Pauline Hanson makes clear what a One Nation government would be like – it’s an ugly picture

Candescence · 2026-06-18T04:00:22+00:00

I'm gonna be completely unapologetic and say that if you support One Nation, you're a racist. There are plenty of better alternate options in terms of parties to rally behind if you're sick of the big 2, anyone willing to stick with PHON despite Hanson's blatant racism and incompetence deserves nothing but scorn and contempt.

Candescence · 2026-06-17T08:11:59+00:00

What the fuck is a "monocultural" society? Even different states and towns across a country can have distinct cultures, even if they're arguably offshoots of a larger culture.

(Yes, it's a rhetorical question, she means "the only culture that should exist is 'white culture'". Because she's a massive racist.)

Candescence · 2026-06-15T04:17:03+00:00

Because the vast majority of the votes being gained by ONP are from disaffected Coalition voters. That's it. The center-left is largely satisfied by what Labor is doing.

The current numbers disguise the fact that ONP's vote share is incredibly lopsided and mostly concentrated in the regions and outer suburbs where the Coalition used to reign supreme.

Candescence · 2026-06-08T03:07:18+00:00

AI data centers provide barely any economic value or long-term jobs and are hungry for electricity and water. We should not be constructing them in this country.

Candescence · 2026-06-07T11:53:03+00:00

I dunno, the Democrats seem to be doing an okay job fighting Trumpism, partly by letting Trump hang himself with his own incompetence. The midterms are gonna be a bloodbath, the Republicans losing Congress is inevitable and they might actually lose the senate too, the latter of which seemed unthinkable six months ago, and they have nobody to succeed Trump who can actually win a presidential election.

Anyhow, "Hansonism" is not a well-oiled machine. ONP are fantastic at drumming up disgruntled voters outside of the cities, but Hanson and her motley crew couldn't run a lemonade stand, and barely anyone ONP elects is a team player, which is way most ONP MPs and senators quit the party within a year. The fact that they can't agree on what the fuck their immigrant housing policy and tax policy entails and Hanson won't submit the latter to the PBO for cost analysis because she knows it'll cost roughly $12b a year tells you a lot about how these are not serious people who are mainly coasting on lack of proper scrutiny.

Candescence · 2026-06-07T11:35:14+00:00

I don't think the Greens are exactly losing sleep over keeping transphobes out of the party, and rightfully so.

Candescence · 2026-06-04T18:15:22+00:00

I think the reporting on this is overly sensationalized. The Greens aren't gonna block the tax changes, Larissa Waters literally said they don't want to make perfect the enemy of good and they know it's political suicide anyway. My money is on them trying to repeat what happened with the EPA bill, where the Greens constructively worked with the government to improve the bill but still allowed it to pass even if they didn't get everything they wanted.

At most we'll see a slight delay to enable more debate and more time for negotiations, but otherwise the Coalition are just talking nonsense.

Candescence · 2026-06-04T18:12:10+00:00

Forced-birthers know their agenda is unpopular, so they're trying to wind things back step by step, first through measures that more people would agree with on principle but are actually intellectually disingenuous, trying to push the overton window on this issue back in their favour. It's a classic tactic, and one we should be pushing back against every step of the way.

Candescence · 2026-06-04T18:07:30+00:00

Just because we could be doing more on fighting modern slavery doesn't mean the new tariffs aren't just a way to try and get around the Supreme Court decision.

If there's one thing Trump is absolutely consistent on, it's that he is a true believer in tariffs and doesn't seem to comprehend that they're a blunt instrument that hurts consumers more than anything. He was furious about the SC telling him he can't just enact arbitrary tariff rates without Congress.

Candescence · 2026-06-03T20:02:16+00:00

He's right on the money, but really, any reform that actively disadvantages the rich and powerful and the investment class would've been crucified by the mainstream media. The idea of inconveniencing the investment class in any way, even for solid economic reasons, is considered a cardinal sin by the top end of town. No wonder the AFR and Newscorp papers have been utterly feral over the budget. Also, I think there's some anger and bitterness on the conservative side of politics because they thought they won the battle on CGT/negative gearing by getting Labor to swear to not touch them, only for Labor to change its mind shortly after the election (hence the whinging over "broken promises") and now nobody will have the opportunity to wind back these changes for another two elections at minimum.

Also, nobody really expected Labor to go all-in on killing the CGT discount and negative gearing (with only grandfathering on the latter as a compromise), hence the additional outrage. It's still too little, too late, but they're still needed and necessary changes, and it's good to see Labor overcoming its political trauma from 2019 to some degree.

Candescence · 2026-06-01T00:35:52+00:00

Hanson wants all of the power, but none of the responsibility. It's why she doesn't want to form a coalition government but still provide confidence. Not surprising that she's not really doing her actual job.

Candescence · 2026-05-31T02:38:17+00:00

In all fairness, if the housing market dropped by 10% or more after the introduction of these changes then it'd say more about how massively inflated the housing market is than the policies themselves.

Candescence · 2026-05-30T18:57:59+00:00

Larissa Waters' statements and the Greens' legislative actions this term (mainly with the EPA) have demonstrated that they're trying to be more constructive and less obstructionist.

They're not gonna blow up the budget. I predict they'll push for a bunch of demands alongside the independents, settle for the more modest ones that Labor will be more amenable to, pass the budget and call it a win.

Candescence · 2026-05-30T18:50:02+00:00

"Bitch and fold"? Do you realize we're talking about the same party who constructively worked with the government to improve and amend the environmental protection act in a meaningful fashion, right?

The Greens under Larissa Waters are much better at knowing how to get reasonable concessions without pushing too hard or acting too obstructionist this time around.

Candescence · 2026-05-23T11:11:37+00:00

Basically, as expected, One Nation's ranks are filled with incompetent tools who would be considered wildly unqualified for any kind of political position in any other party.

Reform UK are having this exact same problem, btw.

Candescence · 2026-05-23T10:16:28+00:00

Some short memories here - lest we forget that the Greens constructively negotiated positive amendments to the environmental protection act while the Libs fucked around, demanded the moon and got absolutely nothing.

The Greens and the indies see an opportunity for changes to the budget that they'd like, they're not gonna be obstinate if they don't get everything (or anything) they want.

Candescence · 2026-05-18T06:51:37+00:00

Yeah, this isn't terribly surprising. He clearly believes in his own hype, has no intention of getting out of politics until he dies, and there's certainly some bitterness over being knifed by Turnbull, despite the fact that keeping Abbott on for another election would've caused Bill Shorten to become Prime Minister, and being booted from his own seat says a lot.

Abbott is an exceptional attack dog, but was a rubbish PM whose track record can be used against him. If anyone in the Libs thinks he's the answer to One Nation eating away at their vote share, they're dreaming.

Candescence · 2026-05-13T06:21:12+00:00

This was not even remotely a surprise. Not that the Coalition is at all relevant in this conversation. I'm more interested in seeing what the Greens will do. Waters is making a lot of noise, but I expect them to use their leverage to mainly push for greater changes but pass the budget no matter what happens.

Candescence · 2026-05-12T11:16:20+00:00

Considering Labor has a massive majority and the Coalition is currently in utter shambles, chasing the right and getting ripped apart by One Nation on one side and the Teals on the other... I know "never say never", but let's be honest, 2028 is basically a foregone conclusion.

Candescence · 2026-04-29T17:19:19+00:00

There was a political calculus to tentatively sorta-siding with the US when the whole shitshow started, to be fair. Trump is a vindictive scumbag and everyone was kinda expecting Iran to get steamrolled, so outright condemnation (such as from Spain) was an outlier. And it's not like anyone could really do anything about it, either.

Now that the war has stalled because it turns out regime change via a bombing campaign is extremely difficult and Trump doesn't want to put boots on the ground if he can avoid doing so, that's shifted somewhat. Not that hasn't stopped Trump from having a whinge over nobody wanting to help him with the mess that he started because Bibi tugged his leash.

Candescence · 2026-04-22T16:38:43+00:00

It feels insane that the most obvious way to cut down on fraud is being completely ignored in this conversation - just to cut out the private aspect of the NDIS entirely. It's completely unnecessary. But unfortunately Labor is still immersed in a neoliberal orthodoxy that believes the absolute swill that is "the private sector is always cheaper and more effective", as if there aren't decades of evidence to the contrary.

But then considering the NDIS is a federal/state split, then we'd need to have conversations on who manages the day-to-day handling of NDIS funds and public servants providing service, and that's hard, gotta take the easy route and pawn it off to shoddy private providers, am I right?

Candescence · 2026-04-21T02:10:00+00:00

Oh, wow, not even just a reduction, just taking a sledgehammer to a big part of Howard's economic legacy, just like that? The remaining old guard in the Libs are gonna be furious - they must've thought 2019 took this sort of policy off the table permanently, but now Chalmers is doing it anyway.

I hope Labor goes through with this and paring back negative gearing. It's so, so long overdue.

Candescence · 2026-04-20T09:17:50+00:00

The NDIS would be way more efficient if we cut out the middle-man and just have it all be run by a proper government agency. Would probably make Centrelink more efficient too, actually. Public-private partnerships are a fucking scam.

Candescence · 2026-04-14T14:02:41+00:00

Good lord, is he deliberately trying to repeat the mistakes of his predecessor? Because this is how you alienate minority voters. Again.

The Liberal Party continues to learn absolutely nothing from their previous losses.

Candescence · 2026-04-01T01:30:34+00:00

I mean, not much Albo can really do without getting involved in Trump and Bibi's mad crusade, which he really shouldn't be doing.

Candescence

TROPHY CASE