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These are the things that Pauline Hanson said at her National Press Club speech recently.
Australian workers are lazy! Always on their phones rather than working. No more pay rises for them under One Nation. No paid parental leave for any workers, either.
51.5% of the Australian population were either not born here or their parents weren’t. Despite this, Pauline Hanson wants an end to multiculturalism and a return to a white, Anglo-monoculture. Talk about pipe dreams in a population of 28 million Australians. This is neither feasible or realistic. In line with this, Hanson wants an end to SBS and the ABC, as government funded entities. The white supremacist racist wants to cancel any media in opposition to her reactionary agenda. A vote for One Nation means her way or the highway.
“She almost exclusively used trusted outlets – trusted not to be hostile – such as Sky News programs, particularly those on “Sky After Dark” . Through them, and fellow travellers in newspapers, she spread the “I’ve Had A Gutful” message and demanded a homogenised Australia.”
The Puppeteer Pulling Pauline Hanson’s Strings
Pauline Hanson and her party are being funded by the wealthy, Gina Rinehart and the billionaire oligarchy. She does not represent workers but the bosses. Her sketchy policies, she has no tax policy at this juncture, are those approved by the rich donors backing her. The gas policy outlined by Pauline would favour Gina Rinehart whose companies have plans to extract gas in the near future.
Populism & Pauline Hanson
Why is Pauline Hanson and her One Nation suddenly so popular? Donald Trump is the answer. Trump has upset the world order and this has caused anxiety in many Australians. Pauline Hanson in her strident politics of grievance appears to be a strong leader with simple solutions. Adolf Hitler in pre-war Germany became popular on the same basis, attacking migrants, communists and Jews. In Pauline’s case it is Muslims. Hanson has said there are no good Muslims. Authoritarian leaders like Trump and Hanson appeal to frightened little people who want to lash out and blame others for their predicament. Blame it on the refugee and immigrant. Blame it on the LGBTQI community. Blame it on greenies. Blame it on women. Blame it on the Indigenous. All of these groups cop it from far right politicians like Pauline Hanson. Populist racism is on the rise downunder. Nazis are booing at ANZAC Day ceremonies. Flag waving One Nation types are marching against diversity and multiculturalism.
The Protest Vote & Pauline’s One Nation
People are looking to make a protest vote to hopefully pull down the institutional edifice they have lost confidence in. However, as we have seen in Trumpland, all you are doing is exchanging a worse bunch of crooks in the swamp. Right wing types are more extreme in every sense, including their criminality. Why do you think Hanson has banned the ABC from her press conferences. Like Donald Trump she wants no challenging questions from investigative journalists. Authoritarians hate to be questioned about their activities. Pauline Hanson loves Trump and is following his playbook for power. The Donald Trump experiment in America has put clowns and crooks in charge of that superpower. The resulting wars, tariffs, extreme deportation immigration policy and media censorship have made the US a danger to itself and others. The dumbest move that Australia could make would be to follow suit by backing Pauline Hanson into power.
Trump Has Damaged Things
The presence of Donald Trump in the halls of power has lowered the bar in terms of standards. Trump is a grifter, a conman, someone who fakes confidence to give the impression he knows what he is doing. The US economy and where it is heading tells a different story. Inflation rising and affordability issues for the average American are a real challenge. The blatant corruption being undertaken by the Trump family and his associates is gobsmacking. Australians are paying more for their petrol and diesel because of Trump’s foolish war with Iran. Tariffs are being imposed upon Australia despite our balance of trade being favourable to the US. Putting Pauline Hanson, who knows nothing about governing or macroeconomics, in charge of the country would be a disaster. Compounding the uncertainty and chaos we see occurring in Trumpland and its effects upon the global economy. We do not want stupid and nasty people running the nation.
Far Right News Distorting Facts
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is popular with older white Australians living in regional and outer suburban areas. Many of these voters are retirees or on the cusp of that transition. Many of them did not finish secondary school or attend university. They probably watch Fox News or Sky News Australia, the virulently biased Murdoch platforms, which distort everything to the far right. They have been conditioned to switch off the ABC and accuse it of bias, when in fact the ABC is the only objective news platform in the country. The right wing media promotes an anti-woke agenda by frequently exaggerating instances of perceived political correctness. Beat up stories about gender reassignment are favourites to outrage viewers. The truth is that these occurrences are less than a handful out of a population of 28 million Australians. The News Corp motto is don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. Social media is, of course, an American invention and controlled by the billionaire oligarchy over there. Elon Musk and X, formerly known as Twitter. Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook and Instagram. Now, Tik Tok has been taken over by the oligarchy in America as well. Big Tech backs Trump, as we have all seen in recent times. Controlling the media is part of the authoritarian push in the US. The online support for Reform in the UK and One Nation downunder are not accidental things but orchestrated campaigns by right wing concerns funded by billionaires. This whole protest vote movement thing is another beat up. Uneducated folk are vulnerable to this stuff because they have no idea how the internet actually works – they just use it and consume stuff on it.
If I asked the average person how the web and search engines function they would be hard pressed to provide cogent answers to my questions, especially anyone over the age of 50.
Summing Up
Pauline Hanson makes a speech to the National Press Club and accuses Australian workers of being lazy and underserving of any pay rise or parental leave. This in an economic time of rising inflation, thanks to Trump. She proclaims her desire to turn Australia into a monoculture of people like herself. This despite 51.5% of the nation’s population being migrants or the children of migrants. What does that mean? She and Barnaby Joyce are against multiculturalism. Australia is often held up as a multicultural success story. Politicians promoting the politics of grievance always talk their country down. They exaggerate issues to help themselves get elected. Trump did it all the time. Pauline Hanson hates the ABC and SBS, apparently. Hanson wants them defunded and has banned the ABC from her press conferences. In actual fact, the ABC is one of best things about Australia and we are lucky to have such an objective news platform, when the opposite flourishes elsewhere. Investigative journalism only really exists in places like the ABC, where private ownership does not impinge upon journalistic integrity. America does not have a well-funded public broadcaster and Trump is defunding PBS as we speak.
Hanson is a Trump supporter and will follow his playbook.
Fiction Fuels American Politics
“OK, then, returning to the here and now. Many of us around the place are watching screens for more than 10 hours per day. Much of the material on display is fictional. Is it any wonder that a good number of folk do not know the difference between fact and fiction. Indeed, what they have been served up by their leaders as fact has often been lies or fictions. President Trump was a celebrity TV star who played a fictional billionaire. He, then, took that persona or character to the polls and won the presidency back in 2016. America is a nation where everything important is classified top secret and the populace is kept out of the loop. Hundreds of millions of Americans get their understanding via the alternative universe of popular culture – streaming services, cable TV and the internet. A sizable chunk of the population believe in aliens, UFOs and conspiracy theories about everything under the sun. Voting is not compulsory in the United States, therefore, only two thirds of the adult population votes. This speaks of voter disengagement on political matters. A showman like Trump garners more attention than serious types, especially as Trump lies about most everything. Americans not really tuned in may well accept at face value what President Trump or candidate Trump tells them. Humanity is not primarily interested in truth or factuality. Most people prefer a good story.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
©MidasWord
