Even on triple J the other day the conversation was all about the rise of right-wing politics. However, I suggest that the story that is being celebrated in our papers and on our airwaves might not actually be entirely truthful, or consequential. It might even be entirely illusory.
Pauline Hanson’s circus of distraction assists News Corp writers to completely ignore that the world is changing and that their ideas have been found wanting, but not much else. So do not fret about this torrent of silliness. Pauline has as much chance of governing Aus as Trump has of being elected Pope. But it is worth considering how this story has gained so much traction.
I would suggest that it is important to consider the current obsession that our mainstream press has with ‘the rise of One Nation’ in the light of two consequential factors. First: the entire commercial press landscape in our country is almost entirely owned and operated by just two large right-wing corporations, one of which is American. And second: there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
In 2022 the mid-year Newspoll showed Labor support in the mid 30s. Four years later, two years out from an election and following on from some of the most politically turbulent waters since the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd period, Labors’ core support is at about 31%. Or, in other words, a few points off where it was at its peak.
Also, remember how up until fairly recently the major political story animating our newspapers was the fall and damnation of the Liberal Party of Australia? Can you remember how, way back in the mists of 2025, the Liberal Party entirely imploded, their first female leader was publicly humiliated, and half its MPs deserted? All as a second-tier public school prefect was put in charge of the floundering ship. But now fast-forward to the present – only a few months on – and the story is all about how One Nation is about to lead the right-wing hordes into the Sunny uplands of White Australia, because of woke, taxing the rich, renewable energy, and immigrants. It is enough to give one whiplash.
But what exactly has changed? Labor support has been trending slightly downwards, from a historical win where they increased their majority substantially. But it is only down four points since that election and they are still in a commanding position. Especially since the Liberal Party is now mostly a quaint memory and the Nats have been purged of anyone under fifty-five. So, is it any wonder that the one far right-wing party that is still reasonably good at PR is doing better than ever?
Instead of complicating the matter with any degree of sophisticated analysis our commercial press has simply reverted to form and has begun spinning the current (right-wing) political turmoil in a self-interested fashion. This is because there is no coherent federal opposition to labor still standing. All that is left is the hugely self-interested commercial press. Consequently, the story about the disintegration of support for the Liberal Party has now been transformed into a (shaggy dog story) about One Nation ruling our land as an elected government and the sort of edicts that our new Emperor Pauline would decree. It is plain barmy but interesting. Most importantly it does not involve talking down right wing politics, ideas, or people.
So yes, there has been a massive change in the political landscape in Australia in the last six years. The right wing is floundering. Right wing voters want to vote for something that is not the LNP. Nevertheless, this disaster has to be sold as a problem for the progressive side of politics. Consequently, the right-wing press is making a lot of shit up. But even so, the numbers do not lie when considered in context.
I have those numbers in front of me, right now, showing the results of all the Newspoll’s going back to the commencement of the Labor government. During this period the core Labor vote has remained in the range of 31% to 35%, and the core Green vote has remained stable at 13%. Whereas, the Liberal Party primary vote is at a historic low of 15%, with the Nationals at 3%.
Accordingly, it is now simply a matter of self-interest: Sky News and The Australian are currently obsessed with the minutia of movements in their own opinion polls, two years out from an election, because it is either that or continuing to report on the obvious disintegration of the middle right of politics in our country. Therefore, I suggest that progressive voters have cause to feel hope, not despair, over this alteration in direction by the right-wing press. It only serves to once again set the right-wing up for a bloody nose at the coming federal election. Remember that all this bullshit does have material consequences in the real world.
The right-wing screamed bloody murder about the Voice proposition and did manage to spike it. This gave them hope for a massive change at the coming election. So, buoyed by their own false conceptions regarding the strength of the right-wing forces in Aus, they decided to attack the last election as if it was a done deal. Instead of being careful, they therefore exposed their actual radical aspirations and so were annihilated. Now they are again trying to sell the disintegration of the right wing as a major problem for the left and the progressives in our country. Which is stupid but heartening.
It serves to demonstrate that our mainstream press outlets are not the dictators of everything consequential anymore. Aussies now tend to gather their information from a host of different sources rather than one or two mainstream vehicles. Many do not read the press at all but rather rely on their socials. Which is to simply observe that the world is changing and that the demographics in our country have finally swung against the right-wing owners and readers of the commercial press.
The government might have failed to reign in their streams of self-interested blather, but a combination of time, demographics, and Aussie sensibility seem to be doing much the same.
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And thank you Rupert and Nine and Stokes and Gina and other right wing nutjob media for giving the Red Witch platforms to spew her rabid racist hatred and bile freely.
https://www.news.com.au/national/pauline-hanson-calls-for-an-australian-monoculture/news-story/f2441dcb57e26020d6141dbeb62c2b71
The regular media bereft of any significant journalistic issues are taking the lazy path and filling their daily expectation by simple hyper-ventelation over the dregs given by Hansen last week!
The ABC’s so called journalists too, because so many of them now have had their training at the media owned by the Murdoch-Oligarchy!
I do agree GL that Pauline Hanson is a disagreeable person in many respects, but I do not think she is anything more than an adornment and a focus for discontent. I have seen her in action and she is a formidable mingler and talker. She is empathetic and is a natural politician. But she is also beset with a basket of really crazy (almost xenophobic) views. And she is a woeful organiser with little capacity or appetite for the boring bits.Which makes her a wonderful figurehead for the right from the perspective of Labor. PH scares the bejesus out of suburban moms and families, all of whom live in the modern world and not the fringes.
But with all that as a preface, the article is more about the press than Pauline. I find her pedestrian and her ideas barely worth repeating as they are largely thought bubbles based on misconceptions. So, just as with Trump, I prefer to have other people interpret for me so I can avoid having to listen to them.
Yes, it is all about my fragile self.
Thank you John for making me angry again. I have been talking about the usurpation of the Australian political dynamic by the organs (sic) of the right wing press for many decades and for a few brief moments I had just barely managed to lay the subversion of the ABC to one side.
((Mind you, in the UK the BBC is currently treating the coronation of a long serving establishment politician as PM, by treating him as the brand new Northern outsider. Ergo Pauline probably does have some hope of having the ABC on board when she assumes the mantle of Emperor of Australia.))
In the NSW Parliament Legislative Assembly (Lower House) there are ten (10) Independent Members, four (4) west of the Range, three (3) other regions and three (3) city electorates, total ten (10).
There are ten (10) MLA NOtional$, seven (7) New England and North Coast, three (3) other regionals (Dubbo, Cootamundra, Bathurst).
The move away from Notional$ is increasing but to Independents rather than Labor. Since the Farrer Bye-election, the PHONeys must be included as a protest vote against major parties taking their electorates for granted.
The whole electorate system is ripe for a change, and the inactivity preferred by the Albanese LABOR government is doing nothing to win votews in NSW state elections due in 2028
This article by Simon Kuestenmacher aka The Stats Guy – in The New Daily is well worth a read:
https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2026/06/23/stats-guy-migration-debate
New England Cocky you are a wonderful man whose open handed contribution perfectly illustrates my primary point: that there is a huge kerfuffle and turmoil occurring on one side of politics, which has occasioned a lot of chair swapping and chest beating.
And certainly you are correct to note that none of this means an increase in the Labor vote (as I observe in the piece), but it does further scatter and diminish the right wing influence and does not increase their numbers (which are dwindling even as I type).
Ta uncletimrob, scanned and seemingly well worth a read. It is on a tab and I am making coffee.
thanks everyone.
She’s not leading, but being led on, platformed by media and being used within a longstanding framework that goes back to Malthus on population and Galton on eugenics.
Since Howard became PM it’s fossil fuel Atlas Koch (IPA, CIS etc.) allegedly supported nowadays by Rhinehart and anti-immigrant Tanton Network (SPA SusPopAus* & NewsCorp) that informs Fox News; both equal Project 2025.
*SPA a spinoff from old Rockefeller ZPG greenwashes fossil fuels & dog whistles to try split the centre, while ON nation has been old white Australia nostalgia, now MAGA, to pare off Libs and Nats, plus some old ALP.
Same powers that be seem to be doing everything to become unattractive and unelectable, due to the same elites’ antipathy towards democracy, ‘the other’ and equality; but they have started demographic decline for ‘the great replacement’.
I suspect that MSM is creating a news storm to hide the way that the Albo Labor government handled the fuel crisis caused by Trump-Netanyahu war with Iran so calmly and effectively using diplomacy to ensure supply.
With a boring lack of scandal – Pauline used the slip/stumble/fall off the stage by Albo on the election trail suggesting that it indicates scandalous lying.
It is beyond MSM, especially newscorpse, to say anything positive about the Labor govt, so we get Pauline put up as the poster girl of the right.
@ JiMM: Thank you for your kind words.
I note that this morning SMH 250626 reports Zali Steggall & Allegra Spender are forming the Community Strong Australia ”party” having joint leadership rather than a single leader. The proposed Constitution is also attached. I wish them well in their endeavours.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/teals-reveal-name-logo-and-founding-principles-of-new-party-but-there-s-no-leader-20260624-p609ib.html (paywall)
@ Andrew Smith: PHONeys misleader Pawlein has been cast as ”the useful idiot”, the court jester of conservative ”thinking”, who is available for purchase for a mere million dollars or so, or like her great ”hero”, with the gift of an aeroplane bauble.
@ Anon. E. Mouse: You are naughty!! Identifying that scribblers at the Murdocracy Media Manipulation Monopoly and OUR ABC that has been infected with the dregs from Holt Street have been directed (in 1974); ”I don’t care what you write about [Labor], make them look bad”.
From what Hanson was saying yesterday it seems that she doesn’t understand what multiculture and monoculture actually mean. Which points to the fact that Pauline has a very tenuous grip on the English language as spoken in Australia.
So, to suggest that One Nation actually have a policy is to completely ignore the fact that the lady doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
Hanson said that the Socceroos’ were a fine example of monoculture when, if anything, they are a fine example of Australia’s multicultural ethnic diversity in action.
As a Queenslander I am tired of Hanson prancing around on the national stage – she was elected as a senator for Queensland and it would be helpful if she actually did the job we are paying her to do.
I read that Teena McQueen, who served as the federal Liberal Party vice-president from 2017 to 2023, died on Wednesday after a battle with a short but severe medical condition. She had defected to One Nation in May, after serving in the Liberal Party for decades.
She was also a SKY after Dark talking head.
Very strange !