Australia and the World Past and Present

Pauline Hanson.

The firebrand of Australian politics. Since she burst on the political stage in the late 1990s, she has never been far from the spotlight. She draws attention like moths to a light.

Co-founder of One Nation and Senator for Queensland since 2016

Her first political victory secured her the seat of Oxley in 1996.

Before politics, she ran a fish and chip shop. Some have poked fun at this. The idea was that she was an uneducated pleb. But many other Australians could identify with her. She was a struggler, a battler. She had a go. She did what she needed to do to make a life for herself and her family.

In a 1996, during a 60 Minutes interview, the host asked her whether she was xenophobic. “Please explain” was Hanson’s response. Many made fun of Hanson’s unfamiliarity with the term. But others felt that here was a woman saying what she believed, in plain and simple language. She didn’t have a silver tongue. But she clearly had a strong belief in her views.

At times she seemed vulnerable. She had a voice that seemed as though it would break. The result was that when the media jumped on her, she often appeared under attack and many Australians came away thinking that she was being treated harshly.

It is a theme that has persisted throughout her career. She claims that she has been a victim and her supporters would attest to this. Her critics would suggest that she has brought much of it on herself by the very views that she holds and puts out for public scrutiny.

Some suggest that she is racist, someone who pulls cheap political stunts in order to garner attention and someone who fosters the very division that she calls for people to overcome.

Hanson’s 1996 maiden speech was explosive. The media blew up afterwards.

Maiden speeches in the national parliament tend to be rather mundane affairs. Speeches may outline a general political philosophy, but they generally don’t veer deep into the territory of hot-button issues. Hanson’s speech broke the mould.

She argued against special government programs for Aboriginals.

She was worried that Australia was in danger of being “swamped” by Asians.

She criticised multiculturalism. To Hanson the term evokes a thousand different tribes living in their own closed communities, speaking their various languages and not attempting to integrate into the wider Australian community. Hanson talked about cultural ghettos.

Hanson favours strong assimilation into mainstream Australian culture.

She is highly critical of Islam.

Key themes of hers include reverse rascism, division, immigration and economic protectionism.

Many early observers noted that many Hanson supporters may have those who lost out from globalisation. Australia was increasingly opened to international forces in the 1980s and 1990s. There was financial deregulation. Many protective tariffs were either lowered or abolished altogether. Those who were able to ride the waves of the new financial order could do incredibly well for themselves. It was a time of new-money – mostly in the major cities.

But there were also many losers. Many factories breathed their last. Many workers were laid off.

In 1998 fellow federal MP, Tony Abbott, established a trust fund to fund civil court cases against One Nation and Hanson.

Hanson was found guilty of electoral fraud in 2003. This was later overturned on appeal, but she had spent 11 weeks in jail.

It was a big blow for Hanson. She was no longer with the political party she had con-founded. She had been imprisoned. Many others wouldn’t want to have anything further to do with the political scene. But one of Pauline’s attributes is that she is resilient.

She set up another political party in 2007 – Pauline Hanson’s United Australia Party. In a way, it allowed her to gain momentum that could propel her back to One Nation, which she rejoined in 2013.

Hanson did something a lot of pollies have never done. She moved beyond the confines of the political world to become part of Australian popular culture. Over the years she has appeared on Dancing with the Stars (2004), where she won second place. In 2011 she was a contestant of the Celebrity Apprentice. Other contestants included Jesinta Campbell (a model and beauty pageant titleholder) and former AFL footballers Warwick Capper and Shane Crawford.

She has become increasingly media savvy. She uses social media in creative ways. She receives a ton of attention. She knows how to garner media interest. It usually involves talking about hot-button issues.

There is a conundrum in Hanson’s politics. She calls for unity, but her interventions often generate further division. She would say that the original division are the policies that have been pursued by governments over the last few decades – different policies for Aboriginal and non-aboriginal Australians, flying all kinds of different flags while rejecting the national flag. She would say that she is just pointing to the original schisms created by misguided governments.

Hanson opposes the wearing of the burqa in public. These days she usually couches it in anti-feminist terms and security terms. She argues that the garment hinders contact with the wider Australian community. She further contends that it is a form of oppression for women. Twice she has worn a burqa in the Senate. This caused uproar in the chamber and in the wider community.

In the latest episode, she first tried to introduce a “ban the burqa bill” in the Senate, which went nowhere. So she donned the burqa in the chamber. Hanson in not a Muslim. Most fellow senators believed it to be a ill-judged stunt that would offend Muslims and make them feel that their religion was being ridiculed.

Hanson reasoned that if the Senators had no problem with woman wearing the burqa, then why did they object so vociferously when she wore it in the national parliament?

Her cartoon series on YouTube is very popular. Here, Hanson has moved into a new cultural space. The reality is that most Australians do not take much notice what happens in the parliament. Interesting or funny videos online draw many more eyeballs.

The general rule of thumb is that baby boomers don’t know how to use social media, let alone thrive on it. Hanson bucks this trend. Admittedly, she has a team of younger staffers helping her in her endeavour.

The cartoons are a powerful tool for Hanson. She can talk about all of her traditional themes, but in a more light-hearted and engaging way. They are satirical and it is a safer way for her to talk about the issues she wants to raise.

She send up all everyone. Labor, Liberals, Nationals, Clive Palmer, Jacqui Lambie, the Greens, Greta Thunberg.

A video of hers can easily get 100,000 views. Some of her more successful ones get over 400,000 views.

She even had a movie version released at the end of last year.

One Nation’s polling numbers have blown up in recent times.

On February 2, Roy Morgan had One Nation primary support sitting at 25% – a record high.The Liberals are down to 18%. Greens are on 12.5%

That One Nation has surpassed the Greens (which it long trailed) and now surpasses the Liberals in earth shattering in Australian politics.

She is now highly experienced in politics. She is resilient and she is combative.

Perhaps her staff have had a role in increasing Pauline’s effectiveness in recent years.

Pauline remains the linchpin, but she still has a team of advisors and staffers. It is a team effort.

James Ashby is her chief of staff.

He had previously worked for Liberal politician, Peter Slipper, as a media advisor. Before working in politics, he had been a radio presenter and he is most familiar with Queensland.

Another advisor was Sean Bell. He was an advisor of Hanson for around 9 years and is now a Senator for One Nation. He served as One Nation’s National Secretary and has worked on federal campaigns and policy development.

Pauline themes have remained the same. But perhaps her messaging is more consistent. In contrast to when she first began, she now knows the lie of the land. She now knows the arguments that will be coming her way and how to rebut them.

But,

Just the other day in a TV interview, Hanson remarked, “You say, ‘Oh, well, there’s good Muslims out there.’ Well, I’m sorry, how can you tell me there are good Muslims?”. An insult to all those Australian Muslims out there that accept Australian values, follow the law, work hard, raise their children, pay their taxes and help their communities.

And suddenly we were right back at 1996.