How to beat Pauline Hanson by adopting the John Farnham doctrine (by someone outside the bubble)
Many folk are offering their two cents worth as to the rise and need to defeat Pauline Hanson. 95% of those people should shut the hell up.
If Hanson’s rise comes as a pearl-clutching shock to you, you are blind to human nature and thus disqualified from offerig advice. Similarly, if you did not predict the victories of Donald Trump please stand aside. You might also want to leave your bubble.
So; how to beat this awful, awful human who has the support of millions of Australians?
Note: you are not going to like this but while provocative, this article is written in good faith.1. Accept reality and move on
There is no way to beat Pauline Hanson and One Nation.
They are now a political factor in our lives. Stop being shocked. It's now about minimising her impact.
2. Adopt the John Farnham doctrine.
In his 1980s synth-driven classic, Playing to Win, John Farnham says it all: this time we're playing to win. But playing to win means more than you think.
Sure, it means that this victory is imperative but playing to win also means that you will do whatever it takes.
So unlike the perpetual undergraduates at Get Up!, playing to win means you will be immensely pragmatic and disciplined.
For many of us on the progressive side of politics, that'll mean shutting the hell up about some of our favourite topics – racism, migration, transgender issues and clean energy to name a clutch.
(If this leaves you aghast you are demonstrating why progressives have failed to dent Hanson’s and Trump's and Farage's progress.)
3. Ignore the monoculture ragebait.
Every time you mention Pauline Hanson's overt and longstanding racism, you make her stronger. You are distracting from issues that will concern many of her newer converts. Talk of racism fuels her campaign because her supporters do not care. Racism is a feature of Hanson's offering, not a bug.
Her supporters who are racist either do not think of themselves as racist and those that do in 2026 are proud of it. If you wish to persuade someone of anything, do not make them feel bad or guilty or attacked or judged. So every time you talk about Pauline Hanson's racism directly, you open up a whole can of worms about what is and what isn't racist. So shut the hell up about racism and monocultures and move on to the stuff that can seed doubt about Australia under Hanson.
I know this is hard for many of you but grow up - we're playing to win.
SO HERE'S WHAT WE DO TALK ABOUT:
Get away from the cultural stuff. Be specific and strike doubts and fears talking about different things to different groups.
Happily for us, Pauline Hanson wants to take away things from the Australian public. Things they value. Humans do not like this (see outrage in response to CGT and negative gearing changes).
The minimum wage. She wants a US-style free-for-all with no floor on earnings.
Paid parental leave – she hates it.
Penalty rates. (She also denies the gender wage gap.)
She wants to cut and gut childcare subsidies. (And to lower educational standards for childcare workers.)
She wants to shrink what little job security we still have, making people easier to sack.
Abortion access. (One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts wants zero access.)
Gina Rinehart - a mad and bad billionaire who wants to GIVE AWAY PARTS OF QUEENSLAND TO ISRAEL VIA ELON MUSK! (No A.I didn’t create that last sentence!)
Voting for Pauline will create endless culture wars, disruption, strikes.
Oh; in Victoria – the next state election – there is no One Nation Leader, candidates or policy platform!
This is all US Trumpian style politics - empty slogans, zero skills, no experience and lots of hate all fuelled by billionaires with an appetitie for destruction.
PLATFORM THE HELL OUT OF HER AND SOON
There is so much to work with which is why we have to platform her and Rinehart at every opportunity. They are bonkers and need to be exposed to folks outside the One Nation bubble.
Like Reform in the UK, Pauline and co will continue to slowly hone the rough edges of their policies in a bid for even greater mainstream acceptance. One Nation’s new MP in the NSW seat of Farrer, David Farley is a much more ‘reasonable’ voice than Pauline on matters of immigration and has a better grasp on details such as water policy.
But why can’t I talk about the issues that matter to me?
Note that I’m not mentioning the ABC, SBS or the Sex Discrimination Commissioner. These are elite, inside-the-beltway issues that won’t swing a vote the way cutting childcare, wages and the NDIS will. I’m ignoring indigenous issues. I’m cancelling the words “diversity”, “inclusion” and “kindness”. So sue me.
We need to persuade the persuadeable not give David Shiraz a knowing wink. We need to leverage self-interest, fear and sexism. Remember – we are playing to win. Not to look or feel good.
The more you bang on about the monoculture, the less we talk about an end to paid maternity leave.
The more we talk about migration, the less we talk about having no minimum wage.
Even racists want a minimum wage, penalty rates and maternity leave.
If I had my druthers, I’d target her male supporters via social media. Her male supporters typically hate female leaders on principle but not Pauline or her benefactor Gina Rinehart. I’d target her male supporters’ misogyny and start a subtle social media campaign questioning why we should let Pauline (a woman!) change everything. So sue me.
I’d start a social media campaign aimed at working women portraying Pauline as that Mother figure who loves to tell you how tough she had it and that this means you should do without too. IE: childcare, maternity leave and minimum wage. (Approximately 60% of those on minimum wage or an award that is determined by minimum wage are female.) Portray Hanson as the hectoring, heartless, overpaid Karen of all Karens but in a way that women under 45 will relate to.
And of course every non-Anglo person in the nation needs to be told how much Pauline hates and invalidates them. The thousands of multicultural and faith organisations need to get busy or they will be defunded. (I’d position Pauline as the politician who is sowing the seeds for their children’s schoolyard bullying and their promotion disappearing.)
That said, millions of migrants will chime with her stand on migration, Islam and assimilation. (Does this surprise you? It shouldn’t.) More recent arrivals will be more receptive to the anti-Hanson message.
We must avoid any smugness, superiority or elitism. Never mock her style of speech, accent or appearance. Keep Pauline Pantsdown out of this.
I don’t want to see university lecturers and think tankers telling us how migration is good for us or how the answer to all problems is more diversity. Sadly, mentioning renewables and the environment won’t save us now. Let’s hope that Pauline loves data centres because that is the ONE issue that cuts across all demographic lines.
Some of all this will offend people and be misinterpreted by others but who cares - we are playing to win.
Brett de Hoedt is the Mayor of Hootville Communications which has worked with 2000+ nonprofits over 25 years. Though progressive, he lives outside the bubble yelling at the radio.