Damnit, everything old is new again

Getting my head around Season 2 of Pauline Hanson's centre stage show

Once was enough, I thought, I ain’t gunna do my head in again over Pauline Hanson. So I turned down a Saturday Paper request to do a piece on what a One Nation opposition might be like and told myself very firmly to enjoy my retirement.

Then the South Australian Election, and Farrer. Then in Comboyne, the tiny rural village on a NSW mountain plateau where I live, a One Nation merch stall appeared at our Museum’s monthly market day. Then a local community volunteer of long standing wore its T-Shirt around Comboyne, whose booth had voted 75% for the Nats in our seat of Lyne last election. Was there a serious chance I’d live in a One Nation seat?

Then the Sunday morning before last a friend showed me a Facebook post sent to a regional community Facebook group she’s a member of which announced a “Public Event” - a One Nation branch meeting that afternoon in Taree. “Let’s go,’ I heard myself say. “I’ve never seen a One Nation event without Pauline”.

I retired hurt from professional political journalism in 2005 after writing a book on her road movie 1998 federal election campaign and a 2001 update, and my 2004 book Not Happy, John! Defending our democracy and 2007 update Still not Happy,John! Two chapters were based on my Sydney Morning Herald Webdiary coverage of Tony Abbott’s attempts to destroy her in the courts using a slush fund whose donors he refused to disclose as legally required (he called it Australians for Honest Politics). Jeez, Pauline and Tony were back on centerstage. I must be old when everything old is new again.

The downstairs room at Taree Leagues Sports Club was packed with overflow out the door near the car park - about 120 mainly older people, about equal men and women - and I sat on the floor while my friend stood just outside with her dog. I could have just listened, but reflexively I started recording and took the occasional photo.

The Branch co-ordinator, Drew Oliver, a rural real estate agent, opened the event by introducing “the newly formed executive committee”. Volunteer coordinator Sandra Bourke (ADVANCE’s spokeswoman from July 2024). Secretary Sue Hartup. Treasurer Janette Oliver, Drew’s wife, a swimming teacher and real estate agent. Campaign coordinator Dr Mitch Wilson, who Drew said “is very politically astute and has been across many elections over the years, analysis and strategic planning”. Events coordinator John Bell, IT man at Essential Energy who’s already organised events at markets and agricultural shows.

Drew: “My interest here is soley about changing the direction of the country. The years that I grew up, as a lot of you did (applause), 1960s or 70s, we had a different country, it had a different feel to it, power was affordable, housing was affordable, we knew our neighbours, there wasn’t the crime in the streets there is today. So we want to - not turn the clock back - we want to turn it forward to a better Australia than where we are today. Mobilising like-minded people like ourselves is how we’ll achieve it. We have a unique opportunity here - we don’t have the nepotism and cronyism that’s entrenched in the major political parties. There are no egos here, there are no hidden agendas, we are here for one purpose, to make Australia better.”

Formalities over, Pauline Hanson headlined the event in absentia with a beautifully produced video of about ten minutes set to “Unstoppable” that begun with extended footage of her jailing and Tony Abbott’s role in it. (Had the Libs really forgotten that its newly crowned President persecuted their heroine through the courts and lied about it?)

In tears to Tracy Grimshaw on A Current Affair: “Do you think I’m gunna stop fighting for the Australian people? People are hoping and praying that I’m going to be the voice for them. I’ve copped it more than once, and I keep getting up and I’ve got more to go.”

Why don’t you walk away?

Tears stop.“I’ve made a change out there for people, I’ve only ever been myself, I’ve always spoken from my heart and I believe in my country asnd try and work with my fellow Australians and giving to them a better way of life. As I’ve said for the last 30 years, this country’s changed, and it’s not the country that I want to hand on to my children and grandchildren. And the people of this country deserve better than that. Wee can make a change, we can be united - LET’S GET BACK THE AUSTRALIA THAT I GREW UP IN!”

Then she dances with the stars.

Loud applause and many Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi, Oi, Oi’s. (I couldn’t find the video online)

Drew: “Just sitting back and watching your faces during that piece, there’s nothing more to say. I think we all have a duty to our families, your friends, our country and Pauline to make this a success. And we have the tools to do that.”

Then a long, detailed, written speech by “guest speaker” Emma Mellows, a local electrician, on what is broken and One Nation’s fix.

“What a powerful video, hey? Gosh, I’m so genuinely uplifted and encouraged by seeing everybody here with that same vision and ready to put that same message. I’m here today because I can feel that’s something’s isn’t right anymore, that the Australia I grew up in is slipping away. I’m here as a mother, as an industrial worker and as a property owner, as someone who’s made a living running a small business. And I refuse to sit quietly while these opportunities are ripped out of all of our hands.”

Her conclusion:

“We must build our own skilled workforce instead of relying on others to supply it, and stop the steady loss of our land and our resources. We must build a strong and healthy birth rate, so Australia can stand on its feet for future generations to come. This isn’t complicated or radical. This is common sense, and it’s time that we acted on it.

“We need leaders who can actually see how our problems connect. Not a policy here and a patch over there, but the whole picture, some STRATEGY. We need leadership that puts ordinary Australians first above foreign interest, above big business, above the bureaucrats, and above every pressure group that has drowned out the voices of real people for far too long. (Loud applause and Cheers)

“We need someone who’s willing to rewrite the system, so it works for us again. Someone who understands that being elected is more than a job. It is a purpose. And that is why this movement exists. One Nation’s policies are public because we stand by them, and we’ve stood by them for decades.

“No rewriting history, no moving the goalposts, no pretending that we said something different, consistency is our strength. (Margo: This is false, eg her 1998 tax policy was wildly different - EasyTax.) And you know exactly what you’re getting when you vote for One Nation.

“And that is why we’re here. That’s why I’m here today, speaking about the One Nation movement, because I believe in it, and I believe it’s the best chance that we’ve got to hang on to the Australia that we know and love.

“Look how tolerant we have become and where that has got us. We can’t keep waiting for someone to fix what we can clearly see is breaking. Don’t accept the current state of Australia or the direction that it’s headed. And know that sitting on the fence and trying to be neutral won’t help us either. Everybody knows the devil owns the fence.

“So what can we do? As a branch of One Nation, we have a purpose - to think, to question, to propose, to contribute, to hold the line where others won’t, to raise local issues, to support One Nation moving into elections

“You are encouraged, genuinely, to bring forward policies, perspectives, and solutions. One Nation wants collaboration, not blind loyalty. We are a voice for the people.

“So here’s your call to action. You should be really proud to be part of a party that genuinely cares about Australia and Australians, and has a realistic view of how we can get back to being the great nation we once were, that excelled in so many areas.

“Over the next few years the major parties are going to try their darndest to break Pauline and the revolution that she started, because their livelihoods and their back door collusions depend upon it, and the media will thrive on it. Expect smear campaigns of her and her candidates. Expect labels, expect the name calling, expect gaslighting.

“Get comfortable talking to people about what you believe in. Conversations matter. They’re how ideas spread, how minds change, and how community strengthen. If we keep talking, we keep growing. Be proud to say, “I support One Nation”. Get on the website and learn about One Nation’s policies so you can talk about them confidently. Share a post. Comment or like on posts to boost in the algorithms. Get familiar with the people here today.

“Show others that this isn’t a grievance movement, it’s a forward looking one that’s focussed on protecting the lifestyles and the livelihoods of everyday Australians.

“Bring someone new to the next meeting. If each of us bought one more voice, the movement doubles, and that’s exactly how change begins.

“So, are you in? Can you help out? Do you have time, resources, skills, contacts? Have you signed up as a member? (Yes) Good. We have got a room full of talent here. Maybe you can help with printing, handing out materials, setting up or packing down a meeting, recommending speakers, computer things, whatever your strength is, we want to hear about it. Let’s do this together. We want to know how you can be part of it.

“In closing, every breakthrough in history has began in the same way. With one person who refused to accept that this is just how things are. That’s Our Pauline. What is not to love about that woman? Have you ever seen anybody more determined? (No) More patriotic? (No) She continues to stand up for us with honesty, integrity, tenacity, strength, and courage, despite the enormous adversities that she’s been through. And this is a key difference in her leadership compared to other politicians in this country. One nation leads with conviction, common sense, and hard work. This is us. This is our identity. Our shared future, our nation.

“I also have one more favour to ask of everybody before you leave. A small town school in our electorate has been pegged for closure. When you close a small town school, it immediately skews the whole area towards population decline, as young families won’t settle there, or they leave when their kids reach school age. Young adults who would standardly move back to their hometown to have their own kids in time, simply won’t. These farming sectors then experience accelerated population decline, which decreases local demand and local services. Closing a small town school is like closing a small town community. I am a seriously passionate, small town advocate, and I’d love to ask for your support in supporting upper Lansdowne Public School by joining their online petition (and) I’ve stuck a QR code on the table over here and also one on the table out the front. If you can scan and add your name to that petition, that would go a long way in helping Upper Lansdowne public school. All right, that’s it for me guys. Thank you for listening. Thank you very much.”

She looked and sounded strong and real, like the candidate ON bosses wanted. The audience didn’t fidget. She took questions from the floor on behalf of Pauline.

I decided to ask her for a copy of her speech and whether she’d run. This scene was way different than the early frenetic years of One Nation. It was a central-office produced event performed by local volunteers.

Questions were winding up when a woman stood up, pointed at me, and demanded to know who I was. I’d taken iPhone photos and she didn’t want to be photographed.

I said my name and where I lived, that I’d covered Pauline’s 1998 Queensland and Federal election campaigns and was interested to observe One Nation’s reentry onto centre stage in federal politics after 28 years on the edge.

Someone on the executive said I had to leave because I hadn’t shown ID or signed the register at another door I had no knowledge of. Drew marched me into the next room and demanded I sign the register - name, address, phone number, which I did. He said I had recorded a private meeting. I showed him the Facebook Notification “Public Event by One Nation supporters - Lyne electorate… Public - Anyone on or off Facebook”.

He demanded my phone. No. He began ordering me not to use any sound or photos, but when I interrupted with “I’d better record this” he said he’d say nothing if he was recorded. When he repeated that the event was private “I said, “Oh, you know who you remind me of? David Oldfield at the Gatton One Nation campaign launch in 1998. It was a public function, and then he said it’s a private meeting. OK. That’s fine.“

As I left I saw my friend outside surrounded by two men and a woman. She began shaking when we got in the car. A big bloke had accused her of being “a spy”. The women had screamed way too close to her face that she’d broken into a private meeting. She refused to look at the proffered Facebook screenshot.

I was calm. What happened to me was nothing compared to the 1998 campaign, when members of the traveling media, including me, were assaulted and vilified by One Nation supporters more than once.

“I reckon that speaker will win Lyne,’ my friend said. Hanson seemed to me to have combined, at last, big money via Gina Reinhart and co, a professional organisation directing grassroots volunteers in every seat, and open enthusiasm among new One Nation voters. Yeah, she’s competitive, I replied.

Next day I came across last Friday’s Sarah Martin scoop that ON head office had ordered in April that branches and members “will be subject to strict gag orders, all committee members and nominees must sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), while branches must agree to a ‘media silence’ and a social media ban”. From the say what you like free speech Party!

I then learned that One Nation was so top down that even the names of branch office holders was not to be public.

My Mind started racing and wouldn’t stop. One Nation had a powerful Australian archetype as leader and a vision. The Libs had Angus, a barking wolf aping Abbott’s stint as opposition leader. Labor had mogodon man. Vision? The Libs - same old rhetoric. Labor - bandaids on a broken system. When Howard returned to ‘Liberal Party leadership before the 1996 election he delivered a series of “Headland speeches” with a “relaxed and comfortable” vibe that won him a landslide. Keating had a vision too, after brutally repealing his “L.A.W law” tax cuts when he won in 1993, turning to reconciliation and engagement with Asia. But the Government was tired and he was out of touch.

We’re looking at a movement on rocket fuel at the moment, and I think it’s a must, finally, for Labor and Coalition to state clearly the challenges we face, a vision for future-building Australia and a plan to get there, for all of us. They must PERSUADE.

And how should the legacy media cover One Nation before and during the federal election campaign? Will she refuse to have a traveling political media pack, and if so, will they chase her when she runs away, like she did in 1998, the last all-analogue campaign? Will she run a social media and friendly creator campaign sealed off from scrutiny on policy, which she abhors and can’t cope with? And if she does, how will the national accountability media respond?

In 1998, after Hanson had a reporter from her local paper The Queensland Times frogmarched out of a press conference because it ran t a story she didn’t like, the Queensland press gallery passed a motion that if that sort of thing happened again all reporters would walk. But what if, as already seems clear, she bans ABC from covering her? If the federal press gallery passed a one-out-all-0out motion Hanson would cheer, right? I think mainstream media has to collect people in each seat in play to tell them what is happening when and where, and maybe even record vision and sound. (One Nation plans to abolish SBS and defund the ABC except for its regional operation.)

I predict that finally, after decades of increasingly rubbish campaign on-the-bus coverage, some journos will live in the seats they will cover and write the micro story, and that maybe, just maybe, the legacy party leaders will dare to get on the ground with the people without prep and see what happens.

Hmmm. I really had retired this time. How about a Substack, a friend suggested, for occasional musings and maybe discussion on Pauline Hanson’s second appearance on the national political stage in a starring role?

Hmmm, I’m so old school I’ve never self-published. Even my citizen journalism stint with No Fibs 7 years after retiring hurt, from 2013-2022 and triggered by a brain fuse over Abbott, involved employing a sub editor to publish. Could this old dog learn new tricks?

And it’s gotta be manageable, a hobby in retirement, not an all-consuming spiral into another back crash.

So that’s the idea. Let’s see what happens.