In the wake of the South Australian election, an investigation by the ABC has raised questions about the level of vetting political party One Nation applies to its political candidates.
One candidate has been revealed to have been accused of domestic abuse, while another was found to have allegedly made a string of homophobic, antisemitic, and racist posts on social media.
One Nation saw a record result in last months’s South Australian election, gaining four seats in the House of Assembly and three in the Legislative Council. Its the party’s best result since the 1998 Queensland state election, where they won eleven seats in the single-house parliament.
The ABC found that Tyler Green, who unsuccessfully ran for the seat of Mawson, had made a series of comments on social media that were described as homophobic, antiemetic and racist.
Meanwhile, Bruce Preece, who ran for the seat of Schubert, had been subjected to interim intervention orders for domestic abuse between 2012 and 2020. Preece has spent time in local government, serving on both the Barossa Valley and Prospect Councils. As recently as last year, Barossa Council upheld five complaints about his behaviour, including misconduct, discrimination, bullying and harassment.
When approached by the ABC One Nation declined to answer questions about either candidate. OUTinPerth has also approached the party for comment.
In the final days of the campaign the party dropped another candidate, Aoi Baxter, after it was revealed he was wanted over a sexual assault in the United Kingdom.
One Nation candidates with a history of homophobic statements is nothing new, and One Nation supporters are often seen holding cut-outs of leader Senator Pauline Hanson at rallies against the LGBTIQA+ communities.
At the 2017 Western Australian election candidate Michelle Meyers claimed that members of the LGBTIQA+ communities had access to a secret mind-control program developed by the Nazi party. One Nation stood by Meyers, and she stood by her claim.
In 2024 Independent New South Wales MP Alex Greenwich successfully sued Mark Latham for defamation over comments he’d made about Greenwich’s sexuality and character. Latham was the state leader of One Nation at the time but quit after falling out with Hanson. The case is currently under appeal.
Earlier this year federal leader Senator Pauline Hanson released a film and associated music track sung by former pop star Holly Vallance that included derogatory statements about LGBTIQ+ people.
The ABC investigation questions whether One Nation checks the backgrounds of their candidates to the same standard as other political parties, or if the party is actually concerned about having people with racist, antiemetic, or homophobic views within their ranks.
With the party predicted to pick up a number of seats at the Victoria state election, scrutiny of its candidate vetting process is likely to intensify.
Support for One Nation is rapidly growing
Today The Australian released an Newspoll analysis that showed One Nation’s popularity had risen significantly in recent months, gaining support from people across the political spectrum. While the coalitions primary vote appears to be rapidly collapsing, Labor is also losing supporters to Pauline Hanson’s party.
Most prominently the support for One Nation is Queensland is now measured at 30 per cent, higher than both the ALP at 27 per cent, and the LNP at 23 per cent. Among the growing supporter base for the party is younger voters with the analysis showing support from voters aged 18-34 has doubled in recent months, rising from 8 per cent to 19 per cent.
It is notable that the party has a much higher level of support from people with a lower level of educational achievement, 34 per cent of those saying they’d vote for the party have no tertiary education, while those with a TAFE level qualification account for another 30 per cent. People have obtained a university education are more likely to vote for Labor or the Liberals.
While the party will be facing more scrutiny of its candidates in the future, there will also be calls for the party to put forward more detailed policies. Currently the party only has one or two line statements on each issue, with no detail on how they will achieve the outcomes they propose.
One Nation needs to look at who they are letting into their ranks, and explain how they plan to achieve their proposals, and most importantly be asked why these are their goals.
