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One Nation is a nationalist and protectionist political group in Australia. After creating a political sensation by winning nearly a quarter of the vote in a Queensland state election in 1998 and threatening to make major inroads into the vote of the main parties, One Nation suffered many damaging internal conflicts, and by 2005 had ceased to exist as a federal party.
Overview
One Nation was formed in 1997 by Pauline Hanson, David Oldfield and David Ettridge. Hanson, an endorsed Liberal Party candidate at the 1996 federal election, had been disendorsed by the party shortly before the elections due to comments against what she saw as "race-based welfare," made to local newspaper in Ipswich, Queensland. Oldfield, a member of the Manly Council in suburban Sydney and at one time an employee of Liberal minister Tony Abbott, was the organisational architect of the new party. He and Ettridge were known as "the two Davids" and were seen as the brains behind Hanson's populist image.
The name "One Nation" was chosen to signify national unity, in contrast to what Hanson claimed to see as an increasing division in Australian society caused by government policies favouring migrants (multiculturalism) and indigenous Australians. The term derives from British politics (where it is used in a quite different sense: see One Nation), but was last used in Australian political life to describe a tax reform package by the Labor government of Paul Keating, whose urban-based, Asia-centric, free-market, and pro-affirmative action policies were representational of exactly what One Nation voters were opposing.
One Nation's peak was the 1998 Queensland state election, at which the party won 22.7% of the vote and 11 of the 89 seats. This was more than received by both the National Party and Liberal Party of Australia, and second only to the ALP. Subsequently, the One Nation contingent in the Queensland Parliament split, with dissident members forming the rival City-Country Alliance in late 1999.
At the 1998 federal election, Hanson lost her seat to a Liberal candidate, but One Nation succeeded in electing Heather Hill as a Senator for Queensland, only to see a successful Constitutional challenge on Hill's eligibility to run on the basis that she had failed to renounce her childhood British citizenship, despite being a naturalised Australian citizen. The seat subsequently went to Len Harris. At the 1999 New South Wales election, David Oldfield was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council.
In the 2001 Queensland state election, One Nation won only three seats and 8.69% of the primary vote. The City-Country Alliance won no seats.
At the 2001 state election in Western Australia, One Nation won three seats in the state's Legislative Council. One Nation was unable to obtain any seats in state elections in Victoria, South Australia or Tasmania that year.
At the 2001 federal election the party's vote fell and Hanson failed in a bid to win a Senate seat from Queensland. She also failed to win a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council at the 2003 state election. She then withdrew from the party's leadership. (For Hanson's subsequent prosecution, conviction, imprisonment and release, see Pauline Hanson.)
Decline
Since the 1998 peak, One Nation has been plagued by internal divisions and has split several times. Lawsuits from ex-members forced Hanson to repay approximately A$500,000 of public funding won at the 1998 Queensland election amid claims that the party was fraudulently registered. The suits alleged that the party was undemocratically constituted in order to concentrate all power in the hands of three rulers - Pauline Hanson, David Ettridge and David Oldfield (in particular Oldfield), and that it technically had only two members - Ettridge and Hanson.
At the 2004 Queensland election One Nation polled less than 5% of the vote and its sole elected representative, Rosa Lee Long, acted as an independent. One Nation attempted to defend its Queensland Senate seat at the 2004 federal election, but lost it (effectively to the National Party). Len Harris's Senate term expired on 30 June 2005.
On 8 February 2005, One Nation lost federal party status. It still had state parties in Queensland and New South Wales. Soon after it created another state party in Western Australia. In the February 2005 Western Australian election, the One Nation vote collapsed. The 2006 SA state election saw six One Nation candidates for the lower house. Their highest vote was 4.1% in the district of Hammond, 2.7% in Goyder, with the other four hovering around 1%. They attracted 0.8% (7559 votes) of the upper house vote.
During its brief period of popularity, One Nation had a great impact on Australian politics. The appeal of its policies to the National Party of Australia's constituency put great pressure on that party. For the rest of Australian politics, the party revealed a substantial minority of discontented voters dissatisfied with the major parties. Prime Minister John Howard's campaigning on issues of "border protection" at the 2001 federal election were widely seen as a successful effort to win One Nation voters back to the Liberal and National parties.
Note
One Nation is not to be confused with the One Nation program of infrastructure works carried out from 1991 to 1996 by the Keating Labor Government.
External links
1997 establishments | Political parties in Australia | Conservative parties | Nationalist parties
"One Nation Party"