The return of One Nation to the Australian Parliament comes as a surprise only to those who have not been paying attention. Which of course turns out to be most of the nation’s crumbling political and media establishment.
The particular circumstances of the double dissolution gave Pauline Hanson an easy run, but the groundwork was laid long before the election was called. The centre ground of Australian politics has been dragged so far to the right that (as Hanson herself has noted) there is very little to differentiate One Nation and other elements of the so-called patriots’ movement from right-wing members of the Liberal Party.
One does not have to step outside the political mainstream in order to vote for a right-wing and explicitly racist candidate, so perhaps it’s forgivable that so many commentators assumed that Hanson and her ilk had been made safely redundant. It is less forgivable, however, for them to now claim that the result is not really about racism at all.
[Guess who’s back? Top 10 moments of Pauline Hanson]
Yes, it’s the economy, stupid. The impact of the mining boom has hit home in Australia, and the death knell of neoliberalism is being sounded around the world. But it’s never just about the economy, stupid. One Nation’s racism is very explicit, and if it was patronising to mock Hanson’s accent and fish-and-chip shop background back in 1996, it’s even more patronising to claim that her supporters didn’t really know what they were voting for on Saturday. And it is even more patronising — in fact, insulting — to expect racism’s targets to sit back and watch as racism is placated and accommodated and explained away, yet again.
We have spent years listening to explanations about why the Cronulla riots were not about racism, why the offshore detention of asylum seekers is not racist, and of course why anti-Muslim racism is not racist because, of course, Islam is a religion and not a race. We do not need to set out on listening expeditions to learn what racism is about, nor we do need to be told not how not to antagonise racists. Not antagonising racists is a skill that we learn early in life, in order to avoid being expelled from school or beaten up or arrested or all of the above.
[The worst result of election night: the return of Hanson]
Hanson’s return to power should be seen in association with the rise in visibility of the so-called patriot movement, whose rallies she has addressed and whose policies she has taken on board. Hanson’s claim that Islam is a political ideology rather than a religion is not some clueless theory that she dreamed up all by herself. It was imported to Australia by Geert Wilders during his 2013 tour on behalf of the Q Society.
The fact that most of Hanson’s supporters are a familiar type — the common-or-garden variety racist uncle or aunt you’d just as soon disown but can’t — should not prevent us from locating One Nation as an element in the global rise of right-wing extremism. The fact that she appears as a moderate in comparison to brawlers like the United Patriots Front or the True Blue Crew highlights, rather than mitigates, the need to develop an effective anti-racist strategy.
One final warning. I would guard against the impulse to see One Nation’s resurrection in terms of a victim’s nostalgia for a mythical past. Of course, Hanson’s persona as the champion of the underdog is (almost) as fundamental to her success as her racism. However, in observing the rise of the patriots’ movement over the past couple of years, the mood is one of triumph and elation rather than defeat and resentment: vanguardism, I’ve often thought — the belief that the group forms the cohort of a coming revolution. The patriots, including One Nation, are not just seeking to recapture the past. They’re looking to the future — and they believe that it belongs to them.
As I recall the Great Depression inspired a lot of anti-foreigner feeling. Is the Great Recession doing the same?
Yep, sure is. Why common everyday people, believe fascism can help them, it must cause a lot of smugness from the wealthy robber barons. Nearly every commoner believes the right to be wealthy, at any cost, that is the way we are educated world wide. It is easy to believe, to hope for vast wealth, like believing in God, we are not reasoning humans any more, the ability to think years, decades ahead, is blinded us to the , have it now, it’s our right, the thought of having more, at the least expense, is the only way. Where are all your psychiatrist, intellectuals, scientist, and spiritually, leaders, well there all living with the assumption of, fuck you i’m ok jack.
“Why common everyday people, believe fascism can help them…”. The simple (or perhaps simplistic) explanation is that no one likes to be at the bottom. If you feel, rightly or wrongly, that you’re at the bottom rung of society, the chance to hit another group must feel good to some people. Essentially it doesn’t really matter who that targeted group is, it only matters that the “common everyday people” no longer feel like they’re at the bottom.
That’s in no way an excuse for people who turn to fascism and bigotry, it’s just an explanation.
Yes Moita, when people feel their hip pockets might be affected they are willing to blame others. It is up to governments and media to resist this but Pollies like the foolish Pauline Hanson are encouraging it.
The thing is Lorosev, none of these groups you have mentioned – “Germans the Jews, the Italians, the Asians, the Communists” et al have called our women “uncovered meat”, taken and killed hostages in a martin place cafe while hollering allahu akbar and being overlooked as a threat for past misdeamouners, gang raped our women – skaf boys, the k brothers etc whose main schtick were that females were subhuman – where does that belief come from? Kill curtis cheng in parramatta. Hack a soldier to death in london (lee rigby) and so on. For what again? Wake up.
It’s tempting to blame Malcolm Turnbull for opening the doors of Parliament to Pauline Hanson and her poisonous utterances by going for a double dissolution election. He can make amends. If it remains in power, the Coalition should declare that it will not negotiate with her nor make compromises in order to secure its legislation with her support. Indeed, it should adopt the demands the Coalition itself made of the former Labor Government not to accept the vote of an elected member who was then facing court proceedings over various irregularities. The next Government (Coalition or Labor) should refuse to accept the vote of racist members of Parliament under any circumstances – no matter what party they are in.
Vincent Burke, Unley
PO Box 539, Unley, 5061
T: 8357 8573 E: burkevb@ozemail.com.au
Didn’t the Daily Telegraph got the Liberals to sign a pledge to not make deals with the Greens during the campaign? You’d hope that if they’re ready to go down a route that drastic and idiotic with the Greens, they’d jump at the opportunity to do likewise with One Nation.
Well, Islam is an ideology as well as a religion. Just in the same way that Christianity is also an ideology as well as a religion.
Christianity isn’t as toxic in secular countries, such as Australia, because it has little power.
The reappearance of Hanson makes me sick to the pit of my stomach. It is sad that a xenophobic racist platform has appealed to enough people in this country that she has been voted in. I’d like to reason with people like her and where would I start? Is there any reason that could appeal to determined bigots? ANY movement that demonizes one group of people should ring warning bells for people but I guess some people just don’t know their history or are too stupid to have learned from it. In whose interest is it to turn neighbor against neighbor? It is only in the interests of the war mongers – those who profit from war and the terrorists are playing right into their hands … as are we unless we refuse to be manipulated by fear stirred up by irresponsible media and politicians. Remember when we were supposed to fear the Germans, and the Germans the Jews, the Italians, the Asians, the Communists, the Russians … They were variously supposed to take our land, take our jobs, rape our women … All fear mongering bullshit. Fear mongering bullshit is the way populations are controlled. Fear is spread by design, it is no accident. The truth is that Muslims love their children too and want to live unmolested and in peace like the rest of us. I would be in utter despair at this state of affairs in the world if I didn’t equally see people every day who don’t buy the bullshit. My problem is I am preaching to the converted; those around me that I socialize with, on social media, at work where I teach students from every culture in the world. What more can a ordinary person do to make a difference? I really don’t know.
People also need to understand that underneath the racism there is a driving force against the floodgates that Howard opened and Rudd cranked up even more. Over a decade of record high immigration, and the rampant abuse and fraud – especially in the student visa space – that’s going along with it, is driving down living standards by suppressing wages, putting people out of work, overstressing infrastructure, inflating property prices and creating ghettos.
By not addressing this underlying cause, the major parties are making the situation far, far worse. The first vents of steam are showing in the ultra-nationalists, but left unchecked it will start sucking in and radicalising greater and greater numbers of otherwise “just-a-little-bit-racist” average punters.
The Liberals and Labor are far too corrupted by neoliberalism to consider it even a problem (let alone attempt a fix), but the Greens at least retain a bit of economic sanity and could make an environmental case for a lower overall immigration cap (say, 100k/yr), and social cases for skewing the overall intake significantly towards humanitarian and long-term resident family renewal, with only a proportionately small amount going towards recruiting “skilled labor” targeted at nationally strategic areas of industry and science. Issue skilled visas to private industry by auction and we can be more confident they will only use them when they genuinely can’t find – or create – a local worker, rather than to created an indentured workforce.
+1