In the same week Hanson refused to apologise for telling Sky News “how can you tell me there are good Muslims?”, 58% of respondents to the Essential poll said they either would vote for One Nation, or were open to voting for them, at the next election due by 2028.
Among all respondents, 25% said they would “definitely” back the rightwing populist party at the next election, with 33% saying they’re “open” to it. Only 28% said they would “never vote for One Nation”, with 14% unsure.
February’s Essential poll finds a substantial number of Labor voters are also open to One Nation.
Among respondents who said they voted for the Coalition, 17% said they would definitely vote One Nation next time, with a startling 51% saying they were open to doing so. Among Labor voters, 12% said they’d definitely vote One Nation, with 33% saying they’d be open to it.
Many people follow the crowd and simplistic ideas, including putting blame on others (this does not happen only in Australia). Challenges with simplistic solutions are easier to understand (of course). They also reflect the ideas of people without enough political education who draw skewed conclusions from their personal experience and from their ‘crowd’ mind set. One Nation reflects these prejudices back to people and so they feel listened to, like ON is one of them and not like other politicians which present as removed from everyday reality and from ordinary people. They do not seem to understand (or perhaps want to) that Hanson is hob-knobbing with billionaires and will work in their interest because they will financially support her at election time. We must be aware of this and keep this front of mind with people considering voting for ON.