As One Nation continues its seemingly endless surge in voter popularity, the old guard political strategists and commentators keep anticipating, predicting and many of them hoping, that the surge will peak then wither.
Pauline Hansons One Nation surge is built on her 30-year, career long claim that the entire Australian political system is rotten to the core. That the political parties, the players and the institutions of government, the law and more are embedded in this rottenness, a conspiracy of injustice against the people.
Those who expect an inevitable One Nation wither have history on their side. Pauline had big wins in Queensland state politics then the wins crumbled. She made a good push into Western Australia then zip, whoop, nothing. The same in New South Wales where fights with her elected state MPs saw One Nation hit the wall. Federally, she sometimes created a scare for the dominant political parties but nothing big came of those.
In politics to make the statement that ‘this time it’s different’ can be problematic. Let’s forge ahead though and look at what is different.
If there is one big dominating difference this time, it’s that Pauline’s assessment of the vibe of rottenness is resonating with facts. Like the 1997 uniquely Australian movie ‘The Castle’ Pauline has pinged the vibe. It’s something that you can’t quite put your finger on, but when it becomes obvious it glares.
What’s more, One Nation’s political marketing and advertising has reached a high level of smarts on a scale not before seen from One Nation. They have pounced on a sudden exposed rottenness of Prime Minister Albanese. It’s a fact that Albanese has lied, big time, to the people in imposing massive tax injustice. The vibe has substance!
That Liar Ad
The Chalmer’s Labor budget has bombed. They moved with a socialist agenda designed to strip ordinary people of control of their savings and place the control in the hands of the Labor monied establishment elite. I described this in The Budget, Socialism and Our Superannuation. This is a long-term plan implemented with stealth. Labor’s reasoning would be that they can take a short term hit to popularity and recover over the next two years before the 2028 federal election. Plus, through political spin they can mask their true agenda. It’s rotten politics.
The political backfire that Albanese is suffering is that he’s a dirty rotten liar. It’s dominating the news. Before the election he repeatedly promised not to do the things in the budget that he’s done. Albanese is struggling to handle this liar accusation. The evidence is overwhelming against him. What other injustices will he impose? One Nation has moved to exploit this brilliantly to a level that has totally outclassed the Liberal/National political machine and Labor itself.
One Nation’s move happened this way. The Labor Party sent a donations appeal to its members imploring for funds to campaign against One Nation. In a blink One Nation responded with a counter ad contorting the format and look of the Labor ad smashing Albanese on the liar issue and appealing for donations. One Nation has raised more than $5million in 5 days. (as of 16 June) Donations have come from 65,000 individuals with an average donation of $61.
The Labor Ad
One Nation’s rapid response
A major marker of actual political support and strength is when large numbers of ‘average’ people make lots of small donations. The One Nation polling surge is backed by voter dollars. This time this is a big difference with One Nation. The polling numbers are supported by the donation numbers.
The difference goes further to understanding the One Nation organisation of today. The fact that One Nation responded to the Labor ad with speed, with such creativity and chutzpah while having the infrastructure in place to mount the ad shows high organisational capacity. This capacity is normally in evidence with the Labor Party, the unions/ACTU, the union superannuation funds, some of the big business lobbyists, The Teals, The Greens and in the past the Liberal/National Parties.
On this exercise, One Nation has demonstrated superiority over all of the majors and the big money minor parties. Such organisational capacity is something majorly different about One Nation this time. Plus, and significantly, One Nation has demonstrated that it now has a superior tactical organisation than the Liberal/National machines.
The Vibe is Backed by Substance
There’s another aspect that marks the difference in One Nation.
Through sheer hard dogged work over a long time One Nation has researched and exposed facts that put substance to the vibe of rottenness.
Pauline Hanson has been criticised as hardly ever attending Senate Estimates. Senate Estimates is a process where the most senior public servants and their minister are required to attend public, televised hearings where they are questioned in detail by Senators. It’s where Senators have a chance to drill deeply into actual government policy actions and public servants’ administration of their departments. The criticism of Hanson in not attending asserts that she is failing in her duties as a Senator and also consequently, has no understanding of the operations of the federal government.
There’s a big BUT to this. Pauline has a long time One Nation colleague, Senator Malcolm Roberts. Roberts entered the Senate in 2016. He is now well known across the federal parliament as an immensely active, persistent, well prepared and researched Senator in Estimates hearings. His questioning is polite while forensically cutting to the heart of issues. He worries public servants who must appear before him.
The breadth of issues and department/authorities he covers ranges across the federal public service. It’s on the record over many years of his questioning of The Australian Taxation Office, The Tax Ombudsman, The Fair Work Commission and The Fair Work Ombudsman. He probes such issues as
The health practitioner regulator acting against doctors who question gender identify issues.
Why the clean energy regulator appointed an industry lobby group as the product listing body for solar panels.
Why the National Australia Day Council stopped showing the Australia flag on its website.
The approach of the Therapeutics Goods Administrator to reviewing deaths related to vaccines.
Whether the Coal Long Service Leave body was engaged in investment risk.
The allocation of inland water flows from rivers to the environment and farmers.
The list goes on and on across a huge array of government functions. Watch any of the clips from the list above of his Senate questioning and you’ll see his style.
What’s on evidence is that Pauline has been running a team effort with Malcom. She’s focused on building the One Nation brand, organisation and vibe and Malcolm has focused on the detail of government operations and policy. This has been happening for many years. Backing this team approach, I can attest, is one of the most professional and knowledgeable parliamentary and policy advice support teams in the federal parliament. The team is small and tight.
Exposing Political Betrayal by the Majors
One issue that’s entirely unreported by the mainstream media, almost impossible to find on social media but has been doggedly chased by Malcolm Roberts in Senate Estimates and more, is central to understanding how rotten the Australian political system is.
It’s all to do with alleged collusion between labour hire companies, the corrupt CFMEU, the ACTU, mining companies, ‘smart’ lawyers, the Fair Work Commission and Fair Work Ombudsman to create legal cover for what is likely the largest, most sustained intentional underpayment of workers in Australia’s history. Try around $1.6 billion probably more of screwing workers in blatant wage underpayments.
Central to the One Nation vibe is the wide public perception and belief that there is little difference between Labor and the Liberal/National coalition. Even more that The Greens and now the Teals can be lumped into that ‘sameness’ bucket. The perception is that entire parliamentary house of cards is a stack upon stack of incompetence even conspiracy of elected representatives rorting the system for their own benefit and that of their political and financial mates. The ‘people’ feel betrayed and One Nation speaks the truth to that.
The detail of how this historically huge wage coal workers theft was and continues to be orchestrated demonstrates how close the major parties are to one another in exploiting the people and the denial of ordinary justice. Further, that the alleged independent institutions supposed to protect the people are roped into a cover up.
The screwing of coal workers -now the cover up is complete
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