'She's one of us': Meet the voters who shunned the major parties in favour of Pauline Hanson

Updated

The recent federal election delivered many surprises, but perhaps the most jarring for politicians and commentators alike was the resurgence of One Nation.

So who voted for Pauline Hanson and why?

She speaks to us with the same voice. She's one of us. She's an ordinary working class person. Chris Ray, 61

Just as Brexit was viewed as a rejection of globalisation, free-trade agreements, and open borders, the rise of Pauline Hanson can also be attributed to dissatisfaction with the economy.

Chris Ray, who runs a business selling spare parts for British-made motorbikes, believes in an Australia that makes things.

He is worried about the decline of local manufacturing and is not convinced globalisation has been a good thing for the country.

"What really happened with globalisation is the multi-national corporations decided it was going to be a lot cheaper to produce goods in third world countries at virtually slave labour prices, so that's what they did," Mr Ray said.

"Of course, in the West, we've now become addicted to really, really cheap appliances and goods but the question that comes to mind is how are we going to earn the money to pay for those goods?

"We've not only shipped that technology overseas, we've shipped the jobs overseas as well and there's a real shortage of jobs for everyone in the community."

Mr Ray points to Brexit and Donald Trump as proof voters are mounting a worldwide rebellion against the status quo.

"There's been a big reaction against that among ordinary people, working class people, and small business people," he said.

"They're pretty much fed up to the back teeth with it and I guess we're all looking to the smaller alternative parties, who are more willing to call it out as they see it, for a real alternative."

Mr Ray said it was "gratifying" to have so many minor parties to vote for in this year's election, including Pauline Hanson's One Nation.

"I don't pretend for a minute that Pauline has all of the answers. I know she often struggles to explain things but we don't care that she's not perfect," he said.

"She speaks to us with the same voice. She's one of us. She's an ordinary working class person, a small business person and she talks to us and I think with our help and support she'll eventually get it right."

The problems are all stemming from this organised invasion of Australia by so-called refugees from Islam. It's actually organised. Ray Harvey, 69

There is no doubt One Nation's anti-Islam bent resonated with many of the 250,000 Queenslanders who gave the party their first preference.

Retired merchant banker Ray Harvey is troubled by the rise of Islamic State and supports Pauline Hanson's push for a royal commission into Islam, telling Background Briefing he believes it would expose deep connections to terrorism.

"Royal commissions, generally speaking, expose the facts. They get away from the political correctness and get to the truth of issues," he said.

Mr Harvey is also concerned by the mass migration of asylum seekers from the Middle East to Europe and he is fearful of letting refugees who subscribe to the Islamic faith into Australia.

"The problems are all stemming from this organised invasion of Australia by so-called refugees from Islam. It's actually organised," he said.

The aim of this, Mr Harvey said, is the "Islamatisation of the west" and enforcement of Sharia Law.

His views are at odds with that of his Chinese wife, Sholitze, who remembers Pauline Hanson's infamous remarks in her 1996 maiden speech in parliament in which she claimed Australia was in danger of being swamped by Asians.

"This was a very provoking statement at the time to a lot of people who [had] just come here ... and people got very hurt," she said.

Ms Harvey, who migrated to Sydney from Shanghai in the 1990s, says her husband's anti-Islam views don't wash well with her or their daughter.

"That's a big disagreement between Ray, me, and our daughter," she said.

"Our daughter is a student at university and she did one project [where] she went to a Muslim community to interview ordinary Muslim people and she had strong compassion and sympathy [with] those ordinary Muslim people ... And I share this view with my daughter.

"[Muslim people] cannot agree with what Muslim extremist people did to the world and also share the worry and the fear."

I think Pauline's got a hell of a lot of guts. I like the fact she will stand up and say it how it is. She's not afraid about speaking about real issues. Amanda Sillars, 43

As the founder of a support group helping parents and children deal with separation, Amanda Sillars hears a lot of complaints about the family court.

"We have a lot of mums and dads helping each other. It's a gender neutral group. We don't tolerate any denigration of the opposite sex because [they are] all experiencing the same thing; [they are] all being let down by the family court," she said.

One Nation wants to abolish the family court altogether and replace the institution with a family tribunal made up of people from "mainstream Australia".

Pauline Hanson wants to get rid of lawyers and leave it up to local health, social, and community groups to make decisions on custody battles.

Ms Sillars supports the idea and commends Ms Hanson for speaking up about it.

"You need to remove people like the independent children's lawyers. These people are people studying law; they are not psychologists and the fact they're dealing with children's lives and they're not educated in psychology — it's like trying to get a GP to do brain surgery," she said.

"I think Pauline's got a hell of a lot of guts. I like the fact she will stand up and say it how it is. She's not afraid about speaking about real issues."

She spoke with passion about the need for change and how fathers are getting a raw deal. Dave, 38

One Nation's stance on the Family Court has struck a chord with dads who feel the system has let them down.

Dave, whose identity cannot be revealed for legal reasons, won his case, but that does not mean the experience of going to court was an easy one.

"I wish I had taken a second pair of undies on that first day," he joked.

"Nothing prepared me for standing up on that very first hearing day when the judge came in and I had to address the judge. I was a nervous wreck, I really was.

"Adding to that I was going through a really, really difficult bout of depression, but put that aside, I was intimidated by the system more than anything."

Although his legal battle is behind him, Dave is a regular at Dads In Distress meetings. While the men's support group itself is not aligned to any political party, many of the dads who attend are pleased Senator Hanson is highlighting their concerns with the Family Court process.

Dave says a common complaint he hears from other men at the meetings is that their ex-partners make false allegations about them

"False allegations are tying up so much court time and innocent parties are having to wait an extra year ... There's no deterrent or punishment whatsoever," he said.

Dave was impressed when he switched on the radio during the election campaign and heard Pauline Hanson speaking about this very issue.

"She spoke with passion about the need for change and how fathers are getting a raw deal," he said.

"I didn't have to listen to the detail of her policies, all I heard was awareness and she won me on that."

Hear David Lewis's full investigation into the resurgence of Pauline Hanson's One Nation on ABC RN's Background Briefing at 8:05am on Sunday, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, ABC Radio or your favourite podcasting app.

Topics: one-nation, political-parties, federal-elections, federal-parliament, ipswich-4305, qld, australia

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