You almost have to feel sorry for the legacy media. They’re terrified out of their wits by the rise of One Nation. Consequently, they’re clutching like so many drowning they/thems at any straw that floats their way, no matter how flimsy.
Support for Pauline Hanson’s party has fallen for the first time in four months and shifted to the coalition as women and immigrants turn their backs on the One Nation leader over key elements of her policy agenda.
An exclusive Resolve Political Monitor poll shows support for One Nation has slipped three points in July to 26 per cent while support for the coalition has risen by the same amount to 23 per cent. Labor support was steady at 28 per cent while the Greens were unchanged at 12 per cent.
And that is entirely within the margin of error. It’s nothing more than standard poll noise. So, why are the legacy media making so much hoopla about it?
As Carl (Neil Patrick Harris) says, in the movie Starship Troopers, after telepathically interrogating a ‘brain bug’: “It’s afraid!” Cue rousing cheers from the Mobile Infantry grunts. This little pop culture snippet has astounding resonance with the rise of One Nation in Australia for several reasons.
Firstly, the movie succeeded for reasons directly opposite to its maker’s intentions. Paul Verhoeven simply didn’t understand the source novel (mostly because, by his own admission, he never read it), any more than he understands the American culture he constantly tries to ‘satirise’. As a result, without even realising he was doing it, he made the Starship Troopers not only as cool as hell but rousing salutes to military prowess and honour. The bugs, meanwhile, were simply murderous and disgusting. You can almost picture the Dutchmen screaming at the audiences rooting for the humans, ‘Nee! Nee! They’re fascists!’
Secondly, the revolting blob of ‘brain bug’ is a perfect metaphor for The Blob itself: the uniparty political establishment and its legacy media bootlickers. And the brainless bugs of The Blob are afraid. Very afraid.
Hence their frenetic cartwheels at what is otherwise an inconsequential poll blip.
One Nation enjoyed a five-point surge in support in June, with the party more popular than either the Coalition or Labor. Hanson was the preferred prime minister, her support being double that of Opposition Leader Angus Taylor.
So, One Nation isn’t even back where it was a month ago. Yet, the same legacy media hacks who insisted that the party’s rise and rise over the past six months was a mere ‘blip’ are now creaming their undies over a real poll blip.
Three points. Within the margin of error. A classic dead-cat bounce after One Nation’s five-point surge the month before. Yet the Age and its fellow travellers are writing it up like the fall of the Berlin Wall. Resolve’s own Jim Reed is wheeled out to declare that “the varnish has come off a little”, blaming Hanson’s Press Club speech, her monoculture comments and abortion stance for scaring off immigrants and women.
“The two largest losses for [Hanson] are among immigrants and females, and suggest her comments in areas like multiculturalism and abortion have shown One Nation to be the party of old after all. Mutton dressed as mutton, in policy terms,” he said.
Imagine the same term applied to, say, Julia Gillard: the legacy media fembots would be screeching like banshees about ‘misogyny’. Well, screeching louder than usual.
But all The Blob can do is insult anyone who notices that open-borders multiculturalism has produced parallel societies, no-go suburbs and a royal commission into antisemitism. Half the country agrees with Hanson that young workers are lazy. Fifty-three per cent think immigration settings are wrong. Seventy-two per cent share her concerns about the NDIS. Seventy-three per cent think poverty needs fixing. But say ‘monoculture’ and the media act like you’ve just invented the Final Solution.
The personal numbers tell the real story. Hanson is still the highest-rated leader for performance at 45 per cent. Her likeability dropped, sure, but she remains preferred PM by a solid chunk while Albanese’s ‘best rating since December’ is still, not just in the toilet, but halfway to the ocean outfall. Expectations of a One Nation government have fallen, but that was always the long shot. The fact that anyone is even discussing it as a serious possibility has the uniparty in full panic.
Victoria’s state numbers show the same pattern. One Nation dips two points to 22 per cent while Labor and the coalition crawl back to 27 each. Jacinta Allan’s likeability is still a radioactive minus 36. Jess Wilson leads as preferred premier 43–24. The Blob is frantically telling itself that the kids are coming home to the majors.
Time will tell. A single poll swallow does not a uniparty springtime make. In the meantime, the uniparty’s cheerleaders will cling to whatever shred of hope they can.
