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One Nation
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1997
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Populist
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Nowhere
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No affiliation
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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.
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 (), 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 .)
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 Western Australian election, the One Nation vote collapsed.
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.
One Nation is not to be confused with the program of infrastructure works carried out from
1991 to
1996 by the Keating Labor Government.
