Is One Nation fit to govern Australia? What would their team look like? (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1

After three decades in politics, Pauline Hanson seems to have grown sharper in nastiness but duller in knowledge and eloquence, even as the Coalition borrows more of her ideas. Once the blazing star of the Australian right, she’s now its embarrassing, complaining aunt at family gatherings.

The rest of the right’s independents and minor parties are the same old circus of hacks and oddballs. Malcolm Roberts and Gerard Rennick make Bob Katter seem like a paragon of wisdom. Ralph Babet, for his part, manages to make Brian Burston look almost dignified (seriously, Google “Brian Burston + best sex of her life”).

Having said that, it’s also been difficult in recent years to distinguish the outer fringes of the Coalition from its exiles. What separates Barnaby Joyce or Alex Antic from George Christensen or Craig Kelly? Very little, because since at least Tony Abbott’s leadership, the cranks and weirdos have been more prominent than the moderates in the Coalition.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price became an opposition frontbencher simply by spouting idiotic Trumpisms, because anyone who attracts attention on the right is immediately deemed a rising star. And to be fair, compared with the likes of Dan Tehan, Angus Taylor and Sussan Ley, at least she actually does possess some charisma.

But why is Australia’s right so talentless? Somehow, we’ve escaped the trend that’s swept Europe and the United States, and we’ve yet to face the likes of a Marine Le Pen or Giorgia Meloni – or the rise of a serious hard-right party such as Germany’s AFD, let alone the movements led by Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump. In the UK, Nigel Farage – a charismatic, semi-permanent feature of British politics who helped usher in Brexit – had a resounding victory in the recent local election with his Reform Party. It would be reductive to attribute the failure of the hard right solely to sentimental notions such as Australia’s egalitarian roots or its so-called “fundamental decency,” and equally insufficient to focus exclusively on the mechanics of the preferential voting system. While these factors may encourage a centrist tilt, historical precedents like Abbott’s ‘stop the boats’ and Howard’s Tampa affair demonstrate that neither fully constrains the emergence or electoral success of populist or conservative currents.

Moreover, the presence of centre-right tendencies within the Labor Party itself lends some credibility to the argument that the Australian electorate remains receptive to more assertive right-wing alternatives, provided they are articulated by credible leaders or respond to shifting public concerns. Thus, some analysts argue that the relative absence of a successful hard-right movement may be as much a temporary circumstance as a structural inevitability, underscoring the potential for right-wing resurgence should effective counter-narratives and charismatic leadership emerge.

When the largest and most influential news company in the land is the hard-right News Corp, and most other major outlets are also now at least right-curious, the potential for the rise of the right is baked in.

In other words, the failure of the hard right hasn’t been structural: it’s been personal. Thanks to News Corp, and especially its organs, Sky News and The Australian, right-wing politicians are never truly tested until the ballot box arrives. All it takes is the imprimatur of Gina Rinehart, or a Murdoch editor or presenter, and any bozo can float to the top. A few friendly interviews, a round of fundraising lunches, and congratulations! You’ve won preselection/attracted donations for your Senate run. Your ideas and policies will rarely be challenged, your credentials rarely scrutinised, and the relevance of your messages to the Australian public never, ever questioned.

This is how you end up with a Liberal leader promoting nuclear power in the land of cheap renewable energy, or a Liberal prime minister (Scott Morrison) hand-picking a candidate (Katherine Deves) for North Sydney’s Warringah seat because she lobbied to stop transgender women from competing in women’s sport. The right appears resistant to learning from its mistakes, though this dynamic may not be permanent. Currently, leadership on the right is characterised by individuals who lack effective communication skills and focus excessively on issues such as wind farms rather than substantive policy debate.

However, it is important to connect this hypothetical directly to the central thesis regarding One Nation’s unfitness to govern: if a sharp, charismatic right-wing leader who appeals broadly and demonstrates actual political competence were to emerge, the landscape could change significantly. In such a scenario, One Nation’s current lack of credible leadership and inclusive policy would be thrown into even sharper relief, reinforcing the argument that, as it stands, the party is not fit to govern Australia. A right-wing resurgence, driven by modernised policies and a leader capable of articulating solutions relevant to the Australian public, could expose just how far One Nation falls short of the standards required for effective national governance. Thus, the potential rise of a genuine right-wing alternative both highlights and underscores One Nation’s deficiencies in its capacity to lead.

Without willing it into being, it’s not hard to imagine a sun-kissed young thing with good hair, a strong torso and a firm corporate background bemoaning how difficult migrants have made it to buy a family home, how the past is the past, and let’s not regret it, and how regulations and taxes are strangling our shiny future. We need a new voice, and Australia is for Australians! Someone who can cook a BBQ without it looking like cosplay, and play a sport without looking like a disoriented alien. Someone who can dog-whistle for Australia. It’s hard to believe it hasn’t already happened.

While progressive Australians may express frustration with the Labour Party’s cautious approach and the lack of momentum among genuine left-wing alternatives, they might also recognise that the current disarray within the political right has provided a period of relative stability for progressive causes. However, the emergence and success of the teals demonstrate that effective strategies such as leveraging social media, building community support, and sustained grassroots engagement can be adopted by other political factions, including those on the right. This possibility underscores the need for progressives to remain vigilant, as the organisational tools that bolstered centrist and progressive movements could equally empower a renewed, more effective political right.

My Thought for the Day

We dislike and resist change in the foolish assumption that we can make permanent that which makes us feel secure. Yet change is in fact part of the very fabric of our existence.