Latest / The Front / Pauline’s smash-and-grab: is anyone handling it right?

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Pauline’s smash-and-grab: is anyone handling it right? · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, September 15, 2026. Artificial intelligence giant OpenAI is
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  Speaker 1: trying to force Labor to break its promise to creative
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  Speaker 1: industries by insisting it won't even discuss using green energy
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  Speaker 1: for data centres unless the government weakens copyright law to
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  Speaker 1: allow it to scrape all books, music, art and journalism
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  Speaker 1: for free. That's an exclusive live now at theaustralian.com.au. Launch
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  Speaker 1: an attack, then watch while your opponent looks like the
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  Speaker 1: bad guy. Pauline Hanson and One Nation get the headlines
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  Speaker 1: while the major parties flail for the right response. Today,
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  Speaker 1: National Editor Dennis Shanahan joins us to discuss how the
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  Speaker 1: politics of resentment are playing out and why things might
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  Speaker 1: be about to change.
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  Speaker 2: He can just come in and go, oh, yeah, cut
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  Speaker 2: immigration $ 175, 000. That's not a problem.
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  Speaker 1: Income split up.
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  Speaker 2: Income split up. Yeah, that's great.
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  Speaker 1: You know, that's right.
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  Speaker 2: I'll just do this. Abolish multiculturalism. Shut down the ABC.
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  Speaker 2: That's no problem. Oh, change superannuation. We don't know about
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  Speaker 2: the inflation effect because it's all about headlines. She still
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  Speaker 2: sets the agenda and doesn't have to have any backing.
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  Speaker 1: This is The Australian's national editor, Dennis Shanahan. I always
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  Speaker 1: turn to Dennis when I need a little wisdom and
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  Speaker 1: a laugh. Today it's Pauline Hanson and why she's having
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  Speaker 1: such a moment in 2026. Has she changed or has Australia?
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  Speaker 1: And are all her personal slanging matches coincidental? Or is
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  Speaker 1: this the strategy?
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  Speaker 2: I don't think there is a great difference from Pauline
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  Speaker 2: Hanson of 30 years ago to the way she's operating now.
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  Speaker 2: And in a way, that's because the reaction to Pauline
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  Speaker 2: Hanson is the same as it was then. What is
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  Speaker 2: happening politically with her current comments, and as you say,
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  Speaker 2: the current fight she's having with people, is that she
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  Speaker 2: is saying one thing quite bluntly, quite provocatively, and without apology,
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  Speaker 2: and is literally being accused of doing something which she
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  Speaker 2: doesn't see herself as doing. Now, from her first speech
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  Speaker 2: to Parliament, she then picked up on something about Aboriginals
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  Speaker 2: getting special privileges, about getting things that other Australians didn't,
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  Speaker 2: that it was about separating Australian society.
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  Speaker 3: Along with millions of Australians, I am fed up to
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  Speaker 3: the back teeth with the inequalities that are being promoted
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  Speaker 3: by the government and paid for by the taxpayer under
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  Speaker 3: the assumption that Aboriginals are the most disadvantaged people in Australia.
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  Speaker 2: And she said, of course, I'll be called a racist.
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  Speaker 2: And she was. And she also attacked Asian immigration, saying
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  Speaker 2: we're being flooded by Asians. And again, she said, I'll
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  Speaker 2: be called a racist. And she was. for being against
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  Speaker 2: Asian immigration.
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  Speaker 3: But if I can invite who I want into my
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  Speaker 3: home then I should have the right to have a
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  Speaker 3: say in who comes into my country.
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  Speaker 2: But those themes that she raised in that first speech
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  Speaker 2: are absolutely resonant in her positions today. They are part
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  Speaker 2: of the fights she is having with people And they are,
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  Speaker 2: as they were then, not just part of what is
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  Speaker 2: driving opposition to her, some of it quite emotional opposition
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  Speaker 2: and justified, but it's also driving support for the people
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  Speaker 2: that she is seeking to speak to and the people
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  Speaker 2: she is asking to vote for her. This is the
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  Speaker 2: reverse of of Labor's politics of envy, this is the
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  Speaker 2: politics of resentment. Pauline Hanson is talking to the people
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  Speaker 2: who are not getting welfare, who are not getting public housing,
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  Speaker 2: people who feel that they are just as badly off
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  Speaker 2: as others who are getting government support. Now, Barnaby Joyce,
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  Speaker 2: who shows a more sophisticated approach to the whole issue
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  Speaker 2: of public housing, is making the point that Anthony Albanese
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  Speaker 2: has talked about his own log cabin story time and
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  Speaker 2: time again, and that this makes Anthony Albanese's argument about
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  Speaker 2: the role of public housing and his position fair game
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  Speaker 2: to discuss public housing.
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  Speaker 4: To have a long-term position in public housing is a concern.
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  Speaker 4: We need public housing as a safety net. It shouldn't
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  Speaker 4: be there sort of in continuum so that people just
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  Speaker 4: basically stay there forever because it makes it tougher for
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  Speaker 4: other people. There's got to be a process.
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  Speaker 2: Now, this is a fairly sophisticated argument from Barnaby Joyce
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  Speaker 2: compared to Pauline Hanson's, but it goes to the nub
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  Speaker 2: of the issue that there are people who resent special
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  Speaker 2: treatment to others and this is part of of what
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  Speaker 2: is driving, yes, there is criticism of Pauline Hanson for
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  Speaker 2: what she said and what she's continuing to say, but
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  Speaker 2: there is also a lot of support from One Nation
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  Speaker 2: supporters who say, yes, I feel that I'm being done.
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  Speaker 2: I feel I'm in a hard time and I'm not
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  Speaker 2: getting help. This is the politics of resentment. about public
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  Speaker 2: housing and welfare, and it's a political dispute amongst people
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  Speaker 2: on lower incomes and welfare. This isn't your typical Teal
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  Speaker 2: and Greens argument on the inner city and affluent suburbs.
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  Speaker 2: She is talking to the areas in the outer suburbs
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  Speaker 2: and in the rural areas. And so I don't think
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  Speaker 2: that this is a clear... I don't think there was
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  Speaker 2: any strategy involved from Pauline Hanson. But I don't think
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  Speaker 2: that the resulting political fallout is going completely against Pauline Hanson.
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  Speaker 2: Far from it.
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  Speaker 1: If you were coming up with a strategy for a
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  Speaker 1: kind of outsider candidate who says the things that no
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  Speaker 1: one else is prepared to say, you couldn't strategise this
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  Speaker 1: better for Pauline Hanson. She says something kind of a
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  Speaker 1: bit loose and vague about Anthony Albanese's mother. She publishes
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  Speaker 1: a cartoon in which Andrew Hasties is called a traitor.
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  Speaker 2: Now I'll never be the leader and it's all my
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  Speaker 2: fault because I'm a stupid traitor.
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  Speaker 1: And then the issue explodes and then suddenly we're all
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  Speaker 1: talking about what she wants us to be talking about,
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  Speaker 1: even though in the case of Andrew Hastie, for example,
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  Speaker 1: she hasn't herself called him a traitor and he might
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  Speaker 1: start looking like the bad guy by saying really tough
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  Speaker 1: things about One Nation, calling her a lying coward. She
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  Speaker 1: kind of then attracts the sympathy of or we're talking
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  Speaker 1: about whether or not Anthony Albanese's mother really did deserve
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  Speaker 1: to have a public housing house for her entire life.
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  Speaker 1: And might I add, I mean, what we know about
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  Speaker 1: Marianne Ellery in terms of what's been published before is
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  Speaker 1: that she had such a severe disability that the knuckles
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  Speaker 1: in her hands were being replaced by prosthetics with surgery.
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  Speaker 1: You Do you really think there's no strategy here, Dennis?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, is it just that she's kind of stumbling
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  Speaker 1: into these situations or is it more calculating than that?
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  Speaker 2: No, I don't think it is calculating. Now, Pauline Hanson
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  Speaker 2: and some of her supporters and Sven Gales in the
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  Speaker 2: past have always worked on the basis that all publicity
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  Speaker 2: is good publicity. And if you look at the polls,
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  Speaker 2: that's the case because One Nation in NewsPoll is getting
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  Speaker 2: more support than both the Labor Party and, by a
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  Speaker 2: long shot, the Coalition. But there are two things here.
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  Speaker 2: The first is that the supporters of Pauline Hanson, like
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  Speaker 2: the supporters of Donald Trump, are absolutely committed to her
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  Speaker 2: and One Nation, and they will forgive anything. And, if
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  Speaker 2: need be, they'll invent a conspiracy to talk about the
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  Speaker 2: fact that she's being under attack. This brings me to
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  Speaker 2: the second point. Her secondary criticism of Andrew Hastie and
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  Speaker 2: her criticism of the public housing situation of Anthony Albanese's mother,
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  Speaker 2: and of course what she says about migrants, is actually
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  Speaker 2: reinforcing the view to her supporters that she is a
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  Speaker 2: victim of the uni party, that it is the major
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  Speaker 2: party's who are out to get her, who was elected
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  Speaker 2: as an independent, and that is what she is now pushing,
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  Speaker 2: a completely different approach to the uni party, Labor, Coalition, Liberals,
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  Speaker 2: and to an extent the Greens. They're all part of
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  Speaker 2: the establishment parties. She's not, and yet she is actually
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  Speaker 2: farming this resentment. She sets the agenda.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the times have come round to suit her again.
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  Speaker 1: But one of the differences I wonder about this time
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  Speaker 1: is that it's not just people who are kind of
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  Speaker 1: just one tier above the people in public housing who
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  Speaker 1: are now talking about Pauline Hanson's ideas. You've got business
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  Speaker 1: lunches in Victoria where business people are paying thousands of
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  Speaker 1: dollars a head to come to fundraise for her or
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  Speaker 1: to hear what she has to say. It seems to me, Dennis,
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  Speaker 1: to be being taken seriously by the people who maybe
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  Speaker 1: once upon a time she would have derided as the elites,
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  Speaker 1: as populism around the world kind of takes off. Do
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  Speaker 1: you see a difference there?
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  Speaker 2: Look, I think it's always dangerous to draw parallels from
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  Speaker 2: international positions and Yes, there are a large number of
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  Speaker 2: conservative leaders who've come to the fore. We've seen a
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  Speaker 2: remarkable victory for the far right. And I don't describe
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  Speaker 2: One Nation as a far right party. I mean, the
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  Speaker 2: far right in Germany, we are talking about serious far
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  Speaker 2: right policies. Now, what we're seeing here is a whole
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  Speaker 2: range of people, Labor people, as well as coalition people,
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  Speaker 2: liberals and nationals, turning political off the major parties, the
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  Speaker 2: uni parties, and they are turning towards One Nation. As
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  Speaker 2: a result, in the polls, you get One Nation as
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  Speaker 2: the most popular, not populist, most popular party in the
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  Speaker 2: country in the polls. Now, this means that people then say, well,
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  Speaker 2: hold on, they're in front. Everyone likes a winner. And
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  Speaker 2: business backers are saying, oh, wait a minute, There's a
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  Speaker 2: chance that these people will have some say in government.
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  Speaker 2: We need to know what she's saying. We need to
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  Speaker 2: not just say, shut her out. We need to say,
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  Speaker 2: go along and listen. And if that costs $ 10, 000, well,
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  Speaker 2: it costs $ 10, 000. So this is a recognition. It's a
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  Speaker 2: chicken and egg. Once you actually get support in the
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  Speaker 2: polls and you start to be seen to be a
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  Speaker 2: real chance of success, then people treat you like a success.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up, what can you do when Pauline goes on
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  Speaker 1: the attack? So we're seeing in real time two ways
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  Speaker 1: of handling a personal, or maybe three ways of handling
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  Speaker 1: a personal attack by Pauline Hanson playing out. She told
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  Speaker 1: Maureen Faruqi to go back to Pakistan when Maureen Faruqi said,
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  Speaker 1: criticised the Queen after her death. That's gone all the
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  Speaker 1: way to the full bench of the federal court and
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  Speaker 1: Pauline Hanson has lost and now she's saying she might
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  Speaker 1: appeal to the High Court. That's one way of handling it.
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  Speaker 1: Andrew Hastie is saying he can't afford to sue her,
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  Speaker 1: but he is going to fight her. He's calling her
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  Speaker 1: a lying coward and says he's not going to lie down.
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  Speaker 1: He's going to take the fight to One Nation. I
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  Speaker 1: put the challenge to her. She could have accepted that
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  Speaker 1: she'd got it wrong and pulled it down, but she
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  Speaker 1: refused to do so and she's doubled down. And Anthony
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  Speaker 1: Albanese is being very genuine, I think, in being emotional
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  Speaker 1: in defence of his mother, saying, you know, my mother
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  Speaker 1: was a class act, she's in a different class to
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  Speaker 1: Pauline Hanson, but he's not going on the attack.
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  Speaker 2: If Pauline Hanson wants to criticise me, then that's fine,
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  Speaker 2: but my mother was way out of Pauline Hanson's league.
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  Speaker 1: Which of those three approaches do you think is the
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  Speaker 1: way to handle it, if you're worried about Hanson encroaching
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  Speaker 1: on your political life?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think you have to adopt elements of all three.
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  Speaker 2: There have been times in the past where legal approaches
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  Speaker 2: against One Nation and Pauline Hanson personally have worked. There's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of legal complaints at the moment about electoral
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  Speaker 2: funds and not declaring funds. There's a lot of questions
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  Speaker 2: about One Nation candidates and their suitability and so on.
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  Speaker 2: So that's one path. The other way also, I think
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  Speaker 2: it doesn't help to attack Pauline Hanson personally, because so
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  Speaker 2: many people identify personally with Pauline Hanson.
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  Speaker 3: I come here not as a polished politician, but as
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  Speaker 3: a woman who has her fair share of life's knocks.
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  Speaker 3: My view on issues is based on common sense.
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  Speaker 2: So I think that what you have to do is
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  Speaker 2: try and approach the criticism of Pauline Hanson on a
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  Speaker 2: policy and party basis. Now, that brings us to the
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  Speaker 2: third issue is how do you actually do this when
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  Speaker 2: Pauline Hanson and One Nation are smash and grab specialists?
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  Speaker 2: They can just come in and go, oh, yeah, cut
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  Speaker 2: immigration $ 175, 000. That's not a problem.
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  Speaker 1: Income split.
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  Speaker 2: Income split. Yeah, that's great. You know, that's right. I'll
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  Speaker 2: just do this. Abolish multiculturalism, shut down the ABC because
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  Speaker 2: it's all about headlines. She still sets the agenda and
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  Speaker 2: doesn't have to have any backing. And so when it
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  Speaker 2: comes down to it, this is going to have to
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  Speaker 2: be a long grind. But the ultimate thing that the
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  Speaker 2: major parties have to do here, and this is the
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  Speaker 2: hardest part of all, and this is where they are
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  Speaker 2: having the biggest test, particularly Anthony Albanese, and that is
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  Speaker 2: to restore trust. Trust, particularly for the Prime Minister and
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  Speaker 2: the Labour Party has been shredded. The coalition has suffered
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  Speaker 2: from ineptitude, electoral loss, infighting. So they are seen as
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  Speaker 2: inept and not trusted as they once were, particularly on
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  Speaker 2: the economy. But this is where the major parties have
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  Speaker 2: to try and recover that trust. Otherwise, the headlines will
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  Speaker 2: continue to favour Pauline Hanson because she says all publicity
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  Speaker 2: is good publicity and she'll continue to top the polls.
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  Speaker 2: And when she continues to top the polls, she will
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  Speaker 2: continue to win. And so she has had a touch,
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  Speaker 2: a human touch, on what she describes as common sense
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  Speaker 2: approach to politics for the last 30 years and hasn't
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  Speaker 2: been called to account or had to have any impact
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  Speaker 2: or point to anything she's achieved because she's existed in
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  Speaker 2: that nether zone between all the other parties. Well, the
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  Speaker 2: focus is on now and she'll have to be careful
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  Speaker 2: because if she does make too many mistakes, then she'll
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  Speaker 2: start to lose support. And I think there are already
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  Speaker 2: signs that One Nation is losing support in the campaign
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  Speaker 2: in Victoria for the November election.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Dennis, I could talk to you about this for hours,
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  Speaker 1: but I'm going to have to let you go to
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  Speaker 1: get on with the rest of your job. So thank
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  Speaker 1: you very much.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, Clare.
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  Speaker 1: Dennis Shanahan is The Australian's national editor. You can read
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  Speaker 1: all Dennis' stories, plus the best of our political analysis,
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  Speaker 1: right now at theaustralian.com.au.