After decades of Labor government in the ACT and no local representation by the Coalition in federal parliament since 2022, the conventional wisdom is that Canberra is a largely left-leaning city.
But the national capital is now among places in One Nation’s sights as support for the party surges across the country.
In her address to the National Press Club earlier this month, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said she tried to keep out of Canberra “as much as possible”.
But she said the party had rising support locally — including at the Kingston Hotel in the city’s leafy inner south.
“It’s going extremely well here,” Senator Hanson said of Canberra.
Pauline Hanson addressed the National Press Club, claiming she had support in the ACT. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)
“Go to the Kingo. I tell you, I just get so many people come up to me wanting photos and to talk to me, and they’re really pleased to see me.”
So does that claim pass the pub test?
The pub test
Peter, now retired, had spent decades managing golf clubs in north Queensland.
Returning to Canberra to visit family — and to the Kingo to catch up with a mate — he said he did not have much love for One Nation.
Peter says the Canberra community does not support Pauline Hanson. (ABC News: Harry Frost)
“This was my local pub as a kid and I can’t imagine Pauline Hanson being too popular in here”
he said.
“I think it’s naive, the way she thinks.
“We’re not as naive or blasé as what she possibly imagines or what that ideology imagines.
“We’re not as racist, I think, as some of the arguments she presents.“
But other pub goers disagreed.
Donna, who lives nearby, said Senator Hanson had her backing.
One Nation supporter Donna says Pauline Hanson wants to “keep the Australian culture alive”. (ABC News: Harry Frost)
“I think that she actually does support the Australian people and would love to keep the Australian culture alive and for me, that’s really important,” she said.
“Especially in the line of work that I do — working with the underprivileged and the disabled people — I think she would be definitely up there supporting us and supporting us in that realm of working life.
“She’s actually speaking her mind and saying the things that we would love to say but haven’t been able to say in the past.“
Jake, a tradie from Queanbeyan and a former Liberal voter, said he was also a big fan of Pauline Hanson and lamented the slow trade at the pub as a symptom of cost-of-living pressures.
Pauline Hanson recently claimed she had supporters who liked to go to the Kingston Hotel in Canberra’s south. (ABC News: Harry Frost)
“Everyone’s paying through the nose. There’s no one here,” he said.
“Look at the country now. It’s gone to shit. You can’t say it hasn’t.
“Australia needs to change, mate. Badly.”
‘There’s a void’
In the 2022 federal election, when One Nation last ran candidates in the ACT, it only received 2.4 per cent of the territory’s vote.
The party also faced questions about whether its candidates had actually campaigned in the seats they were contesting.
One Nation’s website spruiks the launch of a party branch in November last year.
“There’s a void in the ACT’s local parliament, and One Nation is ready to fill it,” the website says.
Senator Hanson told the National Press Club the branch’s first meeting was attended by “over 200 people”.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has the support of mining magnate Gina Rinehart. (ABC North Qld: Chloe Chomicki)
But in a statement, a One Nation spokesperson would not confirm branch composition or where candidates might be drawn from.
“We don’t disclose membership numbers,” the spokesperson said.
“One Nation is in the process of establishing branches in every federal electorate across Australia.
“Branches have been formed — or are in the process of forming — in the ACT electorates of Bean, Canberra and Fenner.
“One Nation aims to run candidates in every seat across the nation at the next federal election, including in the ACT.
“Our focus right now is on state elections in Victoria and NSW, both of which will be held within nine months.
“Media questions about our intentions for the ACT election in October 2028 — more than two years from now — are premature.
“Our intentions will be announced in due course according to our own timetable, not the media’s timetable.“
Pockets of support, but an ‘uphill battle’ ahead
Political scientist Jill Sheppard from the Australian National University thinks that whatever One Nation does, they’ll face an uphill battle to win seats in any election in the ACT.
“We have a small number of seats. There’s a pretty good stranglehold on them from the major parties and now David Pocock,”
Dr Sheppard said.
“But it doesn’t surprise me at all that there are pockets of support for Pauline Hanson in the territory, just like there are across the country.
ANU political scientist Jill Sheppard says One Nation has some support in the ACT but faces a challenge. (ABC News: Callum Flinn)
Even so, Dr Sheppard said election results had become harder to predict.
“The Coalition has been a bit of a rabble, and so we’re seeing voters move from the Coalition to One Nation as a substitute on the right side of politics,” she said.
“We’re also seeing, increasingly, votes coming from Labor as well.
“That’s probably going to happen less in the ACT, where Labor has such a stronghold.
“But across the country — and there’ll be pockets in the territory too — we’re seeing left-wing voters just move to a party that are doing something a bit different.
“We wouldn’t have necessarily expected that that would come in the form of Pauline Hanson and One Nation, but we’re seeing, particularly from the South Australian election, that her support is coming from all over the political spectrum.”
“On paper, we’d say that One Nation has no chance in the ACT. But, you know, we can scrap that bit of paper in these political circumstances.”
‘Here we go again’
Senator Hanson told the National Press Club Australia’s policy of multiculturalism was “utterly flawed” and the country “must be a monoculture”.
For Canberra Multicultural Community Forum secretary Chin Wong, it hearkened back to Senator Hanson’s controversial 1996 speech in which she warned Australia was “in danger of being swamped by Asians”.
Canberra Multicultural Community Forum secretary Chin Wong says renewed focus on Pauline Hanson reminds her of a bygone age. (ABC News: Callum Flinn)
“The initial feeling is that, ‘Oh, here we go again. Remember what she said in the 1990s?'” Ms Wong said.
“It has created a lot of reaction from the multicultural community.
“We’ve spent all these years protecting multiculturalism and Australia is a shining example of a multicultural society.
“And what she’s done is real damage to Australia’s image.”
The forum’s deputy chair, Diana Abdel-Rahman, argues the term “monoculture” is incompatible with the very concept of culture, which is shaped by diverse influences.
“The First Nations community have very multicultural groupings that made Australia with different languages, different cultures, depending on what part of Australia you came from,” Ms Abdel-Rahman said.
“It actually was a very multicultural country even before white Australians came to this country.
“So, the idea of having a monoculture in this very nation goes against everything that it is as a nation.”
Diana Abdel-Rahman is the deputy chair of the Canberra Multicultural Community Forum.
Ms Abdel-Rahman fears the debate over culture will distract people from scrutinising One Nation’s policies for addressing issues such as cost of living.
“It sort of creates this ‘us and them’.
“We’ve watched what’s happened overseas in the UK, for example, the ploys that are used.
“When you do an ‘us and them’, it creates, you know, one group is against the other group.
“Therefore, we’re all focusing on that, but not actually focusing on the things that matter to every Australian, which is policies that make us a better nation, whether it comes to education, to health, to all sorts of things that help our everyday life.
Confidence Canberrans will ‘reject’ Hanson’s ideas
Nevertheless, both Ms Wong and Ms Abdel-Rahman are confident One Nation will receive limited support in the ACT.
Diana Abdel-Rahman and Chin Wong say they believe Canberrans will mostly reject One Nation’s ideas. (ABC News: Callum Flinn)
“We’re a pretty educated community, and we understand how things work,” Ms Abdel-Rahman said.
“And I think for the majority in Australia, and for the majority in Canberra, we reject the idea of what she’s trying to promote.“
“Canberra is a city that everybody is either a neighbour to somebody from a multicultural background, either works with them or both and will definitely interact, whether in the hospital, whether in the taxi, whether in the shops or at the cafeteria.
“You’re always having to, at some point, interact with people from a multicultural background.
“So the idea that we would eliminate all of that goes against everything as to who we are as a city and as a nation.”
