

But what unfolded in South Australia wasn’t a conservative revival. It was a mass conservative split. And every time that happens, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gets a little safer.

Labor’s vote – 39 per cent – barely shifted. The Greens lifted their vote to 11 per cent. The Liberals, on currently counting, collapsed to 19 per cent. One Nation surged to 20 per cent.

And the result? A stronger Labor government, and a weaker opposition.

Labor’s Malinauskas secures second term in landslide despite significant One Nation surge

The Liberals were wiped out almost completely in metropolitan Adelaide, commonly finishing........

© The Sydney Morning Herald