Pauline Hanson has ambitions to turn One Nation into a genuine alternative to the mainstream political duopoly amid a seismic shift in Australia’s political landscape.
Opinion polls reveal One Nation has overtaken the coalition as the nation’s second most popular political movement in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.
A bombshell Newspoll, putting One Nation on a first preference share of 22 per cent and the coalition at 21 per cent, will heap pressure on Liberal leader Sussan Ley as her party continues its post-election soul-searching.
The survey of 1224 Australians reported in The Australian on Monday showed One Nation’s support surged seven percentage points, while the coalition’s fell three over the summer.
It’s the first time One Nation has outpolled the coalition in the long-running survey and backs up a DemosAU poll, published by Capital Brief earlier in January, that that showed the Pauline Hanson-led party level with the coalition.
Looking to shed the tag of a fringe party of protest, Senator Hanson said it must prove capable of delivering sound policies and provide a genuine alternative to voters concerned about mass migration and high energy prices.
“Over a period of decades, the people that we brought here are not assimilating, compatible with the country. That’s why we’ve got this anti-Semitism that’s happening at the moment,” she told radio station 3AW.
“People feel that in cost of living, they’re in a worse situation now than what they were 10 years ago. Their dollar is not worth as much, it’s not buying as much, and people are working harder and for no gain.”
Voters aren’t the only ones abandoning the coalition for One Nation.
Erstwhile deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce jumped ship from the Nationals to become One Nation’s sole representative in the lower house before parliament broke for the summer.
Mr Joyce said there was a change in politics happening, not just in Australia but across the globe, and people were sick of being taken for granted.
In a silver lining for Ms Ley, voters rated her response to the Bondi attack much more favourably than Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s.
In a Resolve poll published by Nine papers on Monday, more than half of 1800 respondents rated Ms Ley’s response as good and 29 per cent rated it as poor.
Only 32 per cent rated the prime minister’s response as good, with 56 per cent rating it poor.
Mr Albanese said One Nation had been a divisive force since its inception.
“They promote division, and I don’t want to see One Nation with a higher vote than the coalition,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
Shadow attorney-general Andrew Wallace said he’d be a fool to say the polling did not concern him.
“I think Australians are quite rightly upset,” he told ABC Radio National.
“What people are telling me is they don’t feel safe anymore. They can’t afford to live.”
Labor still held a 55-45 lead over the coalition on a two-party preferred basis in the Newspoll, while Resolve put the government ahead 52-48.
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