Recent opinion polls make clear that the populist One Nation Party has experienced a dramatic surge in popularity amongst Australian voters in the past few months.

Last week, Newspoll – Australia’s most respected and accurate political opinion poll – disclosed that One Nation was the most popular party in the country, with 31% of voters supporting it.

Support for the Labor Party, which currently governs federally and in all but one of the six Australian states, was at 30%, while backing for the conservative Liberal/National Party coalition had plummeted to a meagre 18%, with the Greens remaining steady at 11%.

These poll figures revealed an extraordinary recent increase in popularity for One Nation. At the last federal election, in May 2025, One Nation obtained just 6.4% of the primary vote, and it currently holds only two seats in the House of Representatives, together with four seats in the Senate.

One Nation, founded in the late 1990s by its current leader Pauline Hanson, was until recently a right-wing fringe party that had never posed a significant threat to the mainstream Labor and conservative Coalition parties that have taken turns in governing Australia since the late 1940s.

One Nation’s recent surge in popularity is akin to that of Nigel Farage’s Reform Party, and Australian politics is now following a similar trajectory to UK politics – the conservative Coalition is disintegrating, the Labor party is coming under increasing electoral pressure, and a significant number of disaffected voters appear willing to contemplate, for the first time, a right-wing populist party winning government.

And last week Pauline Hanson was invited to speak at the National Press Club in Canberra for the first time ever – proof positive that One Nation has now become a significant political force in Australian politics.

How is One Nation’s unprecedented surge in popularity to be explained?

Last week’s Newspoll made it clear that disenchantment with both mainstream parties is the most significant factor behind One Nation’s recent upturn in popularity. Almost 70% of voters polled were of the view that the mainstream parties “who built this mess aren’t going to fix it” and that “Australian politics is overdue for a big shake-up”.

Such voter dissatisfaction is perfectly understandable. The........

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