One Nation is harvesting low-hanging fruit – and among them a few lemons |
One Nation is harvesting low-hanging fruit – and among them a few lemons
April 23, 2026 — 5:00am
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On a lazy, mid-summer morning, about 20 people walked into the Waterfront Cafe at the Hastings marina for the first meeting of the Flinders branch of One Nation. Most of them were new to organised politics and didn’t know quite what to expect.
It is a scene being repeated around the state as people best described as One Nation-curious venture to their local pub, RSL or football and netball club, jot down their names and contact details and kick the tyres of an idiosyncratic political movement that, one way or another, will have a big influence on the November state election.
At the Waterfront Cafe, the two people running the meeting were Mike Brown, a local business owner who stood for One Nation in Flinders at last year’s federal election, and Jason Smart, a construction manager who started the campaign as Clive Palmer’s candidate but finished it, after a dispute over preferences, handing out for Brown.
Smart spoke passionately about One Nation’s prospects, delivering what one person at the meeting described as a “fight them on the beaches” speech which, while topographically appropriate for the Mornington Peninsula, seemed a little over-eager for a Wednesday morning in January.
It was what Smart allegedly said afterwards, in conversations to at least two people at........