One of Pauline Hanson’s most effective political weapons is that her enemies so continually underestimate her. ‘Racist’, ‘bigot’, ‘stupid’: not only are these sneers clearly wrong to describe a politician whose closest adviser is openly gay and whose party regularly fields minority candidates. As for ‘stupid’: Hanson may not have the arts-law degree that’s the ticket to the political class, but, having run successful businesses and survived 30 years in the Canberra snake pit, she’s clearly nobody’s fool.
The real fools are the elites who sneer and denigrate Hanson, and by extension, the millions of Australians who support her party. As Hillary Clinton could warn them, sneering at people isn’t exactly about to convince to vote for you. Hanson knows it: it’s why she turned the Please explain ‘gaffe’ back on the sneerers and made it her catchphrase. She was just as quick to exploit the latest round of jeering from the uniparty elite.
Hanson, who relishes in her underdog persona, uses major party hits on One Nation to tell grumpy voters that Labor and the Coalition “are out of ideas, resorting to name-calling and losing focus on their constituents”.
But while the Australian establishment elite underestimate Hanson at their peril, foreign powerbrokers are not nearly so foolish. Hanson may not be able to reel off the names of foreign dignitaries – that’s what advisers are for, as she points out – but foreign dignitaries are becoming very much aware of her.
The more electoral success Hanson enjoys in upcoming state and federal elections, the more diplomats, business leaders and powerbrokers will want access to One Nation’s spiritual leader. In a recent swipe at Hanson, without naming her, Albanese suggested that some politicians might not be able to deal with Asian leaders as he had during the fuel crisis.
The Australian understands senior diplomats from across the globe, including Indo-Pacific nations, have met, held talks or are seeking meetings with Hanson. Transactional Asian leaders want long-term access to Australia’s abundant resources.
Hanson’s positions on gas and coal will be music to their ears, given the anxieties Labor’s climate-and-renewables crusade has caused among anyone who actually has to keep the lights on.
While the domestic establishment looks down its collective nose and pretends the One Nation balloon must soon burst, the diplomatic corps is voting with its core duty: collecting intelligence and sizing up an up-and-coming contender for the top job. It isn’t only ambassadors. Chief executives and prominent professionals, well beyond Gina Rinehart – the left’s designated pantomime villain – are courting the Queenslander.
One Nation has made hay of Labor’s inability to fix migration, the cost of living and housing. It is preparing for every timetable, including Albanese hitting the panic-button on an early election. While the PM would ostensibly prefer to limp on as long as he legally could – which would be May 2028 – he could go as early as August next year, if his bean-counters thought there would be mileage in it. One Nation campaign boss James Ashby, whose fingerprints are all over One Nation’s meteoric rise, is making sure the party won’t be caught on the hop.
In the meantime, the uniparty are clinging to their threadbare blankie, hoping that One Nation’s candidate vetting will once again collapse, the infighting will start again and the defections will follow. While that’s a present danger for a party that is having to recruit hundreds of candidates in a hurry, to capitalise on the stunning poll rise, there are significant differences between 1998 and 2026. Besides Ashby, a quiet platoon of disaffected ex-Liberals, including former Liberal government whip Shayne Mallard, and married consultancy couple Mark and Shani Jones, are working behind the scenes to craft the party’s election strategies for the upcoming Victorian and NSW elections.
Beyond that, the membership is larger than it has ever been, and still growing: people are proudly posting their One Nation membership cards on social media. While the party still won their stunning WA victory on a shoestring campaign budget, the donor pool is getting deeper. The recruitment of actual professionals is expected to produce some high-profile candidate surprises. Yes, there will be unwinnable seats and the usual social-media archaeology. That is true of every party that fields more than a dozen candidates. It is not a strategy.
As Victoria, New South Wales and the next federal poll approach, time will tell whether Farrer MP David Farley or others decide to play wrecker. On current numbers, some Labor, Liberal and Nationals MPs and senators face a real threat. ALP figures who still treat One Nation as a joke in the outer suburbs and the regions have rocks in their heads.
The uniparty can keep on sneering and hoping: the foreign ambassadors are already positioning. They can read a poll. They can also read a resources map.
