In the current state of Australian politics, Pauline Hanson's One Nation, an economically and socially right wing party that has existed since 1997, has had a marked increase in popularity, following the Liberal/National parties' loss in support, and increase in media attention, and funding from the global and Australian elite. The 2026 South Australia elections, held on the 21st of March, provided a glimpse into the real effects of the upheaval of the current Labor – Liberal/National Divide, by splitting the conservative vote. The results were upstarting, as of the 24th of March, PHON beating the Liberal primary vote by 3% at 22.4%.
Labor stood strong at 38.1%, only losing around 2% from the year previous, and yet, 5 seats were gained by the ALP, bringing it up to 33 (as of March 24), absolutely dominating the lower house. Despite this massive victory for the Labor party, the majority of the media has been focusing on PHON's rise, giving them massive astroturfing.
In regards to the Lessons learned from this election affecting the larger National political landscape, 3 main ones stick out:
In the Australian voting system, now that the conservative vote is split between the Lib/Nat and PHON, preferences from both support Labor on a seat to seat basis, similar to the Lang Labor party split in 1931 and DLP/Labor party split of 1955, where the left wing vote was split and both times kept Labor out of government for incredibly long periods, in 1931 keeping Labor out for 10 years until 1941 when the Curtin government gained government, and for a whopping 17 years from 1955–1972 from the DLP split (excluding Chifley losing government due to his push for the nationalisation of banking and continued rationing after WW2).
The reason that any Labor party was unable to get into government was for two primary reasons, 1: Large amounts of party resources were devoted to the politics and campaigning against their left wing contemporary and 2. The preferences from the split vote flowed to the Liberal/National party.
In the case of the Honourable Ben Chifley's seat of Macquarie during the Lang split, a strong Labor seat with a majority of 12,000 turned to the UAP (predecessor of the Liberals) to a minority of 456, in just the 1931 election, where Chifley had to compete with the Lang Labor representative, Luchetti. In that election, just 6% of Luchetti's vote (521) that went to the UAP member, John Lawson, lost the election for the Labour movement.
In the following 1934 election, after the other candidates had been eliminated, the figures were as follows:
| Lawson | 22,010 |
| Luchetti | 14,506 |
| Chifley | 10,114 |
After Chifley was eliminated, 7,508 votes went to Luchetti and 3,529 to Lawson, showcasing even further how a split vote can easily give preference to the opposing side of politics.
In relation to modern day politics, this trend shows that a split vote between a political affiliation, in this case a right-wing-one, will only go on to benefit the opposing side, in this case, the Labor Party.
It is also important to note that when parties or sides of politics split and/or attack each other, it gives the impression of instability, which Australian voters have an incredible aversion to. With the incredible shift towards One Nation, the Liberals have replaced their party leader, Susan Ley, with Angus Taylor, and the Nationals leader, David Littleproud has stepped down for Matt Canavan. It is clear that the Liberal/National coalition are having a hard time in this new landscape, especially if they are resorting to ineffectual and dense leaders such as Taylor, whose performance in the 2025 federal election was dismal.
All this will prove to support Labor in the coming years while the conservative vote is fragmented and fighting among itself.
Pauline Hanson's One Nation has been promoting various populist right-wing policies, and heavily appealing to the Australian public's distaste with unsustainable immigration and the failure of the Bondi terror attacks, which are both important issues that need to be resolved, yet where the Labor party offers solutions and implements them, PHON and its members do not have the knowledge nor thinking, and when pressured on them, quickly crumble in their argument.
A video of a reporter questioning Pauline Hanson circulated the internet around the time of the election, where Hanson refused to answer any questions on the costing of her policies, showing an incredible lack of knowledge in even her own party's platform, which could very well prove detrimental to the PHON campaign effort, if it repeats the mistakes of the Lib/Nat coalition in 2025 with their disastrous nuclear campaign, where the public was convinced that the nuclear program proposed by Dutton. The proposed costing by Dutton placed the nuclear program at $331 billion for seven power stations, whereas the Labor government provided an estimate of over $600 billion, not accounting for the tendency of such projects to run significantly over budget. Labor's campaigning on this issue proved detrimental to the Coalition, resulting in limited public support for its nuclear policy.
If similar is seen with PHON, the public of Australia will surely see through the baseless claims on policies of the party.
Australia is an incredibly unique country in that, from its beginning, it has been a nation of various ethnicities and cultures. The country has experienced multiple waves of immigration since European settlement in 1788, bringing people from all walks of the Earth to Australia. This, coupled with high levels of education, allows us to be an intellectual and multicultural populace, with a high standard of living also enabling democracy to survive where, in other countries, it has failed. Australia, as a country, is largely opposed to the right-populist ideas pushed by PHON. Unlike in other countries such as the US, Britain, and Italy, where the standard of living has decreased significantly and right-wing parties have risen, the aforementioned quality of life for most Australians has remained high, with real wages increasing for the first time in years after the Liberals left government, and a stronger economy emerging with increased investment in renewables and the enactment of the Future Made in Australia Act, among others.
While Australia stays strong, the populace will not turn to extreme right-wing ideology for salvation.
Although the immediate future looks bright for the ALP, the rise of One Nation is worrying and could cause significant political strife in the future, especially if it joins a coalition with, or surpasses, the current Liberal/National coalition.
It is clear that various influences from elites within Australia and abroad are pushing Australia toward Pauline Hanson's One Nation to better fit their plans. PHON provides no solution to economic or social strife, but rather acts as a vassal for various sects of the global elite. This global elite clearly does not favour a strong, unified, Labor-run Australia, as it gets in their way.
Major corporate owners and mining magnates (notably Gina Rinehart) do not support how Labor equitably redistributes wealth derived from Australian labour and Australia's natural resources. Israel seeks greater justification and support for its state, genocide, and war-mongering in the Middle East. America aims to maintain its global hegemony, which it has done before by organising the dismissal of leaders such as Whitlam.
Australia must stand strong and vote Labor!