One Nation’s rise reflects deeper economic insecurity, political alienation and distrust in institutions. Defeating it requires more than condemnation.

At the Queensland ALP state conference on August 30, Anthony Albanese described One Nation as part of a broader, hard-right populist threat.

“Across the world, hard-right populists are on the march, peddling politics that is dangerous, divisive and downright dishonest,” he warned.

“We simply must defeat them. We owe it to history. We owe it to the nation, and we will defeat them.”

Has the Labor government finally acknowledged that One Nation is a threat to Australian democracy?

That is the question now confronting the government and the broader political establishment.

One Nation is no longer simply a protest vehicle for disaffected voters or a marginal force on the political right. Its growing influence is reshaping political debate, pressuring the major parties and exposing the depth of public dissatisfaction with Australia’s economic and institutional arrangements.

The rise of One Nation is not the disease. It is a symptom – and a warning that Australia’s democratic and economic foundations are losing legitimacy.

The real question is not why One Nation exists. It is why so many Australians are prepared to listen.

Recent polling makes that warning difficult to dismiss.

On the basis of a five-poll median calculation (Demos, YouGov, Morgan, Newspoll, Redbridge) in August, the following results were produced: One Nation, 27 per cent; LNP, 21 per cent; ALP, 29 per cent; Greens, 12 per cent; others 10 per cent.

Economic insecurity has become political insecurity and political insecurity has created an opening for political fragmentation.

That fragmentation is visible in the weakening of traditional party loyalties.

That does not make One Nation capable of being a governing party, but it does make it a political force capable of changing........

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