Support for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party has surged since her call for a national vote on immigration and insistence that she was right when she warned in the 1990s that Australia was being “swamped by Asians”.
The latest Roy Morgan federal survey shows the right-wing party more than doubled its primary support from 2.5% to 6% – the highest since November 2023.
Support for the Coalition also increased 1.5% to 50.5% in the last week, edging ahead of the Labor party on 49.5%, meaning an election held today would be too close to call.
The Greens fell 2% to 13.5% primary support, while Independents remained steady on 9%, and Other Parties were down 0.5%.
“Several issues hurt the Albanese Government’s support last week, in particular the surge in crime in Alice Springs which forced the imposition of a youth curfew in the outback town,” Roy Morgan said.
“There was also the arrival of a new asylum seeker boat in Western Australia and the death of an Australian aid worker in Gaza.”
Ms Hanson’s new federal campaign manager Craig Kelly has taken up the issue of immigration since being hired earlier this month, describing Labor’s policy as “turbo migration” and a “Ponzi scheme to mask decline in GDP per capita”.
On behalf of the majority of Australians, I demand a halt on immigration.
For many, many years, the Australian people have been telling us to lower immigration.
To keep the numbers low.
To put the interests of Australians living here before the interests of foreigners who… pic.twitter.com/VGwdRZGdXT
— Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 (@PaulineHansonOz) March 20, 2024
A week after Mr Kelly’s appointment Ms Hanson called for a national plebiscite on immigration, but only two other senators – One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts and the United Australia Party’s Ralph Babet – voted in favour of her Future Migration Level bill.
After the vote she described those who voted against it or abstained as “cowards” who were terrified of giving Australians a say on the issue.
“Last year’s [Voice to Parliament] referendum showed the elites of this nation are out of touch with the Australian people,” Ms Hanson said.
“Today’s vote in the Senate on my immigration plebiscite bill has demonstrated this fact again.
“The Liberals said the question was ‘too complex’ to put to the people. This obvious contempt for the intelligence of the Australian electorate is disgusting.
“Last year’s referendum showed the majority of Australians get it right when they’re given the opportunity, and that issue wasn’t considered too complex to put to them.”
According to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last month, net migration hit 518,000 in the year to September 2023.
The top three countries of birth contributing to this figure were India, China and the Philippines.
