Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON), commonly known as One Nation (ON), is a right-wing to far-right* political party in Australia. It is led by its founder Pauline Hanson, who is the party's president until she chooses to resign. and has been a senator for Queensland since 2016 and previously served in the House of Representatives from 1996 to 1998.
The party was founded by Hanson in 1997 following her disendorsement by the Liberal Party and enjoyed an initial period of electoral success in the late 1990s. It polled second at the 1998 Queensland state election and won the third-highest vote count in both the House of Representatives and Senate at the 1998 federal election, though only winning a single Senate seat. It subsequently underwent a period of electoral decline and lull, and underwent several party splits, while retaining representation in the Parliament of Queensland until 2009. Following Hanson's return as leader, the party won four seats at the 2016 federal election and retained representation across the following three federal elections, despite several high-profile defections. The party experienced increased popularity in and following the May 2025 federal election. After the Liberal Party's leadership challenge and falling out with the Nationals, former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce defected from the Nationals and joined One Nation in December 2025. Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, has provided funding to the party since then. Several nationwide opinion polls were ranking One Nation ahead of the Coalition as the highest-polling party on the political right by February 2026.
One Nation's policy stances have largely been shaped by the views of its leader, sometimes referred to as Hansonism. Opposition to multiculturalism has been a hallmark of the party since its creation; it initially focused on criticism of Asian immigration and government welfare policies relating to Indigenous Australians, and later expanded to include criticism of Islam. The party's economic policies have been characterised by economic nationalism and protectionism, including opposition to foreign ownership of land and economic rationalism. Opposition to climate change action, including opposition to the expansion of renewable energy, has become a prominent aspect of the party's agenda following the election of man made climate change denier Malcolm Roberts as a senator. On foreign policy, the party has adopted anti-globalist stances including support for withdrawal of Australia from international institutions and agreements.
History Background In the lead-up to the March 1996 federal election, Pauline Hanson was endorsed as the Liberal Party of Australia candidate for the House of Representatives seat of Oxley, based on Ipswich, for the March 1996 federal election. At the time, the seat was thought of as a Labor stronghold. The Labor incumbent, Les Scott, held it with an almost 15% two-party majority, making it the safest Labor seat in Queensland. Because of this, Hanson was believed of having no chance of winning the seat.
Hanson received widespread media attention when, leading up to the election, she advocated the abolition of special government assistance for Aboriginal Australians and criticism of multiculturalism, resulting in her being disendorsed by the Liberal Party. Ballot papers had already been printed listing Hanson as the Liberal candidate, and the Australian Electoral Commission had closed nominations for the seat. As a result, Hanson was still listed as the Liberal candidate when votes were cast, even though Liberal leader John Howard had declared she would not be allowed to sit with the Liberals if elected.Liberal candidate Kevin Baker quits race for Charlton over lewd website . ABC News, 20 August 2013.
On election night, Hanson took a large lead on the first count and picked up enough preferences from Democrat voters to defeat Scott on the sixth count. Her victory came amid Labor's near-collapse in Queensland, which saw it reduced to only two seats in the state. Hanson won 54% of the two-candidate-preferred vote. Since Hanson had been disendorsed, she entered parliament as an independent.
Early years Foundation (1997)
Shortly after being elected to federal parliament, Hanson formed the One Nation party with co-founders David Oldfield and David Ettridge. During the formative days of One Nation, Oldfield was employed by Liberal Party backbench MP Tony Abbott as a political advisor. One Nation was launched on 11 April 1997, at an event held in Ipswich, Queensland. The party was officially registered by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on 27 June.
First elections (1998)
The 1998 Queensland state election produced One Nation's greatest electoral success, with the ALP winning 44 seats to be the largest party in the Assembly, the Coalition winning 32 seats and One Nation winning 11 seats. During the campaign, polling for One Nation led to commentators saying One Nation might secure the balance of power in a hung parliament. During the campaign, all three major political parties suffered a decline in voter support due to One Nation having entered the fray. The National Party saw an 11.1% drop in support, their Liberal Party coalition partners lost 6.7% and Labor's vote dropped 4.0%. To the surprise of many pundits, the One Nation Party received 22.7% of the first preference vote, giving them the second largest voter turnout for any party in Queensland during the 1998 election. One Nation drew the majority of its support from regional and rural Queensland, winning nine of its 11 seats in rural and regional electorates.
With nearly 23% of the vote, One Nation gained a higher percentage of the vote than any other third party (i.e. not Labor or Coalition) at the state or territory level since Federation. This was also the only election at which a third party gained more votes than both the Liberal Party and the National Party considered separately. One Nation did well enough to render any attempt to calculate a statewide two-party vote meaningless. Additionally, it did well enough to deny Labor a majority, as seven of One Nation's seats would have gone to Labor had it not been for leakage of Coalition preferences. Had Labor won even one of those seats, it would have been able to form government in its own right. As it turned out, Labor took one of those seats a few months later in a by-election triggered by the resignation of the One Nation member.
At the 1998 federal election, Hanson contested the new seat of Blair after a redistribution effectively split Oxley in half. Hanson lost to Liberal candidate Cameron Thompson, and the One Nation candidate in Oxley lost the seat to ALP candidate Bernie Ripoll. One Nation candidate Heather Hill was elected as a senator for Queensland. Hill's eligibility to sit as a senator was successfully challenged in Sue v Hill under the Australian Constitution on the basis that she had failed to renounce her childhood British citizenship, despite being a naturalised Australian citizen. The seat went to the party's Len Harris following a recount.
Political scientists Ian McAllister and Clive Bean, in an analysis of the 1998 federal election, found that although it was assumed that One Nation supporters came from a traditionally conservative demographic, instead:
Internal disputes and claims of corruption (1999–2003) The party was affected by internal divisions and has split several times. Lawsuits involving ex-members did eventually force Hanson to repay approximately $500,000 of public funding won at the 1998 Queensland election amid claims by Abbott that the party was fraudulently registered. Abbott established a trust fund called "Australians for Honest Politics Trust" to help bankroll civil court cases against the party. The suits alleged that the party was undemocratically constituted in order to concentrate all power in the hands of three people—Hanson, Ettridge and Oldfield (in particular Oldfield)—and that it technically had only two members: Ettridge and Hanson. Even though Hanson's fraud charges were dropped, the Electoral Commission of Queensland never reimbursed Hanson for the monies that they collected from the claim.
Within a year of One Nation's electoral success, three of the 11 Queensland MPs elected had quit the party claiming the leadership had too much control over the party. The One Nation contingent in the Queensland Parliament split, with dissident members forming the rival City Country Alliance in late 1999.
The first Annual General Meeting of the One Nation party was held in April 1999, which critic Paul Reynolds said demonstrated that One Nation lacked organisation.
At the 1999 New South Wales state election, David Oldfield was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council. In October 2000, Hanson expelled Oldfield from the party after a disagreement. His expulsion created even more instability in a party which was constantly embroiled in scandal and internal strife. Oldfield attacked Hanson publicly, saying that "everything including her maiden speech and every word of any consequence that she's said since, has actually been written for her". Oldfield engineered a split within the party, creating One Nation NSW, in 2001. The new party took advantage of electoral party registration laws to register itself as a political party under the 'One Nation' name with the NSW electoral commission, and achieved registration in April 2002.
At the 2001 Western Australian state election One Nation won three seats in the state, however the party was reduced to three seats the same year at the 2001 Queensland state election. During the 2001 Australian federal election, the party's vote fell from 9% to 5.5%. Hanson failed in her bid to win a Senate seat from Queensland, despite polling a strong 10% of the primary vote. Hanson also failed to win a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council.
In 2001, disendorsed One Nation candidate Terry Sharples accused the party of not having the 500 members needed for registration, and called for the party to be deregistered, which was carried by the Supreme Court. Hanson appealed the verdict but was unsuccessful. Hanson appeared before the Brisbane Magistrates Court to face charges of electoral fraud, that same year. Hanson pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming that she was being subjected to "a political witch-hunt." While court hearings proceeded, Hanson ran for a seat in the NSW Upper House as an independent, but only received 1.9 per cent of the vote.
Both Ettridge and Hanson were found guilty of fraudulently registering One Nation and obtaining more than $500,000 from the AEC, in 2003. Crown lawyers accused them both of falsely claiming more than 500 people were party members when they were not truly members. Hanson was sentenced to three years in jail, stating outside the court that the verdict was "Rubbish, I'm not guilty... it's a joke".
It was later disclosed that Abbott had been working behind the scenes to take Ettridge and Hanson down, meeting with several disgruntled One Nation members including Sharples. On 6 November of that same year, Hanson was released from prison after successfully appealing her conviction; she was acquitted on all counts.
Electoral decline (2004–2013) At the 2004 Queensland state 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.