Things Australians were prepared for during the 2016 federal election: long queues, a very close result, a freshly seared democracy sausage.
Things Australians were not prepared for during the 2016 federal election: The resurgence of Pauline Hanson and the One Nation party.
Eighteen years after she first introduced her far-right anti-immigration policies, the leader of the One Nation party is back – and it looks like she has secured at least one seat in the Senate, possibly up to four.
With over 60 per cent of the votes counted, the party has so far drawn 134,000 first preference Senate votes in her home state of Queensland, and 113,000 first preference votes in New South Wales.
For many critics, it’s possibly the most unexpected result of the election.
For others, it’s been a long time coming.
Watch Pauline Hanson discuss her attitudes towards Islam in her press conference. Post continues after video…
Cheryl Reeves is 40 years old, happily married for 22 years and has two teenage children. She grew up on a farm in Northern New South Wales and describes herself as a Christian woman who loves Jesus, her husband and her kids.
She now lives in Caboolture in Queensland where she has lived for four years, in the electorate of Longman where there is a ‘big One Nation vote’.
Cheryl told Mamamia she voted for an independent candidate for the House of Representatives and One Nation as her first preference for the Senate.
I asked her why.
“I am unhappy with the two major parties,” Cheryl said.
“I don’t care deeply about what Pauline Hanson does. What I want is for the major parties to realise they are not representing the people.”
Cheryl said the Australian Labor Party and Coalition “need to start listening to the people.”
“They need to fix the mess, not Pauline,” she said.
“I come from a farming family and background, I grew up on a farm in northern NSW and a lot of my family are still on the land,” Cheryl tells me.
“The way farmers are being treated is probably the biggest concern. People are worried about Radical Islam and its effects. The well being of rural communities and the protection of jobs and healthcare.”
Cheryl tells me that ‘Pauline went and took the time to really travel around and talk to people in outback Australia’.
She paints her with the descriptors ‘wonderful’ and ‘caring’.
“She was wonderful about sharing [her travels] and answering questions on Facebook. That really helped to make people feel heard and supported by her.
“She is a very caring person.”
I point out that Pauline Hanson and the policies of One Nation have been identified as inherently racist, particularly the party’s policy to ‘ban the burqa’ and stop people of Muslim faith from entering Australia.
Cheryl tells me she doesn’t want to ban the burqa and has nothing against the Muslim faith.
“Islam is not a race, it’s a religion. I am a Christian and have no issue with someone being Muslim, I don’t want to ban the burqa or stop people having access the halal food,” Cheryl said.
“But I do worry that Radical Islam is a danger. We shouldn’t be financially impacted by the halal certification. I abhor female genital mutilation and unfortunately it is mostly practiced and justified within the context of the Muslim community.”
Cheryl tells me she is a Christian she is “involved in supporting Christians who are being persecuted by Radical Muslims in many different countries around the world”.
“My heart is aching for those Christian families and I want to be sure Australia remains a country where I am safe and protected in my faith”.
Top Comments
I respect her right to vote for One Nation, despite disagreeing with many of their policies.
I myself understand that people who feel disenfranchised by the two major parties often vote for the Greens, however it makes me sick to think of people actually supporting some of their policies. I feel about that party the way many folks feel about One Nation.
Australia is a diverse nation with increasingly widely different values. If we value democracy, you will support the presence of a party like One Nation, or the Greens, despite your disagreement with their policies, because you understand that they are representative of your fellow Australians.
I only wish that we had a robust enough public discourse that people could discuss our differences respectfully and no one was shames for how they vote.
All I can say is "Mamma mia"
There definitely something wrong here. It is unlikely that many of us had any real control of politics at any time and I can't really believe politicians are any worse than they ever were, although the media probably is. It suffers a sort of group think we journalists and commentator feed each other and don't really do much investigation any more.
Australian society has changed we don't make things as we used to, we don't have job security, we don't have communities like we used to. Institutions once they were at the heart of those communities are gone or dying. Our regions are dying and under the guise of improving services they introduce City TV and communities die a bit just as one example. Train services stop, local manufactures go to the city if not overseas, etc, etc.
We are subject to influences we can't do anything about and there is the constant 'threats' posed by terrorism in many countries and this makes people feel uneasy.
Many people are scared for the future and don't know what to do and no one is giving them an avenue to discuss their fears and what they can do to deal with them - it is about a sense of security and the big parties don't deal with people, they deal with trade, Banks and Business groups, property groups
So what do you do, you vote for someone who believe will give a voice, even though they themselves will have their own agenda.
Our means or representative is pathetically inadequate to cope with the worries people feel, too worried about the national stage to try to keep communities together. In fact if a community is based on large employer they hardly care when that employer is in trouble.
We don't need another small special interest group no matter how caring but genuine community representation (certainly not amalgamating councils putting services even further away from the people) and an understanding that how effect important business it has to serve the community as well as the owners