One Nation’s greatest weapon has always been the idea of One Nation. The party has been a middle-class movement of shopkeepers, coal-mine managers and middle-aged men who promote some of the most controversial ideas of last century. For the better part of three decades Pauline Hanson has been declaring she will take over the country. To date, Australia remains unconquered. With an eye on Trump, Farage and Peters, the Liberal Party’s wayward daughter is trying again for an orange wave, with the political clout of former Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and iron-ore billionaire Gina Rinehart’s money. The SA state election and Farrer by-election suggest a spike in support, but how will this play out? In this essay, journalist and author Royce Kurmelovs looks at One Nation’s latest powerplay, puts the party’s sudden increase in popularity into context and explores how carbon politics is rewiring Australia’s political system. He shows that the implosion of the Coalition and the fracturing of Australian politics creates an opening, but One Nation’s success is not guaranteed and it may prove that their latest surge will end up just another plank in a wider reactionary push to stop a managed phaseout of oil, gas and coal.
