Australia’s major political parties face a “huge amount of grievance” as a leading Liberal figure concedes his party’s decade of flawed policies has helped fuel the rise of One Nation.
Polling from RedBridge Group and Accent Research shows Pauline Hanson’s One Nation could win up to 59 lower house seats if a federal election were held today.
The result would leave Senator Hanson’s anti-immigration party as the official opposition, reducing the coalition to a handful of seats and forcing Labor into minority government.
But RedBridge analyst Alex Fein said people should reject the “reflexive interpretation” the poll – backed up by others showing a surge of support for One Nation – was lurching towards the far right.
Rather, many people were experiencing deteriorating living standards and public services, while trust in institutions such as government, media and businesses had collapsed.
The anti-establishment sentiment left a void to be filled and a vote for Senator Hanson was seen as giving the major political parties a “kick up the bum”, Ms Fein said.
Opposition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg said he believed voters wanted an “economic revolution”, but it wasn’t the time to concede the coalition would have to partner with One Nation.
“What it shows is there’s a huge amount of grievance in the Australian community and I think we have not done a good job in the last 10 years on economic policy,” he told Sky News on Sunday.
“That’s my main takeaway … we should have done more on tax, more on industrial relations, more on super, more on budget stuff and we’ve just been too similar to Labor over a long period of time.
“We’re being punished.”
RedBridge’s central prediction was for One Nation to take 53 seats, based on current polling, reducing the coalition to just 12 and Labour to a slender majority of 76.
Labor cabinet secretary Andrew Charlton said the government needed to focus on presenting solutions to voters’ concerns and demonstrating it was tackling those issues.
“One Nation is expressing the grievances that people have, but they’re not providing the solutions that those people need to those grievances,” he said.
“Every opportunity they get … they vote against things that will benefit Australian families and workers.”
Alarm has been rising within the coalition, particularly among Nationals facing a strong challenge in regional and rural seats.
But former party leader David Littleproud played down the research.
“To have that 6000 poll across 17 million votes and then be able to make those assumptions is a little courageous,” he told Nine’s Today program.
“It’s more about clickbait and feeding our algorithm than it is about the reality.”
One Nation’s David Farley wrested the regional NSW seat of Farrer from the Liberals at a recent by-election, representing his party’s first win in the lower house.
The poll predicted the independent cross bench would be reduced from 10 seats to eight.
Independent senator David Pocock did not rule out teaming up with others to form a political party when asked if it was time for like-minded representatives to band together.
“We’re in a real time of flux politically and there’s people actually looking for candidates who are going to come to Canberra and actually put them first, put them ahead of vested interests,” he told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.
Senator Pocock said he was focused on serving his ACT constituents and offering solutions.
“As to what that looks like in the future, who knows?” he said.
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