Two major polls released yesterday show a poll dip for One Nation, a week after another survey had the party tied with Labor.
A Newspoll conducted between April 13 and 16 had Labor on 31% of the primary vote, and One Nation down two points to 24% but ahead of the Coalition on 21%.
A Resolve poll conducted between April 13 and 18 similarly showed Labor on 32%, and One Nation down 2% to 22%, one point behind the Coalition.
These are minor movements that are within the margin of error, so the first thing to note is that the triumphant media reporting on the results, with headlines such as “One Nation speed bump: Have we reached peak Pauline?” and “One Nation support slumps amid voter revolt” should be taken with a grain of salt.
The second thing to note is that Opposition leader Angus Taylor announced the Liberal Party’s “Australian valued” based migration policy on April 14, which resulted in hysterical coverage from the left, and pathetic fawning or indifference from the right.
The cuckservative commentators at Sky News, The Australian and the News Corp metropolitan mastheads are the battered wives of Australian politics, so of course they fell over themselves to present Taylor’s policy as a masterpiece, even though it didn’t even include a migration target, making it weaker than what Peter Dutton brought to the last election.
Labor, the Teals, the Greens, and the rest of the corporate media called Taylor’s policy “Trumpian”, “racist”, and “divisive”, which had the net effect of making it sound much better than it actually is.
So what did One Nation do about the dying Liberal Party trying to steal its signature issue?
Practically nothing.
Pauline Hanson made a total of one post in response, sharing a Sky News interview with the caption “The Coalition’s immigration policy doesn’t go anywhere near far enough”, and in the clip she even praised the Coalition for “improving”.
Barnaby Joyce didn’t post about it at all, and today bizarrely attributed the drop in the polls to a boring story pushed by left-wing journalists about a convicted rapist staffer that no one outside the Canberra and media bubbles cares about.
There were no press conferences, no media blitz, no major pushback, while Taylor got almost a week of coverage and dominated the headlines, creating an impression in the minds of voters that the Coalition has finally gotten tough on immigration (they’ll be different this time, they promise).
Immigration is the only reason people are voting for One Nation, and not letting the Coalition or any other party take the issue from them is Politics 101.
It is unfortunate that the so-called right-wing media is dominated by cuckservatives who want to revive the Liberal Party, but Pauline Hanson alone has tremendous social media clout and can drive the news cycle with a single X post, so there are no excuses there.
The response from right-wing influencers in general was also underwhelming, and they share some of the blame.
The British right never miss an opportunity to attack their Conservatives and Reform UK the minute they sense weakness on immigration, and the Australian right needs to do the same.
Angus Taylor should have been mercilessly mocked for the content of his speech, his delivery, the small and aging crowd, his ambiguous “Australian values”, and his cowardly attempt to have it both ways by insisting it is a “non-discriminatory” policy.
This was a easy win, as it is completely out of touch with what most Australians want, which is a very discriminatory immigration policy.
It was a golden opportunity to stick another nail in the Liberal Party coffin and make it clearer than ever to voters that only One Nation has the strength to do what it takes to save Australia from being totally overwhelmed by mass immigration.
Instead, conservatives were more interested in defending Taylor from the unhinged reaction from the left than attacking him from the right.
But ultimately the fault lies with One Nation and its high profile spokespeople.
If One Nation wants to be a serious force in Australian politics and maintain its momentum until the 2028 federal election, it cannot let the Liberals gain any ground on immigration, it cannot let them back in the fight, and should be trying to land a fatal blow.
It must be ruthless, it must be aggressive and it must constantly remind the public that the Coalition are just as much to blame for the demographic transformation of Australia as Labor, otherwise it is doomed to shrink back into the 10% of the vote zone.
Last week was a major fumble that One Nation cannot afford to make again.
The post One Nation fails Politics 101 first appeared on The Noticer.
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