On 17 June 2026, Senator Pauline Hanson, Leader of the One Nation Party, delivered her first address to the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra.

In summary, Hanson voiced un-factual and divisive politics, ultimately deploying the address to invigorate already proliferating anti-immigration and xenophobic attitudes of the far-right. Her delivery was uncharismatic, monotonous and awfully un-inspired.

The unfolding reception of the address speaks to a wider rise of anti-intellectualism propelling ultra-conservative politics into the mainstream and bringing with it an onslaught of global leaders pedalling mis-information and exploiting fear-mongering tactics.

Already seen in the US’s re-election of President Donald Trump, mass anti-immigration “protests” across Australia and the UK, Western social progression has now found itself mingled amongst the grime in the gutter.

The event was covered by Sky News––as Hanson has denounced other notable press sources such as the ABC and the Guardian––and opened with an “alternative” “Acknowledgment of Country”. After making a joke about not arriving on “Gina’s jet” and rather arriving “cattle class”, Hanson delivered what she referred to as an un-divisive “Welcome to Country”. Her racist rhetoric instead acknowledged war veterans who “put their blood, sweat and tears to build this nation into the beautiful country it is today”.

This gross disavowal of ancient Indigenous customs comes after the booing of a Welcome to Country by neo-nazi hecklers at the Anzac Day dawn service in Melbourne this year and aligns itself with a settler colonial lens of Australian history. Far from fostering inclusivity, Hanson from the get-go regressed the finite reparations granted towards First Nations peoples.

Later in the address she encapsulated the failed 2023 referendum for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament as a triumph, which “showed that Australians were not prepared to let their country be taken away from them”. To which Australians she is referring to is at best unclear since First Nations people have already had this “country” stolen from them.

Her speech shifted to an attack on the nature of current politicians who are “good at talking but not listening” and “will do anything to get your vote”, moving onto the big issues that have supposedly been raised to her—immigration and housing.

She implied that the two issues are connected as an influx of migrants has miraculously become the key cause of the national housing crisis. Hanson swiftly labeled multiculturalism—the cause of this “immigration crisis”—as an “utterly flawed policy” championed by the “failing” Albanese Labour Government.

Hanson’s address heavily implied, yet failed to concretely evidence, that immigration is causing and worsening the housing crisis. “Labour has allowed this immigration catastrophe to happen in the middle of a national housing crisis.” She stated.

She followed this by proposing that although Australia is a multi-racial country, it “must be a mono-cultural society” and that “Australian’s must live under the one cultural umbrella”.

She utilised statistics pertaining to immigration, reminding us of the 2021 National Census finding that 51 per cent of Australians were born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas in comparison to the US which has 14 per cent, using this incomparable statistics to justify her attacks.

“Is that what Australia wants?” she asked the audience. Staging the obvious, for at least half of the population, the answer would be yes. Hanson’s use of the implied recent influx of immigration to allege that Australia is “losing its culture” as a result of multiculturalism fails to acknowledge that multiculturalism is fundamental to Australia’s cultural identity.

Selecting a so-called “unifying” culture for all citizens to ascribe to is not only logistically preposterous but wildly concerning for anyone who has ever opened a history book.

As Spanish-American philosopher George Santanya wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

“It's time we woke up,” she professed, “Western civilisation and its values are under-siege”.

Her sentiments endure One Nation’s ongoing openly xenophobic attitudes which have emboldened racial discrimination across the country. This is seen in the anti-immigration “March for Australia” demonstrations occurring in late 2025 and the bombing attempt at the Invasion Day March in Boorloo (Perth).

Hanson’s stance on immigration appallingly aligns with the history of the White Australia Policy. Enshrined in Australian law in 1901 as part of the Immigration Restriction Act, the legislation sought to limit non-British migration to Australia.

As one of the first bills following Australia’s federation in the same year, the policy aimed to increase Australia’s white population and work force in order to establish an “Australia for the Australians”. Here “Australians” is racially divisive and refers to white settlers, those who are allegedly losing their culture aka racist “freedom of speech”. Hanson’s address can attest that even this isn’t true.

Further, The White Australia Policy functioned in conjunction with the devastating policy of assimilation, deployed from 1937 until the late ‘60s. This act entailed the absorption of mixed-race First Nations people into white society through forced removal of children, prolonging ongoing cycles of violence and genocide following Australia’s colonisation. A systemic bleaching and sieging of culture.

The White Australia policy was abolished in 1966 by Prime Minister Harold Holt and was later followed by the implementation of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) in 1975. As Australia’s first human rights law, the RDA intended to break away from the White Australia Policy and set a national standard against racial discrimination.

Hanson was found to have breached the RDA in 2024 after posting racist remarks on the social media platform X, attacking Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi. Her address disparages  momentary acts, such as the RDA, under the guise of rallying a disturbed form of so-called social cohesion and unity during national crises.

Hanson’s “saying it like it is” unapologetic attitude is a trauma inducing flashback to Donald Trump’s first presidential run in 2016—a campaign defined by an “America First” agenda with staunch anti-immigration spectacles, such as the building of a wall along the Mexico border.

During his current term—one that is likened to political theorist Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr’s concept of an “imperialist presidency”—Trump has furthered these ultraconservative policies through an increased funding of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), leading to mass deportations across the US.

Founded by Hanson in 1997, the One Nation Party has positioned Immigration Reform as a top four policy. A quick perusal of the party’s website and policy breakdown unveils a few key goals.

One Nation aims include: deporting 750,000 illegal migrants, cutting immigration by over 570, 000 people, halting of skilled visa rorting and even proposing Australia departs from the UN Refugee convention.

None of their top 4 policies directly address the housing crisis in any meaningful way, One Nation’s voting record tells all. Hanson has opposed federal action on public housing and the Help Buy Scheme. She has voted against minimum wage increases, against the criminalisation of wage theft, against gig economy worker protections and against stronger protections for casual workers. Her aims are divisionist and directly target refugee migrants in particular, in-turn prioritising “desirable” migrants from predominantly, First World, Western and English speaking nations.

In her speech, Hanson brought up a rejected national plebiscite into immigration numbers she posed in 2024, alleging that her policy for “slashing immigration” is what most Australians actually want.

Hanson continued by maintaining One Nation’s stance against the “threat of radical Islam”, claiming that it is connected to the Bondi tragedy in December 2025. Raising this Y2K terror fear propaganda, she swiftly returned to the cost of living crisis.

As she read Salvation Army Statistics regarding extreme poverty in Australia, a yellow banner—made by activist organisation Get Up—slowly descended behind her. It read, “I opposed a pay rise for workers, while I took a $100,000 pay rise for myself”.

Hanson offered it a sinister grin, clearly amused by her own hypocrisy. The poster was quickly and literally torn down as she continued, its message seemingly cut out of shot in the Sky News video of the event which only showed it being destroyed.

Hanson jumped to discuss the government’s energy policy “which One Nation will dismantle”. She claimed that “the hoax of global warming which is now climate change” is increasing energy costs and contributing to general financial insecurity across Australia leading to “energy poverty”. Allegedly, investments in renewables are declining Australia’s energy resources.

Non-renewables still make-up the majority of Australia’s energy resources. The Greens underline that rising power costs are actually due to extreme weather events triggered by the climate crisis. With a “super” El Niño projected to hit Australia in late 2026, heating the country up into 2027 as well as the recent record breaking heat-waves across Europe, Hanson’s perpetuating of climate change as a “hoax” is exhausting when it is something we are seeing right before our eyes.

Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person and a major One Nation donator, has contributed millions to campaigning efforts. She has also gifted Pauline Hanson with a private jet. Hanson stated in a 2026 ABC interview that she considers Rinehart a friend and policy advisor, saying “I have a lot of respect for the woman and what she’s done.”

Rinehart was found to have been complicit in her father Lang Hancock’s poisoning of Banjima country (WA) after establishing the Wittenoom mines in the 1930s. The 2025 documentary Yurlu Country uncovers Hancock prospecting ongoing devastation of Aboriginal land.

The late Banjima elder, Maitland Parker who fought for 15 years to achieve native land title for a land where “asbestos flows in the rivers and streams and the fibres blow in the wind” . Parker, who advocated for the site to be cleaned so that his mob could return, passed away in 2024 due to mesothelioma caused by asbestos poisoning.

Environmental conservation and land protection is at odds with One Nation’s values. Senator Hanson also holds shares in Queensland based Bowen Coking Coal, a company that was recently bought by Argo Resources and was responsible for founding Coal Australia in 2023, a lobby group for coal’s non-renewable energy. This organisation aims to “promote the significant and positive contribution of the Australian coal industry”. Rhinehart's Hancock Prospecting also holds a 21 per cent stake in all Queensland coal projects.

A 2022 study by Ember found that Australia was the worst globally in terms of coal power pollution in 2021. Climate Analytics found that Australia’s coal and gas exports were responsible for 1.15 billion tonnes of CO₂ emissions in 2023. We are no stranger to Australia’s status as one of the world's largest exporters of fossil fuels. Its devastating irreversible impact is seen nation-wide.

Climate action by the Labour government, including their net-zero target for 65 to 70 per cent reductions by 2035 has already been criticised by the Greens due to the party’s continued approval of new mining and gas projects. The Greens urgently call for a net-zero by 2035 with 100 per cent reductions and with an interim goal of 75 per cent by 2030.

Hanson described net-zero as “nonsense” in the address and has repeatedly voted against increasing investment in renewable energy, against the Paris Climate Agreement, against community climate resilience and for investment in nuclear energy. All whilst non-renewables fund her unruly campaign.

One Nation’s outright denial of global warming devolves climate action to a prehistoric level. This tired climate conspiracy rhetoric summons the wider rising concern for anti-intellectualism sweeping supporters of ultra-conservative political parties across Australia and the US.

Trump officially withdrew the US from the Paris Climate accord in January 2026 and enacted an executive order to reverse various actions addressing climate change such as reviewing the Clean Power Plan, emissions standard and methane regulations.

Trumpism has already fostered anti-intellectualism with its two election campaigns. President Trump famously stated in 2016, “I love the poorly educated”. It seems that Senator Hanson does too and certainly not in any endearing way.

Australia’s literacy rates are declining. A study conducted by the Grattan Institute of Research found that one third of Australian students are failing to learn to read proficiently.

In 2021, Adult Learning Australia published findings that approximately 44 per cent of Australian adults “don’t have the literacy skills needed for everyday life”.

These figures speak to a broader concern for adequate access to all levels of education in Australia. Greg Jericho, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute has stressed that HECS and HELP debt for university students is becoming an immense “financial burden”. The rising cost of Tertiary education, championed by the Liberal National government under Scott Morrison, are not being counteracted by effective strategies such as wiping student debt and making access to further education free.

Labour MP Andrew Giles has criticised Hanson for “exploiting the frustrations” of Australians who have been “left behind” by poor education and job opportunities.

Giles proposes that One Nation targets the disenfranchised in a ploy to foster division rather than make any real and beneficial change “without offer[ing] anything by way of vision, much less policies for the future”.

It seems that Marie Antoinette is rallying the la classe ouvrière and they think she’s on their side.

Giles underlined in a speech that, “it is also a moral and a democratic imperative that we ensure that everyone can make sense of a changing world and be enabled to make informed choices.”

Senator Hanson’s speech at the National Press Club underlines that far right ideology continues to be emboldened. Those with discriminatory beliefs aren’t facing adequate consequences and are instead existing in echo chambers within online spaces where biases and discrimination are confirmed, validated and normalised.

Following the resignation of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on 22 July 2026, Hanson has now urged Anthony Albanese to follow suit claiming that “Australians want Albo gone”, via her party’s newsletter.

Alongside this, support for One Nation, which was gradually growing following her first election into the Senate in 2016, is now making a staggering forward jump. According to the YouGov popularity poll for Sky News, the party composed 1.3 per cent of the national vote in 2016 but rose to 6.4 per cent in 2025 during the last federal election. It is now sitting in the mid to high 20s this year.

A recent Resolve Poll for The Age, monitoring political popularity, found that One Nation has 24 per cent of votes in Victoria compared to Labour and the Liberal-National Coalition which both have 26 per cent and are both on a decline.

This momentum suggests that One Nation could become a major party by the next federal election assuming its position as the leading conservative power. This pushes previous right wing parties to the centre of the political spectrum, normalising them as the neutral position.

As One Nation is on the rise, criticism of Pauline Hanson’s politics is necessary. A Guardian article surmised the Greens voicing that Hanson’s reiterates her use of “hatred for political gain”.

In the address rallying her party’s anti-transgender stance, Hanson expressed there is a “transgender insurgency” which is an “important socio-cultural issue facing this country”. This echoed tired concerns such as the fear of transgender women entering women’s sports and female changerooms despite only 0.9 per cent of Australian individuals identifying as trans or gender diverse.

This “issue”, which she compares to “militant Islam”, is hardly a “militant force” nor an ideological infection as the Senator proposes. Hanson has consistently voted against access for gender affirming healthcare for transgender young people and children.

As her address came to a close, Senator Hanson’s final remarks included One Nation’s aim to alter Australia’s already highly monopolised media sources. She promised that “the SBS will be gone” and the ABC, which she claimed is currently politically biased and left-leaning, “will exist in a different form” if One Nation assumes office.

In December 2023 the ABC unlawfully fired their radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf for sharing a Human Rights Commission post advocating for the crisis in Gaza, leading to a 14 month fair rights legal case.

As the empathetic thinkers watch in agony whilst global politics make a far right swing, Hanson’s address should be seen as a wakeup call. Australia is next.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young response to the address surmised what those with their eyes wide open are feeling: “Pauline Hanson is deplorable, she’s nasty, she’s got no new ideas, and she’s just trumpeting the same old rubbish we’re seeing from the United States and the hard right in the UK.”

WA Premier Roger Cook echoed similar sentiments about Pauline Hanson in an ABC interview: “ ... the people she’s always blamed are minority groups. But when it comes down to it she’s voted against tax cuts, she’s voted against improvements to Medicare, she’s voted against cheaper childcare, she’s voted for freezing pensions, over 15 times.”

Hanson does not need to be exposed, her evil is blatant, immovable and right to her shrivelled core.

Is that what Australia wants? Is that what Australia represents?

Image source: Hollie Adams / Reuters