Wednesday 4th of February 2026
Home » Blogs » Gus Leonisky's blog

albo has to fight a surge from the mad right-wing extremists.....

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has announced her conservative party’s mystery new recruit as it enjoys a dramatic resurgence in the polls.

Former Liberal senator Cory Bernardi will be One Nation’s new South Australian leader, heading the party’s legislative team at next month’s state election.

“Cory has strong, sound conservative values that are an excellent fit with One Nation,” said Hanson late on Monday.

“He’s a prominent South Australian keen to make the positive differences in his home state the Liberals just can’t bring themselves to make.”

Bernardi was a Liberal senator from 2006 to 2017, representing South Australia. He quit the Liberals in 2017 to form his own party, Australian Conservatives, which disbanded in 2019.

Bernardi resigned from politics in 2020 and had his own show as a political commentator for Sky News until 2023.

His recruitment follows the high-profile defection of former Nationals’ MP Barnaby Joyce and comes as One Nation soars to fresh heights of popularity.

A RedBridge poll shows 26 per cent of Australians would put One Nation first on their ballot paper if an election were held on Monday — a nine-point increase in support.

In contrast, backing for the Liberal and National parties dropped to a combined 19 per cent, down seven percentage points December’s numbers.

Labor led the poll with 34 per cent of the primary vote.

“Cory has strong, sound conservative values that are an excellent fit with One Nation,” said Hanson late on Monday.

“He’s a prominent South Australian keen to make the positive differences in his home state the Liberals just can’t bring themselves to make.”

Bernardi was a Liberal senator from 2006 to 2017, representing South Australia. He quit the Liberals in 2017 to form his own party, Australian Conservatives, which disbanded in 2019.

Bernardi resigned from politics in 2020 and had his own show as a political commentator for Sky News until 2023.

His recruitment follows the high-profile defection of former Nationals’ MP Barnaby Joyce and comes as One Nation soars to fresh heights of popularity.

A RedBridge poll shows 26 per cent of Australians would put One Nation first on their ballot paper if an election were held on Monday — a nine-point increase in support.

In contrast, backing for the Liberal and National parties dropped to a combined 19 per cent, down seven percentage points December’s numbers.

Labor led the poll with 34 per cent of the primary vote.

Meanwhile, Nationals leader David Littleproud faces mounting pressure within his party to reunite with the Liberals after surviving an attempt to challenge his leadership.

Littleproud, who vowed no one within the Nationals could serve in a shadow cabinet under Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, is being urged to reunite the Coalition almost two weeks on from the latest break-up.

The pair met on Monday night ahead of parliament’s official return for the year, for the first formal talks to negotiate a potential reconciliation.

Deputy Nationals leader Kevin Hogan described the discussion as “really good, civil, co-operative and friendly”.

“There is a will within our room, the Nationals and obviously the Liberal party room, that we want to be a Coalition again at some time in the future,” he told ABC’s 7.30.

“We have some issues to deal with, and we, in good faith, are trying to nut them out right now.”

Hogan said it was unlikely the two parties would face the first Question Time of the year together.

Littleproud blamed Ley for the split after she accepted the resignations of three Nationals senators who breached shadow cabinet solidarity by voting against an agreed position on hate crimes laws. Hogan said the key sticking point remained, and there had been no agreement about reinstated the trio.

On shadow cabinet solidarity, he said it had been fully discussed and that the Liberals had put forward suggestions.

“We’re going to take some of those ideas to our party room too, so that we can agree with some of the guardrails of how they want it to operate going forward,” Hogan said.

Earlier on Monday, Queensland backbencher Colin Boyce failed at a Nationals party room meeting to secure the support needed to formally bring on a vote to spill the leadership.

Boyce said the party needed to reunify to reform the Coalition, with a majority of MPs backing a separate motion introduced by Victorian MP Darren Chester to reinstate the political alliance.

Ley will also likely face a challenge to her leadership of the Liberals this fortnight by Angus Taylor.

The Nationals and Liberals are alarmed as polling continues to show surging support for One Nation, surpassing that of the Coalition.

Ley had previously given the Nationals a one-week deadline to come back into the fold.

The Liberals plan to expand their shadow cabinet if there is no agreement by next Monday, taking over the former frontbench roles of the Nationals.

The Nationals party room were to meet again on Tuesday before the chambers sit at midday AEDT.

-with AAP

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2026/02/03/cory-bernardi-one-nation-2

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

 

 

one nation's fairies....

 

Trumpism, but make it Australian: One Nation’s migration fantasy

By Abul Rizvi

 

By borrowing Trump’s rhetoric while ignoring Australian law, One Nation offers fear, fantasy and cruelty in place of workable migration policy, writes Dr Abul Rizvi.

WITH ONE NATION resurgent in the polls, Mike Seccombe for The Saturday Paper talked to Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby. Not surprisingly, after the Bondi massacre, Ashby focused on ending migration from Muslim nations.

Whilst he wasn’t specific about which nations, he said:

“The Trump list is a very, very good and clear list that other countries like Australia should be looking at.”

The Trump list of 75 nations from which visa processing has been suspended does not include India, which is where the older of the two Bondi terrorists was from, with the son having been born in Australia.

The cessation of visa processing from 75 nations by the USA (including non-Muslim majority nations such as Nepal and Fiji) was by Executive Order signed by President Trump. While it is not clear if the Order made by the President is legal (it will be challenged in the courts), Australia’s migration system operates on the basis of the Migration Act from which the Minister for Immigration derives his/her power.

Australia’s Migration Act does not include a power to cease visa processing from selected nations. There is power to suspend visa processing for certain classes of visas (s85), but that power does not extend to specifying nations from which visa processing could be suspended. That would be contrary to the non-discriminatory nature of Australia’s migration policy. The Act would need to be amended to provide that power, which itself would then likely be contrary to the Racial Discrimination Act.

It is also notable that s116 of Australia’s Constitution prohibits the Government from making any laws that discriminate between different religions.

Ashby justifies One Nation’s anti-Muslim policy on the basis of the following:

“We certainly know that Islamic terrorism is being allowed into the country because we’re doing proper vetting on the backgrounds of some of these people. Extremism is alive and well. We know that, because ASIO had at least 200 people on their terrorism watchlist and guess what? They all come from the same ideology, the same hateful religious ideology that is bred in certain countries around the globe.”

The 200+ people Ashby refers to aren’t confined to Muslims as he alleges. Reports in the Murdoch Press say 35 per cent of the 200+ were ‘religiously motivated’. Another 40 per cent were ‘ideologically motivated’. The latter group would include neo-Nazis, White supremacists and sovereign citizens, many of whom may be inclined to vote for One Nation given its policies.

A large portion of the 200+ would have been born in Australia. The vast majority would be Australian citizens rather than on visas. If they were on visas, the Government would by now have moved to cancel their visas using existing provisions of s501 of the Migration Act.

Ashby expresses concerns about inadequate vetting, but, like Trump, provides no evidence to support where the vetting has been inadequate. He may or may not know that visa refusal rates for nations in the Middle East and North Africa are significantly higher than for nations in most other parts of the world. We do not know how much of that is due to security concerns or other factors.

But if One Nation is concerned about inadequate vetting or that the Government is not cancelling visas of people on ASIO’s watchlist, why would it have opposed the recent Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill? One of the specific purposes of the Bill is to enable the Government to more readily refuse or cancel visas for members of specified hate groups. That would seem to be exactly the kind of “proper vetting” Ashby is referring to?

There are two hate groups that have been discussed in the media for possible listing. Hizb ut-Tahrir and various neo-Nazi groups. Did One Nation oppose the Bill because it was concerned about the possible listing of neo-Nazi groups, or that much of One Nation's language and actions, especially at anti-immigration marches, which are also attended by neo-Nazis, could be construed as hate speech? 

Migration levels

On immigration levels, Ashby is reported to have said One Nation wants to halve the overall intake to 130,000. Presumably, he is referring to net migration, which in 2025-26 is forecast by Treasury at 260,000.

But Ashby also says:

“Effectively, 130,000 just merely replaces the people we’re losing — net zero, although I hate using that term.”

It’s not clear what Ashby means by “replaces the people we’re losing”. Does he mean deaths, which in 2024-25 were 185,700? Unlikely. Does he mean net migration departures, which in 2024-25 were 262,800? Again unlikely.

Does Ashby mean natural increase, which in 2024-25 was 114,556? But he couldn’t be referring to natural increase as that plus net migration of 130,000 gives a population increase of around 245,000 — not “net zero”. Does he think the natural increase in Australia is negative, as it is in many developed nations?

One Nation’s website refers to capping visas to 130,000 per annum. No explanation is provided on what types of visas will be capped. The Australian Government issues well over half a million visas each month, so it’s unlikely One Nation is referring to capping all visas at 130,000.

I suspect that, despite the One Nation Party raving on about immigration for decades, they actually have no idea what they are talking about (and really don’t care) as long as their followers hear the anti-immigration and the anti-Muslim message.

Mass deportation

The top priority on One Nation’s list of immigration policies is mass deportation.

The website states that a One Nation government would:

‘Deport 75,000 illegal migrants because Australia’s immigration laws must be enforced, not ignored.’

Immigration compliance and deportation is an essential part of any efficient visa system. I was surprised when Peter Dutton and his Secretary Mike Pezzullo emasculated the immigration compliance function. The Labor Government has restored some of the immigration compliance resources Dutton and Pezzullo cut away.

Much more needs to be done in this area. But that requires clear and deliverable objectives, careful planning, highly trained compliance officers, expanded detention facilities, lawful decision-making and a very significant increase in resources. There is little evidence Hanson understands what is involved. She may be eyeing the chaos of Trump’s mass deportation policy with envy.

Indeed, her website states:

‘Want Trump’s action and style, then it’s One Nation you need.’

As Australians learn more about the disasters and deaths Trump is presiding over with his militaristic mass deportation policy, they may be less enthusiastic about Hanson’s mass deportation rhetoric.

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/trumpism-but-make-it-australian-one-nations-migration-fantasy,20609

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.