How Albo quietly rigged the rules against Pauline Hanson | Daily Mail

Anyone not now planning for One Nation to be a major player at the next federal election is living in a state of denial.The latest opinion polls have made it abundantly clear that not only is Pauline Hanson and her party's vote surging, but it is now at record highs.The Redbridge poll now actually has One Nation's primary vote even higher than the Labor Party's.It has, of course, for months now been higher than the vote of the coalition.And the Redbridge result is echoing from a few weeks ago, a Roy Morgan poll that also had One Nation support higher even than the government.And it gets worse for the major parties than just that.

Pauline Hanson's personal support as a preferred prime ministerial option, with satisfaction ratings compared to both Angus Taylor, the opposition leader, and Anthony Albanese, the prime minister, is well in front.Hanson for a majority of Australians compared with the alternative major party leaders is the preferred political leader.So it's no wonder that she is now eyeing a move to the lower house where she can be considered as a legitimate prime ministerial candidate.Now don't get me wrong.I still think, on balance, it is more likely that the Labor Party wins the next election than loses it.And I say that despite all the problems they're having selling the budget and all the broken promises attached to the budget, particularly around capital gains tax concessions and around cuts to negative gearing.

But what is now looking as a more likely scenario, and I almost can't believe I'm saying this from where things were with One Nation just a year plus ago, I think it is now more likely that Pauline Hanson is capable of becoming the official opposition leader in the aftermath of the next election.rather than the coalition, whether that leader is Angus Taylor or anyone else.That's right, it looks like Pauline Hanson's party may well win more lower house seats than the coalition, not just the Liberal Party, but the combined Liberal and National parties.And the National Party, well, if One Nation's surge continues, it may not exist at all at the federal level, because you would expect a number of its seats in Queensland, as well as across regional New South Wales and Victoria, to be gobbled up by One Nation support.We saw what happened in the by -election in Farrer.The rise of One Nation is now undeniable.

But there's a few institutional realities that we need to think about in this context.One of them is what Anthony Albanese is doing at the moment to try and disadvantage One Nation, something he hasn't done to the Greens and something that wasn't done to previous minor parties that achieved official party status.Now, this is a quirk of our electoral system.

But if a minor party can get five seats in the parliament across both the House and the Senate, it achieves what is known as official party status.It gives it more resources.

It also gives the prime minister, who has some leeway in decision making here, the right to authorise that minor party to get a party room in parliament and extra staff for the leader.

At the moment, Anthony Albanese is playing political games because he's clearly threatened by the rise of One Nation.because he wants to delegitimize the rise of One Nation.

He is refusing to give Hansen's party those advantages that have been given to other minor parties, including the Greens.Why is he doing that?It can only be because he takes ideological issue with One Nation.

Now, whether you agree or disagree with the policies of One Nation, whether you will or won't vote for it, the Prime Minister refusedto give One Nation, that now has six members of Parliament, two in the lower house and four in the Senate, refusing to give it the kind of resources that go with that official party status, that is ideological bias.It is also the Prime Minister thumbing his nose at voters, because if we believe the polls, upwards of one in four voters is supporting One Nation, And the latest Redbridge poll suggests that more voters are putting their primary vote behind Pauline Hanson's party than behind the Labor Party led by Anthony Albanese.

He can only feel threatened as the reason that he is looking to deny them those resources.

When it comes to this rise of One Nation, it really is going to make the next federal election a totemic possible change moment in Australian politics.Pauline Hanson at 72 years of age looks more sprightly than ever.She's been in parliament long enough, in different spears as well as in the lower house and now the senate, to understand the system in a way that few others do.And she's become much more savvy than naive.She was certainly naive when she first got into Parliament way back in 1996.But now she seems to understand that as a party, One Nation needs to do a series of things to be taken seriously as we get closer to the election.

It will be fascinating to see how they go with candidate selection.They'll want to have some experienced voices that come on board, but they don't want to simply start poaching people from the major parties who might worry that they will otherwise lose their seats because they want to be an agent for change.So it'll be interesting to see how they pick those people.Can they avoid scandals?Does Pauline Hanson find a lower house seat that she's comfortable moving down into?And if she wins it, does she become the official opposition leader or even vie to be prime minister?

That same rain -breach poll...I mentioned on the two -party vote, when you allocate preferences according to what those polled wish to do, it's still very tight between the Labor Party and One Nation.

Labor only ahead by 51 to 49 percent.

And that is without Anthony Albanese giving the Minor Party by right the extra resources that it deserves, that other minor parties that haven't been nearly as successful, quite frankly, in the polls as One Nation is now, they've had those advantages, even though they've been denied of Pauline Hanson's party.

So why are we seeing the rise of One Nation, which seems to be continuing at pace?Well, clearly, voters are disaffected with both major parties.This is no longer a case, simply, of the conservative side of politics getting gobbled up by One Nation.It is now eroding Labor's support as well.While it may well be the Coalition and the Nationals in particular who suffer in regional parts of Australia to the rise and rise of One Nation, you'd have to think that there is a real threat to labour held marginal seats in outer metropolitan areas.

If you like the mortgage belt seats that could be under pressure from One Nation with preference flows coming from the Coalition side.If One Nation can get above coalition in those seats that Labor currently hold, there's every chance that on preferences it can win those seats and knock off sitting Labor MPs.All of which is what adds up to what I think is now the more likely scenario that One Nation finds a way to win enough seats in the lower house at the next federal election, whether that's at the end of next year or at the start of the year after, enough seats to be able to certainly win form as a viable opposition, perhaps the largest party in opposition, if that happens, and if Pauline Hanson wins her seat.seat, she would become the opposition leader officially.It would mark the end of the two party system.It would be potentially a terminal decline for the Liberal Party and certainly the Nationals.

And by the way, it is not out of the question when you look at these new polling numbers that One Nation actually can contest to become the government after the next election.So we'll have to wait and see what the mainstream media does in terms of its coverage as the next election gets closer of One Nation.Does Pauline Hanson, for example, get included in leaders debates?Traditionally, they've only been the Liberal leader versus the Labor leader.

But if One Nation is polling the way it is now and consistently has been polling higher than the coalition for almost 12 months now, how can networks not include Pauline Hanson in those leaders debates?And if they do include her, Does that work for her?Does she do better with that kind of level of exposure?Or does it, if you like, expose the shortfalls of One Nation?If she gets excluded, though, and this is a word of warning for anyone who thinks that excluding One Nation will help squash them as a political movement.If they get sidelined, if they get excluded from the coverage, if they get marginalised and left out of things like leaders debates, that will play into a growing attitude in the community.

that the major parties are trying to cut One Nation out because it's not playing ball with mainstream politics.It's mainstream politics that voters are sick of at the moment, made worse by things like the budget with broken promises, made worse by the failures of the opposition.And One Nation is currently taking advantage of that.And I'll tell you what, a lot more people are thinking about voting for One Nation that might traditionally admit it.

And they're starting to admit it when they're polled, which didn't used to happen in the late 1990s and early 2000s.2000s.This surge is no longer something that can be dismissed.

Pauline Hanson is genuinely rising as a viable alternative Prime Minister and possibly as a viable Prime Minister as well.