For Australians who lived through decades of relatively civil politics, many of us watch with dismay as respectful debate gives way to personal attacks and tribal shouting matches. Pauline Hanson and her One Nation supporters have played a significant role in this shift, particularly on social media. This article examines how her style empowers the nastier side of our politics.
Pauline Hanson, leader of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, has been a prominent and polarising figure in Australian public life since her 1996 maiden speech, which warned against Asian immigration and multiculturalism. Nearly three decades later, she continues to position herself as the plain-speaking champion of “ordinary Australians” against political elites, “woke” culture, and rapid social change. While her direct approach clearly resonates with many disillusioned voters – especially amid cost-of-living pressures and high migration – I feel it has contributed to a coarsening of our national conversation.
Hanson’s political appeal rests on framing complex issues as battles between everyday citizens and out-of-touch elites. She speaks in blunt, unfiltered terms that bypass traditional parliamentary decorum. From her infamous 2017 Senate burqa stunt to repeated inflammatory remarks about Muslims, immigration, and Indigenous affairs, her interventions often prioritise spectacle and provocation over detailed policy discussion. Supporters admire this as authenticity; others – myself included – see it as normalising division and resentment.
This approach has found a powerful home on social media. Hanson and One Nation have mastered platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to reach followers directly, bypassing what they call “biased” mainstream media. The result is a highly engaged base – but one frequently observed engaging in attack rather than debate. Online discussions involving Hanson or One Nation often descend into personal accusations of treason, elitism, or betrayal. Critics are dismissed as “traitors” or “globalists,” while nuance is sidelined in favour of tribal loyalty.
Such behaviour is not unique to Hanson’s supporters – left-leaning spaces have their own examples of intolerance and pile-ons – yet the intensity and persistence of this pattern around One Nation stands out in many analyses of Australian online discourse. It reflects a broader shift: politics as cultural warfare rather than the mature, evidence-based deliberation many of us remember from earlier eras of Australian governance.
When elected representatives model combative styles, it can spill beyond parliament. Reports and commentary frequently link populist rhetoric to heightened tensions, including threats against minority communities and a general erosion of social trust. For those who value Australia’s multicultural success story – built painstakingly since the post-war years – this feels like a step backwards. Senate censure motions against Hanson have highlighted concerns about the potential harm to targeted groups and the dignity of public office.
Social media algorithms, which reward outrage and emotional content, amplify these dynamics. What begins as a policy disagreement quickly becomes a moral crusade, with supporters piling on rather than engaging ideas. The outcome is less light, more heat – and a democracy where genuine debate struggles to survive.
A Call to Reflect
As we navigate ongoing challenges around migration, housing, and economic security, it is understandable that frustration builds. However, channelling that frustration into sustained personal attacks and grievance narratives risks undermining the very institutions and social cohesion that have served Australia well. Mature democracies thrive on respectful disagreement, compromise, and shared respect for democratic norms – qualities that many of us remember fondly from earlier decades.
Pauline Hanson’s enduring presence shows that these frustrations are real and cannot be wished away. The question for all of us is whether we respond by deepening division or by insisting on higher standards of public discourse.
Also by Michael Taylor
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The headline vs the story: controlling the narrative
The politics of division: the masters
Political Incentives Now Reward Grievance Politics – and Social Media Monetises It
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I was born in 1946, at the end of WW2. The world realised that money and greed had caused that war and all the deaths, injuries and violence. We had Curtin, Forde & Chifley leading the governments that got us through that incredible mess and the period immediately after. People were more important than money and greed to those governments. Although the countries most affected in Europe have stayed in a “look after the people” mode, the ones not taken over by the Axis powers have allowed greed and money to bring back the inhumanity that was the cause. Now we have neo-nazi style people standing for our parliaments and history is repeating itself. Abbott now wants the LNP to join with PHON. Australia’s democracy will be destroyed when these people get into power (not if but when) as will the UK when Farage’s group gets in. They already have power in the USA. Trump does not run the USA, the billionaires do. Their method is simple, set one group against another, create division and disharmony; then offer the solution to the mess they created. It is what the Nazi’s did and it has worked for centuries. I am happy that I turn 80 this year because I probably will not be around to see it happen again.
Baby Boomers lived during the development of Australia into a community centred economy where kids left school after lunch and had a local factory job next morning. The government focused on ”national development” of major infrastructure projects, like the Snowy Scheme, Warragamba Dam, industrial output. The unions looked after workers and the bosses grudgingly paid the wage rises. There was a stable COALition government still riding on the sheep’s back to the delight and decadence of the graziers. Then it all changed!!
The Australian COALition misgovernment invited us to the US v Vietnam imperialist war, and divided the nation into thinking Aussies and wannabe imperialist war-mongers tethered to the American war machine of imperialist dominance and capitalist destruction.
The democratically elected Whitlam LABOR government was dismissed by a drunk assisted by two High Court judges a CIA Special Operative plus Buck Palace staff and unofficial royal assent, the Murdochracy Media Manipulation Monopoly quietly grew with the assistance of US banking for political favours done, and international investment accompanied by political interference separated Australian voters from their natural resources.
Roll on history and the workers got stripped of union protections, neo-liberals got control of government and the ever rapacious bosses got even greedier, then political incompetence was installed for nine (9) wasted years.
Overall, since 1945 we have seen Australia become a third world export economy thanks to the unwillingness of politicians to grasp the nettle and develop our own natural resources, especially minerals. Australia is a rich country that sees the profits made overseas from jobs processing and manufacturing OUR NATURAL RESOURCES into products we purchase back at enormous expense.
The cause is squarely placed at the feet of the bosses, too unimaginative to dream, too lazy to try, to distracted to care beyond tomorrow ….. just follow the cultural cringe and forget about future possibilities. When have Australians ever done anything significant??? (Don’t get me started!!)
Today Pauline Hanon will address the National Press Club and present us with her vision for Australia and her policies and those of Gina Rinehart to achieve this vision.
Whilst it will be a challenge for Pauline to cobble together words into sentences it will be an even greater challenge for the assembled journalists to formulate probing questions to test the authenticity of One Nation and the grifters who support this ideology of ‘show me the money’.
I can’t wait!
@ Terry Mills: You are very wicked!! I have fond memories of the former Senator Bronwyn Bishop (yes!! another earlier ”bishop” to keep the COALition honest!!) who was promoted as the Australian Maggie Thatcher until ….. the Australian Press Club lunch when she was to give her speech to inspire Australia to stride into the future by enslaving anybody who was not a paid up member of the LIARBRAL$.
She flopped!! Like a ham sandwich at a Jewish picnic!!
Her other ”great achievement” was flying in helicopters to LIARBRAL$ party meetings ….. at Parliamentary expense.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-15/bronwyn-bishop-spends-5000-dollars-80km-charter-flight/6622134
This afternoon is a ”must not miss moment”!!
Much of this NPC “address” will revolve around what the MSM hacks and propagandists have been instructed to ask.One thing is certain…it will be a farce.Not hard to imagine she’ll storm off in a huff,throwing her prepared notes in the air.