I was sent the unintentionally hilarious article in the Australian Financial Review titled: Here’s who’s really funding Pauline Hanson’s political takeover.
It’s very dramatic.
They even repurposed GetUp!’s now infamous ‘deal with it’ meme.
Essentially, the article takes a closer look at the 78,500 individuals who donated to One Nation’s Fire the Liar! campaign as it nears $5 million.
If nothing else, this serves as a slightly more reliable poll than usual because people handed over money. Their own money. That’s more of a commitment than muttering answers over the phone to a pollster.
The AFR claims that over $16,000 has been raised from Allegra Spender’s seat of Wentworth. A Teal stronghold. At least one local donated $5,000. There were donations from other Teal seats, Liberal seats, and even Labor ones.
Most remarkable was the spread of support stretching across the nation like a true grassroots movement, which must come as a disappointment to politicians trying to write the party off as fringe.
This is not the entire picture of the fundraiser’s geographical reach. The AFR clarifies that their analysis is only for a subset of the total donations, but what it does show is a popular campaign that sprang up out of nowhere. Not only that, the campaign was mostly funded by small donations rather than large corporate donations. This allows One Nation to believably say it is the party of the people. It was also driven by the internet rather than media, capitalising on the huge follower count of Pauline Hanson. That marks a substantial restructuring of the political funding approach.
Warringah made the top 10 list for total donations, along with Liberal seats. Queensland understandably came out on top for overall donations, but the split between the other states was relatively impressive. It would be fascinating to see the data in its entirety.
The article goes on to claim that the ‘pace of the campaign’s initial fundraising effort … left many scratching their heads’ but to me, it seemed relatively straightforward. It was launched at the peak of a meme-worthy moment from Albanese when his Treasurer had released deeply unpopular tax hikes on the community and changed his position. Everything the Prime Minister and his party did leading up to the campaign was intellectually grating and it looks like voters used Fire the Liar! as a pressure valve to release some tension. They threw money at One Nation in the way the 48-famine scratches the saviour itch.
Will this desire to punish existing parties translate from a viral meme to election reality? That is less certain. For sure, if nothing changes, One Nation will be picking up Lower House MPs in every state and more Senators, but that is not the same conversation as surpassing the Coalition to challenge Labor. Nigel Farage and Reform have been working on that problem in the UK for decades and he is doing so with some of the most skilled campaigners alive. Even then, Reform’s fate is not certain.
What these statistics do show, beyond voting intention, is that there are fractures appearing in the Teal utopia.
The Teals popped into existence when the Coalition indulged in the climate cult. They gave legitimacy to Net Zero and opened up a crack through which former extremely rich conservative voters could be targeted. It is my view that had the Coalition properly dismissed climate change for the anti-capitalist grift it always was, these seats would have remained secure. Instead, Coalition MPs ran the line that the climate apocalypse is real, human-made, and that they would deal with it more slowly than Labor. A centrist no-man’s land of intellectual failure. Now, the Coalition cannot walk back the original fabrication without looking stupid, or commit to it entirely without One Nation snaffling up the rest of the sensible conservative vote.
As the world moves on from climate change and Net Zero technologies, a departure well underway in the US and Europe, the Teals and Coalition will be left holding the toxic ideology that has all the appeal of brown carpets and green wallpaper from the 70s.
Those cracks, still open, could facilitate the flow of votes back to a conservative, albeit orange-tinted party.
Funnily enough, the Greens won’t suffer. Like their UK counterparts, they have already pivoted to pro-Palestine and various shades of collectivism. They are more likely to hug a communist than a tree these days.
And so we may ask, what will the voters in Teal seats do?
These former Blue Ribbon conservatives who can no longer shoulder the high-taxing government encouraged by climate change policies … suburbs that thought they were insulated from the kindness of open borders and now find their state government tearing down beautiful old buildings and parks for housing commission projects as the masses flood in. They are starting to feel the same anxiety as the working and middle classes in neighbouring suburbs while their robust wealth is being eroded by the Treasurer’s substantial inter-generational campaign.
Will they vote for the Coalition, who failed to protect them, or One Nation – the once taboo party that has suddenly become culturally cool, safely radical, and unapologetically Australian?
Flat White is written by Alexandra Marshall. If you would like to support her work, shout her a coffee over at donor-box.
