Grendel
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In March 1996, Pauline Hanson was to become the first Independent female to win a seat in the House of Representatives.
Hanson was initially endorsed as a Liberal candidate for the Queensland federal seat of Oxley but was disendorsed 16 days out from the election due to her politically incorrect comments relating to Aboriginals. Hanson stood as an Independent and won the unwinnable seat with a 19.31% swing, the biggest in the nation, winning the seat with 54.66% of the vote after preferences.
After delivering her famous Maiden Speech on September 10, 1996, her popularity and support grew at an enormous rate. Due to the overwhelming support throughout the country, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation was formed and registered as a political party in April 1997. Pauline Hanson founded the party with associates David Ettridge and David Oldfield who later became her senior staffer and advisor.
One Nation argued that the other parties were out of touch with mainstream Australia. One Nation ran on a broadly populist and protectionist platform. It promised to drastically reduce immigration and to abolish “divisive and discriminatory policies … attached to Aboriginal and multicultural affairs.” Condemning multiculturalism as a “threat to the very basis of the Australian culture, identity and shared values”, One Nation rallied against government immigration and multicultural policies which, it argued, were leading to “the Asianisation of Australia.” The party also denounced economic rationalism and globalisation, reflecting working-class dissatisfaction with the neo-liberal economic policies embraced by the major parties. Adopting strong protectionist policies, One Nation advocated the restoration of import tariffs, a revival of Australia’s manufacturing industry, and an increase in support for small business and the rural sector.
The party’s greatest appeal was in country areas of New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, the traditional heartlands of the junior partner in the non-Labor Coalition, the National Party. Indeed, for much of 1997 and 1998, it appeared that One Nation would pass the Nationals, and it did.
One Nation achieved its peak of support in the 1998 Queensland state election, at which the party won 22.7% of the vote, behind only Labor. In terms of first-preference votes, One Nation received more than either the Liberals or Nationals. One Nation gained a higher percentage of the vote than any other third party (non-Labor or Coalition) at the state or territory level since Federation. This was also the only election where a third party has gained more votes than both the Liberal 16.09% and National 15.17% parties (considered separately). Pauline Hanson’s won 11 of the 89 seats.
In 1999 the Queensland Electoral Commission deregistered One Nation Qld. Subsequently, the One Nation contingent in the Queensland Parliament split, with dissident members forming the rival City-Country Alliance in late 1999. Two of the members declared to be Independents and went on to win their seats in the following state election. Pauline Hanson within a matter of months had the party re-registered.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation was to win 9% of the national vote in the 1998 federal election, Hanson contested the new seat of Blair because a redistribution effectively splitting Oxley in half. Having seen how preferences gave One Nation 11 seats in the Queensland election, John Howard then Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Government changed the federal voting system to full preferential voting just before the October election. All the major political parties colluded together and placed Pauline Hanson’s One Nation last on their How to Vote cards. Hanson polled 36% of the primary vote but lost the seat to Liberal candidate Cameron Thompson who only polled 19% of primary votes, winning it with Labors preferences.
Heather Hill, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Queensland Senate candidate polled 14.83% of the vote in 1998 winning the seat for the party in its own right, but her eligibility to sit as a senator was successfully challenged under the Australian Constitution Section 44, on the basis that she had failed to renounce her childhood British citizenship, despite being a naturalised Australian citizen. The seat went to the party’s Len Harris following a recount.
At the 1999 New South Wales election, David Oldfield was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council and narrowly missing out winning a second seat.
In the 2001 federal election, the party’s vote fell from 9% to 5.5%. Hanson failed in her bid to win a Senate seat from Queensland, despite polling a strong 10% of the primary vote, outpolling the Nationals by approx. 11,000 and Australian Democrats 65,000 on primary votes. They both won their seats with preferences.
In the 2001 Queensland state election, One Nation won three seats and 8.69% of the primary vote. The City-Country Alliance lost all of its seats and faded into irrelevance soon afterwards. In the same year, at the state election in Western Australia, One Nation won three seats in the state’s Legislative Council.
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