How the working class turned right

Working class voters have stopped voting for the traditional socialist and social democratic parties that ignored their interests to embrace middle class concerns and are flocking to the far-right in the USA, Europe and now Australia in the shape of One Nation.

The magnificent seven

The flirtation by some “teals” with the idea of forming a new party is part of the major shakeup underway in our political system, but also fraught with danger for them.

Riding the tiger

Australia churned through seven Prime Ministers in the first quarter of the 21st century, a time when political power centralised in their hands just as media and social changes made their job almost untenable.

One Nation’s budget bounce

Labor hoped the recent budget would play well with the public, but it’s One Nation that’s received a bump in the polls.

Slow train coming

In the 2025 Australian federal election, Pauline Hanson’s party received only 6.4% of the national vote. A year later, One Nation has surpassed the Liberal Party in the polls, received more votes than the Liberals in the South Australian election, and won their first seat in the House of Representatives in the Farrer by-election. How it happen?

The fallout from Farrer

The win in Farrer solidifies One Nation’s position as a political force in rural and regional Australia and heaps the pressure on an increasingly bedraggled Liberal Party.

‘Fed up, fired up, and finally heard’

One Nation seems poised to win the regional seat of Farrer in the by-election caused by the resignation of deposed leader Sussan Ley to deliver another shocking blow to the Liberals.

Whatever happened to Parliament?

There is growing concern across the world about democratic backsliding – the erosion of democratic institutions and civil liberties – so is Australia a surviving beacon of hope, or are we also part of the problem as governments of all parties continue to undermine the constitutional role of Parliament as a legislative and oversight body.

Breaking promises and ‘building trust’

Anthony Albanese was highly reluctant to break promises in his first term, resisting pressure to reverse the Coalition’s tax cuts, because he had undertaken to deliver them intact. Second time around, it’s a different story.

One year on

Australians are persistently anxious about the present, and increasingly pessimistic about the future, so a year on from Labor’s election winning landslide, what has the Albanese government done to allay their worries?

It ain’t what you say, it’s the way that you say it

Female leaders are often judged not just on what they say, but how they say it, shaping who runs for office and how candidates campaign once they get there.

Führerdemokratie

Demagogues, despots and a strange new kind of Russian-style despotism with thoroughly 21st-century characteristics are gaining traction around the world and getting the upper hand.