THE following question was tossed into the internet ether about Australian politics: “Does One Nation have a credible chance in the May 2028 federal elections?”
The replay was: “Yes, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party has a highly credible chance of making historic gains and fundamentally restructuring Australian politics in the May 2028 federal election.”
Some additional detail came up too. “Recent mid-2026 polling indicates an unprecedented surge in support that could position the party to win numerous lower house seats, potentially forcing a minority government or even allowing One Nation to displace the Coalition as the official opposition.”
Hanson needs no introduction to those following Australian politics from up here for the past decade.
Time was when she and her One Nation Party remained on sidelines of Australian political power, and occasionally criticising government policies perceived as overlooking pressing domestic matters while overreaching to the immediate region and further afield in the name of geopolitical and security strategy.
Not so anymore, it seems.
One Nation Party is gaining popularity among mainly conservative Australians, a move somewhat like Donald Trump’s Republican Party Maga — Make America Great Again — movement in the United States.
Hanson had been criticised for her Australia-first stance but it now appears that more and more Australians are beginning to see her reasoning.
On June 17 she addressed National Press Club in Canberra where she was asked about her party’s views on a range of issues including foreign aid.
A question was put to Hanson about the rise of China in the region. And the question was framed on the premise that Australian governments have increasingly relied on aid as a form of soft diplomacy to push back on the supposed incursion by China into the Pacific region.
Unsurprisingly, Senator Hanson went straight to singling out Australian aid to Papua New Guinea, saying that she has been hearing for years that the aid has been wasted through corruption.
“We’re giving foreign aid to countries that don’t respect it. And the corruption that’s happening there needs to change. I believe in foreign aid but we have to say clean up your backyard first,” she said.
The Queensland senator reasoned that there were about 130,000 Australians living in poverty while money that should assist them is spent abroad.
“We can’t get a roof over their (Australia’s poor) heads, and we’re giving foreign aid to countries that don’t respect it.
Senator Hanson is not the only prominent Australian politician who has been critical of Papua New Guinea’s handling of aid from down under. Speaking at another forum in June 2012, former Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, also pointed to the need to make Australian aid to the Pacific more productive in creating economic partnerships instead of mere development aid.
As a member of the shadow government Bishop had said then that the coalition was committed to more scrutiny of the multi-billion-dollar aid programme and to higher standards of effectiveness and to performance benchmarks.
In the region, Papua New Guinea receives annually the largest slice of aid from the Australian Government. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade states that in the 2025-2026 budget cycle that amount stood at A$707 million — roughly K2.16 billion.
That amount and unknown lesser amounts to other recipient nations in the region are given away in foreign aid while Australia has its thousands stilling living in poverty. That, like Senator Hanson has pointed out, calls for much gratitude and respect from the aid recipients.
And what better way to show such gratitude and respect to the donor than to improve accountability and making real efforts to minimise corruption?
Just as Australian taxpayers would rightly question their government’s foreign aid, any self-respecting Papua New Guinean would also be asking and maybe even looking forward to the day when reliance on Australian aid would come to an end as it must.
At least it will not be business as usual as regards foreign aid if the One Nation Party becomes an influential part of any future Australian government.
