Political Pulse

Pauline Hanson went to a maximum-security prison for 23 years ago after Tony Abbott from the Liberal Party decided to shut down a third party that could dominate the two-party system in Australia.

Australians are entitled to vote for One Nation without being told by the Treasurer and the Prime Minister that their democratic choice is a danger to the nation. Telling Australians that their democratically elected opponents are “dangerous” and a “threat to our country” invites people to treat them as a threat and incites violence. Anthony Albanese has just declared that One Nation “must” be defeated, saying Labor “owe it to history”.

Those words made me (Peter Lyndon-James, Facebook 1 September 2026) go back and look at the history. Australians should do the same, because what happened to Pauline Hanson and One Nation more than 20 years ago should never be forgotten.

In 1998 One Nation exploded onto the Queensland political scene, winning 11 seats and nearly 23% of the statewide vote. It represented a serious threat to the political establishment, particularly the Coalition’s traditional voter base.

Then Liberal frontbencher Tony Abbott went after One Nation’s registration.
This isn’t conspiracy theory. Abbott established Australians for Honest Politics, a trust fund that raised almost $100,000 to support legal action against One Nation. Former One Nation candidate Terry Sharples launched the Supreme Court challenge. Abbott openly said he considered it important to challenge Hanson’s party.

The challenge succeeded. It was an act of violence encompassing lawfare by using the legal system as a weapon to destroy political opponents rather than seek justice.

One Nation’s registration was overturned in 1999 and the matter was referred to police. After a lengthy investigation, Pauline Hanson and David Ettridge were prosecuted, in a case later revealed to have been engineered by Australians for Honest Politics — a front funded by Labor and Liberal interests — which initiated the complaint. Although the Queensland Court of Appeal in 2003 quashed both convictions and found the prosecution fundamentally flawed, the episode illustrates how legal institutions can be weaponised to destroy a political opponent. This kind of framing is not violence with fists, but violence with institutions — a form of political violence often described as “lawfare,” where the process itself becomes the punishment. In this sense, the deliberate attempt to frame opponents through the courts is more damning, not less, because it erodes trust in the rule of law while inflicting lasting political damage.

In August 2003 Pauline Hanson was convicted of electoral fraud and sentenced to three years in prison. She was also convicted over almost $500,000 in electoral funding.

Then something extraordinary happened.

After Hanson had spent 11 weeks behind bars, the Queensland Court of Appeal unanimously quashed the convictions and directed that verdicts of acquittal be entered. Chief Justice Paul de Jersey’s judgment raised serious concerns about the evidence and the case that had put her behind bars.
To be clear, a later Crime and Misconduct Commission investigation found no misconduct or political interference in the criminal prosecution. Tony Abbott did not prosecute or jail Pauline Hanson.

But he absolutely participated in the political and legal campaign against One Nation that preceded it. That is historical fact.
Now jump forward 23 years.

This time, the weapon is language. Attorney-General Michelle Rowland has made comments that appear to excuse violent threats directed against One Nation and its supporters. She must retract them. The pattern is familiar — when a third party threatens the two-party establishment, the response is not engagement but delegitimisation.

Millions of Australians support One Nation. They are not extremists. They are not dangerous. And no minister — especially the Attorney-General, the first law officer of this country — should use language that gives cover to threats against people because of the political party they support. That is not democracy. That is intimidation dressed in the language of concern. The murder of former British politician Ann Widdecombe on 9 July 2026 offers a stark international example of where this kind of rhetoric can lead. Counter-terrorism police immediately took over the investigation, describing it as a targeted attack; officers examined evidence of a possible left-wing political motivation, and a suspect was charged on 20 July 2026. Widdecombe herself was a vocal defender of open debate and robust disagreement, arguing that “Now, only two sorts of people oppose free speech, and they are at opposite ends of the scale: snowflakes and totalitarians. So there!” She also insisted that “Nobody has the right to live their lives being protected from offence, or from insult, or from hurt feelings. It is an occupational hazard of living in society… I am offended, upset, insulted at least thirty times a day — tough! It is an occupational hazard of living in society, and if you really can’t take it, become a hermit.” This was not a hypothetical risk or a warning about what might one day occur — it was a real act of political violence against a figure who challenged the establishment and explicitly championed free speech. When political leaders use language that delegitimises or demonises opposition parties and their supporters, they help create an environment in which such violence becomes thinkable, and ultimately possible.

One Nation is again threatening the established political order, and Anthony Albanese is publicly declaring: “We simply must defeat them. We owe it to history.”

That should make Australians pay attention.
I am not a member of One Nation. I am not a member of Labor or the Liberal Party either. I don’t believe One Nation is perfect and I don’t agree with everything Pauline Hanson says.

But right now I see One Nation as a wrecking ball through a political system desperately in need of disruption.

For decades Australians have bounced between Labor and the Coalition expecting something fundamentally different. Meanwhile housing has become unaffordable, cost of living is smashing families, government debt has exploded and Australians increasingly believe the political system isn’t working for them.

And now voters are moving.
My concern is that history may repeat itself, not necessarily through exactly the same events, but through the same political instinct: destroy the threat rather than ask why millions of Australians are turning to it.
Watch carefully from here.

Scrutinise One Nation. Absolutely. Investigate its candidates, challenge its policies and expose wrongdoing if it exists.
But apply exactly the same microscope to Labor, Liberal, Nationals and Greens.

Peter Lyndon-James 🇦🇺
Sources:
Queensland CMC, The Prosecution of Pauline Hanson and David Ettridge (2004); R v Hanson; R v Ettridge [2003] QCA 488; ABC archives, Australians for Honest Politics; Prime Minister of Australia, Queensland State Labor Conference, 30 August 2026.