It’s beginning to look less like a ritual anointing than a political good luck charm. As One Nation storms up the opinion polls, leader Pauline Hanson has joined the long list of centre-right disrupters to grace the doors of Mar-a-Lago on the way to blitzing their domestic opponents. Viktor Orbán, Nigel Farage, Javier Milei, Giorgia Meloni, Eduardo Bolsonaro and the Alternative für Deutschland’s (AfD) Alice Weidel and Phillipp-Anders Rau: if the subsequent success of all those owes anything to the aura of visiting the US president’s home, One Nation may be onto a winner.
Amid a surge of support for the conservative-leaning One Nation at the polls, party leader Pauline Hanson will address the US Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida on Nov 4.
This will be Hanson’s second trip to America, and this time she’s already visited US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property for a Halloween function she called a “great night.”
Contrast that with PM Anthony Albanese, who, for all his unconvincing blatherskite following his long-delayed White House meeting, still appears very much on the outer with the Trump administration. As observers have pointed out, Albanese doesn’t even have the president’s phone number and certainly didn’t get invited to his private residence.
With Pauline taking centre-stage at CPAC, her status as a serious political contender will be cemented.
“I’m very pleased to have been invited to speak at [CPAC], because I think it’s very well attended and this is going to be in Florida so it’s very important to me to be there speaking on behalf of Australians, speaking on behalf of many Australians at this conference,” she told Sky News Australia […]
Support for One Nation has grown steadily since the May federal election, with the Australian newspaper’s Newspoll showing the minor party’s support has soared to 15 per cent, nabbing four points from the traditional centre-right Liberal Party.
Current predictions estimate One Nation could pull in as many as seven lower house seats in the next federal election.
That depends, of course, on polls translating to actual votes. Still, the revitalised One Nation is certainly putting in the hard yards to get there.
The party also claims its membership numbers have soared 100 per cent since the election with One Nation also benefitting from a recent push into Nationals Party territory in New South Wales to set up local branches.
Last month, the then-head of the National Party’s Tamworth branch, Steven Coxhead, made a public switch to One Nation.
All eyes remain on former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce. If the Beetrooter jumps waka to One Nation, he may well embolden a lot more disaffected conservative in coalition ranks to follow him. If, unlikely as it seems, One Nation can win over the likes of Andrew Hastie, Matt Canavan or Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, the major parties, the coalition especially, will have a lot to worry about.
Hanson says the growth has been in response to the major parties not listening to voters.
“I think the majority of the Australian people are fed up with the major political parties, especially Labor and also the Coalition who seem as if they don’t have policies to put out there to the people and it was proven last election they had no sound policies, they weren’t connecting with the Australian people,” she said.
“What they’re not addressing is mass migration and ... climate change and the scam that’s been going on is affecting many Australians whether it’s industry, manufacturing, small business, the farming sector, through to mining – so everyone’s being affected by it so to head down the path of carbon emissions is destroying our economy and people are struggling and we’re going into poverty.”
One Nation’s immediate litmus tests are the South Australian and Victorian state elections (due 21 March and 28 November 2026, respectively). If One Nation makes an even half-respectable showing in the wokest states in Australia, it’ll be a political game-changer.
Onya, Pauline!
