It’s a grim day when ONP becomes populist and translates it into seats.
With any luck it’ll split the right making them all but an annoyance.
Unless every single liberal voter is a dirty racist…
Or for everyone to push harder to the right to capture those votes
Results still very much in progress, of course, but sad to see PHON shoot up past 20% of the total vote (ahead in two seats), and gaining two senate seats so far.
I’ve seen (perhaps on other sites more than here) a few people claiming that their huge rise is just a rigged polling number or a unrepresentative sample. Clearly not the case - this has translated into electoral results - although the claims of them taking numbers from ALP voters too may be exaggerated, albeit possible.
Last time PHON rose like this, it took direct action to knock them back into place. I highly recommend having a quick look at the history of how they were repelled last time. Then think about what we (you and us) can do about this issue.
Perhaps talk to ON followers at their level. Anecdotally, one I’ve spoken said he votes for ON because “Pauline says what most Australians think, she thinks like me” (one of the everyday people). When I pointed out she keeps company with billionaires etc, what I got was anger and a walking away from me.
It seems to me this is a long-term project. If people want to be reflected at their most reactionary and feel secure as part of a tribe then we need political reps from other parties who will not talk over their heads.
Pauline says what most Australians think
This is the real problem IMO. She says what they think. Because they’re racist, and project that onto others, assuming it must be everyone.
I think the best tactic is redirection. They obviously have a lot of anger, and thanks to Hanson and the broader right-wing media climate, that anger gets directed towards immigrants. But if you can seek to redirect the anger where it belongs—to the billionaire class—without actually attempting to call out Hanson in too explicit a way (risking them getting defensive, as you observed, resulting in the backfire effect where they double down and reinforce their previous beliefs), that can help.
I think it’s very notable that One Nation voters tend to preference LNP and Labor at much closer to a 50/50 rate than you might intuitively expect. A lot of them are disillusioned and poorly informed on the issues, rather than being hardcore dedicated True Believers in Hanson’s racist cause. And can be reached, if the anger and fear they quite rightly feel are instead directed somewhere productive.
Not that I’m very good at this, mind you. When I’m exposed to them in real life I’m much more likely to do what you did, or to call them out personally. It’s something I need to get better at.
But if you can seek to redirect the anger where it belongs
I agree with you. The question is how do we do this? Most of the mass and popular media is well and truly paid up to give them the narrative that shapes and reinforces the ‘us and them’ perception. Someone must come up with the skills (online workshop, booklets, leaflets?) that can be learnt to be able to talk rationally with people who have been socialised this way without creating more rejection. Facts aren’t enough.
I don’t have any on hand, but there are plenty of references online for trying to deradicalise cult members, and many of the factors in play here are similar, so those skills can be used to try and open these people to other ideas.
This could have some, I haven’t checked in depth: https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/wiki/resources/ (if you’re not already familiar with QAnon conspiracies, Wikipedia article)
An important thing is to not aim for immediate change of mind, but to empower them with an alternative framework which is ready for them to consider when they face a contradiction in their worldview and the world.
Remind them that the Harpy specifically said ‘I share a lot of the same values as Donald Trump’ when he was elected the first time.
If they’re happy to vote for someone sympathising with a paedophile rapist war pig, fuck the.
the anti-immigration rhetoric is largely i think a misdirected attempt at getting what they think is causing inflation, high cost of living and high house prices
i might be a labor/greens voter, or was labor/greens now firmly labor but the greens seem ok with islam and labor are doing me no service attending mosques to get boo’d
apparently they don’t know where their main voter base stands on the 7th century radically violent religion
so im looking for someone who is also anti-islam, this used to be the “reason” or “science” parties which seem to have disappeared leaving me with the usual wankers at the bottom of the voting card (a dredge of right wing loser parties who I can’t figure out who to put last)
what would you have me do? i put the greens first labor second for a long time to push labor towards more renewables, im happy with what they’ve done, now i want action on islam
over my dead body do i want phon in, but how do i tell labor what i want? i did that putting greens first previously, am i not right to do the same here?
over my dead body do i want phon in, but how do i tell labor what i want? i did that putting greens first previously, am i not right to do the same here?
Voting is an extremely vague way to “tell Labor” anything, whether by voting Green, Reason, Shooters, Socialist or PHON. I assume their reaction to a rise in PHON would be to double down on anti-immigration rhetoric, not to repress Islam. (I’m not exactly sure what you envision, policy-wise, when you say “anti-Islam”)
But you raise a great question - how do you tell Labor what you want? Voting doesn’t send a clear message, nor are any of our votes individually worth much at all. And specifically to Labor, their own rank-and-file majority have been overruled by the Albanese leadership on some very significant matters. If their own members are struggling to be heard, I don’t recommend that as a way to sway Labor either - I believe some other “left” parties have working representation, but from discussions I’ve had with Labor members at pubs, I don’t have faith in their internal democracy. It comes down to other forms of power.
So, we organise to gain power for ourselves - for Labor in particular, a major example is through worker unions with the power to combine resources and ultimately to withdraw labour. In fact, this is how major historical wins were made in anti-racism laws here, or eviction protections for renters, and even lots of Whitlam’s infamous social policies - governments did fuck-all until unions put pressure on them. Same with other wins like the Green Bans. And it’s not just worker unions, but other forms of collective action, like Erskineville’s Road Wars which have probably saved many lived by now.
The bottom line is obvious: telling a gigantic political party of millions what you want requires more than just voting.
Damn we’re off to a bad start
Voting is an extremely vague way to “tell Labor” anything
I completely disagree with this, voting is the main way to show support to a political party and it’s platform, if you’re not getting votes it’s pretty clear people don’t agree with what you’re offering
Labor are still butthurt over Bill Shorten trying to reduce house prices 7 years ago and losing an unlosable election because of it, just like how businesses ultimately listen to money and your biggest weapon is where you spend your money, politicians listen to votes and your biggest weapon is where your vote goes
You can see the impact PHON has, even though they only got a tiny % of the pie in SA the big parties are keenly aware of them and why people are voting for them
“I also think we saw Labor voters moving to One Nation,” he said.
Mr Malinauskas dodged questions about any future federal pivot, stating he was “very grateful” to be Premier. But he had a message for his federal and state colleagues.
“You’ve got to make sure that, first and foremost, the economic settings are right to ensure that a growing economy doesn’t leave people behind and actually delivers a dividend for more people to have a degree of prosperity in their lives,” he said.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/coalition-election-policy-rethink-opened-220634976.html?guccounter=1
And specifically to Labor, their own rank-and-file majority have been overruled by the Albanese leadership on some very significant matters
That works right up until it doesn’t, there’s nothing to suggest labor couldn’t have a giant swing against them at the next election just like when the greens managed to get through in 22, sadly most people don’t care for gaza quite as much as the Greens for some reason think they do and people didn’t care for what they were offering and thus the decline, tbh the greens should really be shining right now, absolute shambles from them
Program: Is this the start of Pauline Hanson’s ‘orange wave’?
To be honest I don’t think I can vote PHON first preference because my god I might throw up but i’m certainly not happy about it
In terms of unions I’d be more inclined to support them if they better represented me, the demands they seem to levy are egregious that have me siding with businesses going damn that’s crazy
voting is the main way to show support to a political party and it’s platform, if you’re not getting votes it’s pretty clear people don’t agree with what you’re offering
politicians listen to votes
I don’t disagree with either of these statements. Nor do they disagree with my statement that votes are a vague message - if I tell you (and it’s the truth) that the Greens weren’t in my top two preferences in 2025 (nor Labor, nor Liberal) - what information does that give them? What would the Greens do if they wanted my vote? All my vote really says is, “I prefer this other party”, but not which policies I like, or even if it’s the policies I have a problem with. I know people who vote Liberal but are anti-privatisation! I know people who vote Liberal but are environmentally progressive! I know someone who voted for the opposition one year to “give someone else a go”! Even just the differing policies of each party are complicated, let alone other factors like personalities.
I don’t agree that voting is our biggest weapon, but it’s one everyone can use without any risk, so it’s certainly potent and important! Our biggest weapon is our labour. If you, me and millions of other people all voice a unified demand and stop going to work, that’s both a more accurate weapon (they know precisely what we want changed) and a weapon that can bring a government to its knees - look at revolutions overseas started by strikes. And it also works against companies which don’t even let us vote!
You can see the impact PHON has, even though they only got a tiny % of the pie in SA the big parties are keenly aware of them and why people are voting for them
The following quote from Labor is extremely vague. Why did people vote for One Nation? Was it frustration with housing costs? General cost of living pressures? Reaction to the firearm laws after the Bondi massacre? Opposition to Islam? A hatred of Arabic people (Muslim or not) or Asians? Opposition to all immigration, including English? Simply sending a message of dissatisfaction to the Liberals? A disdain towards conventional, formal politicians? Media exposure and familiarity? (some people can’t even name our Prime Minister, so don’t underestimate this!)
tbh the greens should really be shining right now, absolute shambles from them
Absolutely. While I do think they’re right to support activism around Gaza (even if it comes from the argument of “stop wasting our resources on foreign wars”), it shouldn’t be at their forefront.
the demands they seem to levy are egregious that have me siding with businesses going damn that’s crazy
It’s worth pointing out that sometimes (and maybe this doesn’t apply to the ones you’re thinking of) they come to the table with high demands with the intention to settle on a lower demand.
Not all unions are the same, nor are all organisers the same (had a string of bad ones until recently) so I’m fully aware that some are bad at representing employees. And it’s a damn shame. It makes a feedback loop where a bad union experience makes people dismissive of the actions necessary to improve the union. I’m lucky enough to be in one where we’ve recently managed to reorganise and volunteer enough to build campaigns where fellow employees were able to instruct us with their demands (and you bet thousands of us were asking for a 10% pay rise that we had to temper to something more realistic). But until I volunteered to help build this reorganisation, I did feel disempowered and unrepresented, and hesitated to even join the union, despite being a unionist.
The tough answer is, if institutions aren’t giving you power, you have to build it.
Can’t help but chuckle at how shit things are for the libs but I expect it will find myself longing for the gold old days once PHON establishes a platform.
Hopefully getting some more votes will temper them a little as they will have to cost policies et cetera.
libs never even had to develop policies let alone have economically feasible policies. what makes you think ONP will need to do any different?
Presenting themselves as an alternative creates higher expectations, I’d guess.
Same as Reform in the UK. The usual magical thinkers have decided that pretty much the same useless right wing cunts but with a different colour scheme will somehow work where they failed so many times before.
