One Nation polling proves ‘The Establishment’ can’t be trusted

The Establishment presents itself as the calm, serious voice of reason in politics and society. But, nuh!

The Establishment presents itself as the calm, serious voice of reason in politics and society.

You hear it most clearly when the Prime Minister says Pauline Hanson should not ‘talk Australia down’ when overseas.

Life at Copacabana must be quite pleasant. Here in regional Australia, businesses are collapsing, people are struggling, and nobody is saying, ‘How great is Albo’s Australia!’

Yet the media’s focus is all on One Nation. It reminds me of most of the stuff coming out of universities these days.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Michael de Percy looked at the polls and said … The Establishment can’t be trusted! That’s because after a solid week of wall-to-wall screeching, One Nation has emerged with barely a dent.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Michael de Percy heads in a similar direction to James Allan, except he’s concluded the battle of ideas is over already, and One Nation has won it. In his view, the Establishment is trying to bring Hanson and One Nation down because they can’t recover their dominance any other way. Ironically, Hanson herself has been around politics so long that it could be said that she, herself, is part of the Establishment, or at least the political class associated with it. She knows how the system works, and plays the game accordingly.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, One Nation polling proves ‘The Establishment’ can’t be trusted.

The attacks against One Nation keep coming ... but polling suggests it's having little impact on public opinion.

There are still many dimensions where One Nation needs to mature in its preparation for government, but I think most people have had enough of the present state of… pic.twitter.com/8zcp66jXCJ

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 20, 2026

What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast-forward

They came after Pauline, they came after Barnaby, and now they are coming for Malcolm Roberts.

 The results of Labor’s economic meddling are in. Rents are going up, housing prices are coming down, mortgage repayments are going up, and Labor also briefly considered tinkering with the idea of charging capital gains tax on the sale of the classic car you’ve worked on forever. (They backed out of that last one pretty quick!) Your labour counts for nought of course.

(Unless you are at BHP, Australia’s biggest company, where 63 union members walked off the job in a strike that was meant to cripple the Pilbara. Quite the union hit job…? The final numbers are being debated and the unions are insisting it was a success.)

In other news, people are hearing about a tax on the sale of assets when one’s partner dies. Is this for real? Isn’t that called a death tax?

There are so many questions.

My latest weekly round-up in The Spectator Australia, What did I miss?

All we’ve heard this week is One Nation didn’t do this, and One Nation didn’t do that.

They came after Pauline, they came after Barnaby, and now they are coming for Malcolm Roberts.

Not one of these One Nation politicians has sent mortgages through the roof, put the cost of… pic.twitter.com/B11075Tpg2

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 18, 2026

How will the Liberal Party atone for their ‘failings’?

The Liberal Party once stood for the individual, the family and free enterprise.

During the pandemic, I recall John Howard’s advice to Josh Frydenberg, then Treasurer, words to the effect of ‘now is not the time for ideology’. It has all gone pear-shaped for the Liberal Party from that time on. Many of the Party’s actions, even Tony Abbott’s, were not in the spirit of the individual, the family, or free enterprise.

Rather than return to the Party’s creed, Peter Dutton attempted to show his soft side. The man who took on Australia’s national security agencies and forced them to do their jobs suddenly went limp. It was a disastrous result and, in my opinion, one where his advisors are largely to blame.

Sussan Ley then went full Labor-lite. It was as if she had listened to Scott Morrison in the 2022 election debate where he agreed with Albanese that the Labor Party made all the great innovations in Australian politics, but the Coalition ended up having to pay for them. Talk about a non-policy. It had me cringing worse than Fawlty Towers.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Michael de Percy concludes the Liberal party has made some huge mistakes over the last 15 years, and is paying the price in the current polls. The crux of his argument is that the Liberals have to break away from the Establishment and identify with the people – which effectively is what the Hanson party has done, as they see it. But as Michael also contends, the Liberals have strayed too far from their spiritual roots – smaller and less intrusive government, lower taxes and greater personal responsibility. As a party, the need to rediscover those roots urgently, and frame their electoral alternative to both Labor and ON around them. Angus Taylor is not as eloquent as his wife, perhaps, but his policy thinking certainly is heading in that direction.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, How will the Liberal Party atone for their ‘failings’?