No, Pauline, 63 per cent of Australians do not use candles

As Alan Austin reports, pollsters and newsrooms are responsible for Australia’s worst recent media failure.

SENATOR Pauline Hanson‘s terrifying speech at the National Press Club (NPC) included many things: lies.

No one expected the moderator who described himself as “President of the club and also the host Sky News Australia”dividing it with fact checks even though it is in the best interest of the nation.

But in the end presentationhad to describe the dazzling manager liesHe confirmed that the club did not approve of this and apologized. Instead, we saw complicit silence.

Huge failure at Redbridge

This serious decline in Australia’s social cohesion began with a series of devastating “stories” across the region. Australian Financial Review (AFR) claims that Hanson’s political party has become the most popular party in Australia:

‘Why it is no longer unreasonable for One Nation to form a minority government’ (AFRMay 22)
‘Is this our political future? New poll reveals rise of One Nation and Labor minority (AFRMay 22)
‘One Nation got ahead of Labor Party due to budget flush’ (AFRMay 31)
‘Will Pauline be prime minister? This is where preference agreements lead.’ (AFR1 June)

These were clearly based on ridiculous polls. Redbridge GroupThis has given Australia’s racists, homophobes and religious bigots an extraordinarily high platform.

Later, other media outlets joined the chorus:

One Nation, which has two seats in the lower house of Parliament – both won through circumstances unlikely to be repeated – has of course zero chance of beating Labor, which has 94 seats.

Long survey registration failed

Redbridge in July 2024 reported o former Opposition Leader Peter Duttonof the LNP hit Anthony AlbaneseLabor Government 51.5% to 48.5% in May 2025 Election. In August 2024, the major parties each had 50 percent of the vote. In November 2024 the LNP was ahead 51% to 49%. As late as February 2025, Dutton would increase this rate from 52% to 48%.

Redbridge gets these stupid results because it asks the wrong questions:

‘If a federal election for the House of Representatives were held today, which of the following would you vote for?’

Of course, the participants know this is not real. They are not voting today. They know pollsters want controversy and confusion. Many Australians are happy to join in on a joke and then say: “Yes, don’t worry, I’ll vote for Pauline.”

If respondents were instead asked to think ahead to 2028, they would give different answers: “Yeah, no, Labor probably deserves a kicking but they’re better than the rest. Albo again.”

Other pollsters They were just as stupid. Freshwater Strategy In September 2024 the Coalition defeated Labor by 52% to 48%. Solve Strategic Solution Dutton applied a 55% to 45% bombardment on Albo in February 2025. Roy Morgan In January 2025 he claimed the Coalition would win 52% to 48%.

None of these were close. albo to win 55.22% to 44.78% to be exact. From where? They all asked the wrong questions.

Big fail in the Press Gallery

Arguably Redbridge’s most devastating outcome/AFR Hanson, who boosted One Nation with fake polls, was outside the Press Club in Canberra last Wednesday.

NPC’s speaker profile Read less like a professional resume and more like a petition for sainthood:

‘A devoted mother with four children and five grandchildren. Pauline is very much like the people she does her best to represent… Pauline never lost sight of her goal: to be a strong voice for the Australian people in the halls of power, to defend Australia’s interests above all else and to defend the values, rights, freedoms and principles that make Australia a strong, successful democratic country.’

The Press Club has now gone the way of the Press Council and ABC News. The charter obliges its members to challenge liars and frauds who seek to control Australia’s news narrative, but they have chosen to facilitate them instead.

Its members can now be assumed to be lobbyists, not reporters, unless proven otherwise.

For the record, Hanson was well-offered questions with Mark Riley, John Paul Janke, Anna Henderson, Jason Koutsoukis and the woman Hanson was looking for “an incompetent journalist”, Sarah Martin.

Soft, sycophantic questions were posed to him. Tom Connell, Greg Brown, James Massola, Michael de Percy And Cameron Reddin.

difficulty in australia

Hanson’s full nine-minute speech on poverty affecting Australians liar.

The senator claimed:

“…out of 4,400 people who participated in the survey [by the Salvation Army] 63 percent said they used candles and torches to illuminate their homes, 49 percent said they went to public places such as shopping malls to warm up or cool down, 51 percent said they could not afford to buy a doctor, and 46 percent said they could not afford to buy prescription drugs.

What Hanson didn’t make clear was this: survey was conducted He was chosen from among the poorest parts of Australia.

We know from the yearbooks reports It was stated that Salvos will serve 228,500 customers in all corners of the country in 2024-25, compared to more than 250,000 two years ago. This is 0.83% of all residents.

Therefore, the actual percentage of Australians living by lantern light is 63% of 0.83% of the 28 million population. That’s 0.53% of all Australians, less than 15,000.

Similarly, while the proportion of poor people who get heat in the shopping mall is 0.41%, only 0.38% have difficulty paying for medicine.

The other critical observation that was overlooked last week is that the current percentages, although still very high, are lower than at any time since records began.

No one from the Press Club pointed this out. It seems like most of them don’t care about the racism, bigotry, and constant lies.

They deserve to be among the 0.031% of permanently homeless people.

Alan Austin is an Independent Australian columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter @alanaustin001 and Bluesky @alanaustin.bsky.social.

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