One Nation here to stay after state election uprising
Despite failing to win more than a handful of seats in the South Australian election, One Nation has completed its emergence as a political force, analysts say.
The Labor Party, led by Peter Malinauskas, came back to power in the weekend poll, but the anti-immigrant party made headlines by leaving the Liberals in second place in the primaries with 22 percent of the votes.
With more than 60 percent of votes counted on Sunday, One Nation was expected to win at least one seat in the lower house of parliament and capture up to four seats.
But experts said the meager return in the 47-seat state parliament did not reflect the magnitude of the result.
Redbridge Group director and former Victorian Labor strategist Kos Samaras said the vote showed One Nation’s high polling numbers in other regions, including federal, were correct.
“We knew they would destabilize the market, but if you put what’s happening in South Australia into Victoria, NSW and Queensland, they’ll win more state seats there,” he told AAP.
“SA, a state that normally should not support a political movement like One Nation, has now shed a huge light on the fact that what we are seeing in the nationwide poll numbers is actually more than protest.”
Flinders University public policy lecturer Josh Sunman said Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn’s celebration of his party’s survival epitomized the Liberal Party’s growing apathy.
He said a shift to the right to tackle One Nation remains the Liberals’ most likely move.
“The first thing they need to do is stop the bleeding of primary votes for One Nation before they move on to winning over moderates in the cities or the government,” Mr Sunman told AAP.
“You must put out the fire in your own home before you go to fight them elsewhere.”
Meanwhile, the prime minister’s references to “inclusive patriotism” in his victory speech perhaps signaled his and federal Labor Party’s likely approach to One Nation.
“It will be interesting to see whether the federal government, which of course controls issues such as immigration, will adopt similar stances and address the One Nation issue directly, rather than treating it as just the Liberal Party’s problem,” Mr. Sunam said.
A recent Newspoll found One Nation’s support was 27 per cent nationally, behind Labor but well ahead of the coalition.
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