How Ben Roberts-Smith could help Hanson bring down a future Liberal leader

August 30, 2026 — 1:45pm

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According to an opinion survey published by this masthead last week, other than Pauline Hanson herself, the Australian One Nation supporters most admire is Ben Roberts-Smith.

There is a lot to admire. As a soldier, Roberts-Smith showed almost super-human personal courage in close engagements with Taliban forces in Afghanistan, which saved the lives of several Australian soldiers at immense risk to his own. The Victoria Cross – the simple citation of which is “For Valour” – recognises courage that goes far beyond that commonly shown by soldiers in battle.

However, it is not just admiration for valiant deeds that makes Roberts-Smith so attractive in the eyes of One Nation supporters. He may be a hero, but for them, more importantly, he is a victim: not a soldier accused of war crimes, but a brave, noble Australian being persecuted by the establishment.

Roberts-Smith has become the totemic figure for the right that Julian Assange was for the left.

There is one very important difference: Roberts-Smith emphatically denies the allegations against him (and nothing I write is intended to suggest that he is guilty). Assange admitted his guilt. Even if it ended with a plea bargain for a lesser charge, Assange’s claque of supporters and apologists openly rejoiced in what he was accused of having done – as anyone who saw the 2023 propaganda film The Trust Fall: Julian Assange will remember.

The surprising........

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