Extract from ABC News
Pauline Hanson at a launch for the SA state election where she hopes to test her party's new popularity. (ABC News: Briana Fiore)
Once dismissed as fringe, One Nation is now polling far above the Liberals.
Yesterday's Newspoll published in The Australian — described by distraught Liberal Party faithful as "diabolical" — put the Coalition's primary vote at 18 per cent, with One Nation polling 27 per cent. On its own, the Liberal Party polled a primary of just 15 per cent.
These numbers are consistent with previous polls showing a dramatic swing toward the minor party, which has coincided with several high-profile defections, most notably former deputy prime minister and now ex-National Barnaby Joyce.
Next month, the South Australian elections will present an opportunity for party leader Pauline Hanson to test the party's momentum in the ballot box.
ANU political scientist Jill Sheppard said voters were sending a strong message that One Nation was not on the outer.
"For voters who are telling pollsters that they would consider voting One Nation, One Nation is not a fringe party,"Dr Sheppard said.
Barnaby Joyce defected to One Nation last year. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
One Nation is often described as a right-wing populist party, and immigration reform dominates its message.
But the minor party also plans to dismantle the government response to climate change, which it does not believe is man-made, wind back access to abortion care and abolish the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Here's where the party stands on some of the key issues shaping the national debate.
Explore by topic:
Immigration
A recent Redbridge survey in the Australian Financial Review found 34 per cent of voters preferred One Nation's approach to migration over other parties. The poll found 17 per cent of voters preferred the Coalition's migration policies and just 16 per cent liked Labor's approach.
One Nation wants to cap visas at 130,000 a year, introduce an eight-year waiting period for citizenship and welfare, and refuse entry to migrants from nations "known to foster extremist ideologies" that are "incompatible with Australian values."
Although One Nation did not specify which countries were incompatible on its website, Ms Hanson told parliament in 2016 that people with a Muslim faith bore a culture and ideology that was "incompatible with our own", claiming Australia was at risk of being "swamped by Muslims".
Her focus has shifted since she entered parliament in 1996, when she declared Australia was in danger of being "swamped by Asians".
Pauline Hanson wants to restrict immigration numbers and block people from specific countries. (ABC News: Adam Shirley)
The proposed 130,000 cap does not include tourist visas, working holiday visas, or PALM visas, which allows temporary migration for Pacific Island workers often hired by farms.
But even with those concessions, immigration expert and associate professor Anna Boucher said reducing the cap to 130,000 was "untenable".
"I don't think it is possible," she said. "You would have to have radical cuts to most areas of the program, and some of that would be denying people their basic human rights under international law, such as family reunification."
Dr Boucher said wholesale change of this nature would also come with a substantial economic shock.
One Nation's cap would require cutting the intake of skilled migrants. Modelling from the Grattan Institute suggests that reducing the number of permanent skilled migrants by just 25,000 would impose a cost on government budgets of more than $10 billion by the late 2040s, in part because they pay more in taxes than they receive in government services.
Anna Boucher says One Nation's immigration policies could result in a major economic shock. (Supplied: Nicola Bailey)
Dr Boucher said research suggested the permanent migrant cohort from 2018 to 2019 added $127,000 per person to the economy over their lifetime; Australians by birth, by comparison, cost the economy $85,000.
She said that was because Australia did not normally pay for an immigrant's education, and immigrants often left before they needed aged care.
"If they were to get it down to 130,000, it would be almost as significant a drop as the COVID period," Dr Boucher said.
Immigration numbers plummeted during COVID-19 after the government closed Australia's borders to international visitors.
"But we can't just close the borders. We're an intentionally integrated country in a global system, so that's just not possible,"Dr Boucher said.
"People who are thinking COVID was the solution, they're overlooking the economic hit our country took."
The party wants to deport 75,000 illegal immigrants already in Australia.
One Nation would also withdraw Australia from the UN Refugee Convention and reintroduce Temporary Protection Visas, which have been criticised as leaving asylum seekers with an uncertain future.
Energy and climate
One Nation wants to scrap net zero, build more coal-fired plants and commission a nuclear reactor in regional NSW. The party questions whether climate change is man-made.
It wants to levy natural gas production and use the cash to create a domestic reserve. The policy mandates 15 per cent of all gas extracted from Australian sources be pumped directly into the domestic market to bring down electricity bills.
One Nation would also open exploration of offshore sites for gas and petroleum.
The party wants to amend the National Energy Market rules in a way it says would encourage more competition and incentivise energy providers to drive down operational costs.
Pauline Hanson questions the science that says climate change is man-made. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
One Nation believes there is insufficient evidence of man-made global warming, but says climate research should continue.
It wants to shut the Department of Climate Change, abolish the Renewable Energy Target, and withdraw Australia from the Paris Climate Agreement.
The party would dismantle some protections for native forests but increase investment to improve the health of natural river and water systems.
That includes wetland rehabilitation, improving native biodiversity, and ecological resilience in challenging conditions, including drought.
Cost of living
One Nation wants couples with at least one dependent child to be able to file joint income tax statements.
This would allow families to add their income together and split the total between them, reducing their tax bill.
Some families already achieve this through a Family Trust, a legal way to distribute profits among family members, or by splitting their super contributions.
The party says the policy would encourage parents to care for their own children by putting more money in their pockets and therefore reduce childcare costs paid by the government.
One Nation wants to reduce the beer and spirits excise at venues as a cost-of-living measure. (AAP: Brian Cassey)
This potential saving is part of its plan to slash Commonwealth spending by $90 billion per year.
It also wants to halve the fuel excise to 26 cents per litre (like the Coalition's promise at the last election) and remove the excise on beer and spirits at venues.
One Nation says it will bring down the cost of energy by 20 per cent, but does not have a timeline or a detailed plan for how that would be achieved, beyond its position to levy natural gas production and change the National Electricity Market rules.
Health
The party says it is pro-life and wants to reduce the gestational limit for abortions. Current limits vary between states and territories from being legal at any stage of pregnancy to being limited to 16 weeks.
It will seek "every opportunity" to roll back "brutal and extreme" abortion laws it says exist in Australia.
Under its policy, a doctor's right to conscientiously object to abortion would be expanded. It is unclear exactly what that means — at the moment, some doctors can conscientiously object on a number of grounds, including religious beliefs, mostly in the private system.
There would also be mandatory counselling for women considering an abortion.
One Nation also wants to abolish the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) — the body that regulates and approves medicines for use in Australia — and review $3 billion worth of medications approved for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme during the pandemic.
Its distrust of the TGA is linked to the party's opposition to vaccines and vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 crisis.
The TGA was set up in the 1960s after thousands of women took a drug called thalidomide, marketed for nausea, without knowing it caused pregnancy loss and severe birth defects.
Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health Emily Banks said abolishing the TGA could result in another tragedy.
"The TGA was born out of that terrible incident and being able to trust medicines is a really important part of keeping Australians healthy," she said.
"Imagine a world where you would be prescribed a medicine and you could not be sure it was safe. You could take insulin for diabetes and you have no way of knowing that it has the right dose. Or, you might get a disease from injecting yourself with a contaminated product."
She said Australians might experience more diseases that are usually prevented by medicines, for instance, if someone was given an ineffective vaccine.
"You might not have your blood pressure controlled because you haven't got a proper drug; you might have a terrible infection and die because you've got counterfeit antibiotics. If your pain relief might not work properly, or you might be given an overdose," Professor Banks said.
"You'd notice the TGA more if it was not there."
Pauline Hanson talks to officers during vaccination protests at Parliament House in 2022. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
More broadly, One Nation wants to reduce healthcare costs by increasing the Medicare rebate to GPs and incentivising bulk billing.
To attract more healthcare professionals to the regions, One Nation would introduce three-year contracts for newly qualified medical professionals and, in return, pay their HECS-HELP loans in full.
It is worth noting that states and territories already incentivise skilled migrant healthcare professionals to work in the regions.
And as mentioned earlier, under One Nation's immigration policy, the number of skilled migrants entering Australia would need to be cut, which could have a major impact on the number of healthcare workers flowing to those communities.
Dr Boucher said while the idea of using HECS to motivate healthcare graduates to work rurally might be part of the solution, it would be unlikely to replace the migrant workforce.
"I don't think it would completely resolve the healthcare crisis in the regions, but maybe it could be part of the solution," she said.
The party also wants stricter use of Medicare, with the party advocating for mandatory photo ID for Medicare cards to "prevent misuse" in a "crackdown on fraud and rorting".
Housing
One Nation's housing policy is wrapped up in its immigration policy.
Leader Pauline Hanson says high migration numbers are putting an unfair burden on Australia's housing stock.
While migration is not the primary driver of the housing crisis, it does contribute.
To deal with housing supply, One Nation would cut GST on building materials used in new homes up to the value of $1 million and review the state government charges (like stamp duty) that people pay when they buy a new home.
It also advocates for an end to foreign ownership, both in terms of what it considers "essential services", which includes things like roadways and ports, but also individual homes.
What about everything else?
There are several areas not covered in the policy section of One Nation's website, but we can understand how the party thinks through comments from its leader.
An example is One Nation's views on Indigenous Affairs, beyond its goal to abolish the National Indigenous Affairs Agency.
Ms Hanson called the Close the Gap framework "complete rubbish" in a speech in the Senate in 2020 and has questioned Aboriginal Australians' access to the "welfare system".
She also told Indigenous Australians to "start taking some responsibility for your own people" and said it was "up to the Aboriginals to stay off the grog and the drugs". Those comments were condemned as racist by politicians from both Labor and the Greens.
Pauline Hanson has spoken strongly on areas not covered by One Nation policy statements. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
At the 2025 election, One Nation supported existing gun laws.
Following the Bondi terrorist attack in December, One Nation voted against government's bill that tightened gun control, which it said was unfair to rural communities.
In 2019, the party was embroiled in a scandal after secret recordings revealed senior One Nation figures wanted millions of dollars in political donations from America's National Rifle Association in exchange for a softening of its gun policy.
One Nation also voted against the hate speech laws introduced after the Bondi attack over concerns about limiting free speech. The party wants free speech to be enshrined in the Constitution.
There is limited information on One Nation's website regarding its policies on education, aside from a promise to "restore critical thinking" to classrooms.
One Nation says there should be no room for "Western, white, gender guilt shaming in any classroom".
On the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the party wants to "return the NDIS to its original purpose", which is characterised as "providing necessary and reasonable support".
One Nation wants to introduce means testing and adjust specialist and non-specialist pay rates to "sustainable levels".
They also want to roll back parts of building codes that require buildings to be wheelchair accessible.
One Nation has an opportunity to test its support in the upcoming South Australian election. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)
What does all this mean?
It's hard to tell how much policy One Nation voters care about and it is possible they are focused less on the detail and more on the overall values of One Nation.
"If a party spells out its values clearly enough and communicates them clearly enough, then voters don't really need to see the policies," Dr Sheppard said.
"There is an option, unfortunately for democracy's sake, for parties to coast into power without a … comprehensive idea of what you will actually do in office."
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