Pauline Hanson says success for One Nation in Farrer would give Barnaby Joyce “a mate in the lower house”, after Nationals leader Matt Canavan was lashed by protesters to “go a bit harder” as hundreds rallied in Canberra.
The competition for Australia’s right-wing political front took centre stage outside Parliament House on Sunday, as both leaders joined more than 300 protesters calling for an end to “mass migration” and the nation’s energy transition.
Attendees doned Australia flag shirts and waved placards calling for “zero net Islam” as the Queensland Senator took to the stage shortly after midday.
Senator Hanson, riding high off a recently plateaued surge in polling, said she was not against migration.
“But, you have to do it in a managed way,” she said.
“You have to bring in the right people who want to assimilate.”
More than 30 years after first taking office, Senator Hanson thanked attendees who she said “are the reason this is going to be so successful”.
Senator Hanson said she stood “for equality for all Australians”, and urged for the scrapping of “Aboriginal departments”.
“We all need assistance. That’s where my job as a member of parliament is,” she said.
“Not for Palestine, not for Gaza, not for Israel, not for Britain.”
The One Nation leader struck a defiant tone when speaking about the party’s recent results, including six lower house seats at the South Australian election.
On the Farrer by-election, Senator Hanson said it would “win Barnaby a mate in the lower house to work with him”.
Never quite coming face-to-face, Senator Canavan and Senator Hanson spoke with supporters and influencers in the side-lines before making their respective speeches.
Addressing the crowd, Senator Canavan said “net zero is just another word for socialism”.
He said the Albanese government “focuses on a global socialist agenda to take away our energy”.
“It wants to tell us what to say and wants to flood our country with just whoever wants to arrive,” he said.
“It shouldn’t be shy about saying we have to have strong borders, because it’s the only way to unify.
“If we don’t have a high hurdle to get into this nation to become an Australian, then we won’t be united because we won’t know who the hell is around us.”
Senator Canavan said “if you don’t share our values, you are getting deported”.
He said he could “see how frustrated people are”.
“All we’re going to do is put it back to you,” Senator Canavan said.
“And, when the patriots are back in control, when the people are back in control, we’re going to unleash the potential of this nation like never seen before.”
Asked later about some of more extreme rhetoric from speakers at the rally, Senator Canavan said “I’m sick of all this bullshit”.
“My views are very clear, and I’m not going to cop this just because I stand next to someone, say hello to someone, you know, you’re guilty,” he said.
Asked about one speaker’s claim Australia had moved to a “non-white state policy”, Senator Canavan said “I don’t agree with that”.
“I didn’t hear that, but I don’t agree with it,” he said.
‘Make Australia Christian Again’
Experts have warned Senator Hanson’s ability to constrain some of her party’s more extreme rhetoric will be critical to any long-term aspirations for government.
However, her meteoric resurgence also comes off the back of a difficult few months for Australia, including calls for greater social cohesion following the Bondi Beach massacre and rapidly increasing cost of living following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The first speaker, a New Zealander from the “Brotherhood of Christ”, led a haka against the “demonic, satanic agenda”.
The speaker rallied against the “Suckers (who) are voting him (Anthony Albanese) in”, to cheers of “suckers” from the crowd.
He proceeded to take a knee “ to repent… And for who Christ is today”.
“We are saying that Christianity is the faith of Australia. Not Hinduism, not Islam. Not Buddhism,” he said.
Multiple people were also spotted with hats and flags stating: “Make Australia Christian Again”.
For others, cost of living was very much front of mind.
Australian Lobby Group’s Scott Challen told the crowd those even for those on “good money, (it’s) not enough”.
“It’s never enough. There’s never enough left over anymore,” he said.
“They take everything now, (and) they leave you with just enough to make it through to the next crisis. Just enough.”
Mr Challen told the crowd, as a Queenslander in Canberra, he was “deep into enemy territory”.
Waving a pitchfork with a rubber chicken attached, Mr Challen said “a couple hundred years ago, you and me and this crowd, we would have got pitchforks and torches and we would have marched on up into that building (parliament), and we would have had a very strongly worded conversation with those people,” he said.
“But, that’s not how we operate anymore. We have rubber chickens instead, right? Because we’re not into violence.”
He continued: “We want to end the foulest thing of all – foreign lobbying.
“Foreign interests, foreign lobbying, telling your government what to do … meanwhile you lose your job.”
‘Some things we might agree on’
Angus Taylor has conceded there are “some things” he might agree on with Pauline Hanson, as he urges for immigration reform around so-called Australian values.
The One Nation leader is expected to speak outside parliament house in Canberra on Sunday for the Rally To End Mass Immigration.
On Sunday morning, members of the public were seen erecting Australian flags and flag-themed posters under a heavy police presence outside parliament.
Speaking on ABC, Mr Taylor was asked about Senator Hanson’s strong anti-immigration stance.
“Well, some things we might agree on,” he said.
“I’m sure there’s things we don’t agree on.
“But, I’ll tell you what, where I start on this is migration numbers in this country have been too high and standards have been too low.”
Mr Taylor has pushed for a rethink of Australia’s migration system that will “put Australian values … at the heart of our immigration legislation”.
That would include “putting up a red light to radicals”.
Mr Taylor denied people arriving from countries such as China and Vietnam would fit in better than migrants from the United Kingdom.
“Many good people come from bad countries, let’s be clear,” he said.
“Some of the great Australians have come from countries that were bad countries at the time.”
However, Mr Taylor said there was “a higher risk that some bad people come from those bad countries”.
“So, what we have to do is we have to screen, not based on country, not based on religion, not based on race, but based on values.”
Pressed on whether China – the world’s biggest jailer of journalists and biggest user of the death penalty – was a bad country, Mr Taylor said “we’ve seen bad countries around the world.
“To claim that Iran is a good country right now. Seriously?
“The government itself has put legislation in place to make it harder for people to come from Iran.”
Mr Taylor repeated his criticism of refugees from Gaza, saying there were “terrible acts of acrocity” coming from the war-ravaged enclave.
It comes as One Nation stands poised to take the NSW seat of Farrer from the Liberals after the resignation of former leader Sussan Ley.
Mr Taylor brushed off the Coalition’s decision to preference the One Nation candidate over Climate 200-backed Michelle Milthorpe.
He said the party was nonetheless seeking first preferences and had put the Nationals Party second.
Asked if One Nation was an existential threat, he said: “Teal policies, Labor policies are absolutely existential for the regions”.
“If you get out into these regions, you see what it’s doing to them.
“I mean, right now, people are scared about getting access to the diesel they need to plant their crops, to run the trucks that are so crucial for those regional areas.”
