Why the Greens are driving centre right voters to One Nation

The Greens have arguably become Pauline Hanson's greatest political asset. By embracing a radical agenda and plunging into progressive culture wars to a degree even the Left faction of Anthony Albanese's Labor Party finds unacceptable, the minor party is driving mainstream voters towards One Nation.

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Could it be that the Greens are the wind beneath Pauline Hanson's wings? Picture by Keegan Carroll

While political gravity usually punishes extremism, the Greens have so far escaped any electoral reckoning. Despite the potential difficulty of maintaining an unabashedly pro-Palestinian stance after the tragic Bondi massacre, the party has seen its primary vote remain stable, holding firmly in the 12 to 14 per cent range.

This masks the broader damage the party inflicts on the progressive side of politics. Every time the Greens champion an impractical or borrowed policy, middle-of-the-road voters abandon the centre-left entirely.

Consider the recent thought bubble pushed by Max Chandler-Mather and endorsed by new leader David Shoebridge. They proposed spending $25 billion to forcibly acquire 200 supermarkets from the major duopoly and and to run them as a government-owned enterprise with prices pegged well below market rates.

When moderate voters witness such economic lunacy they simply throw their hands up in despair and tell the next pollster they plan to back One Nation instead.

A striking parallel exists in the United States, where the Democrats have given what is arguably the worst administration in history some hope that the midterm elections will not deliver the absolute wipeout Donald Trump and his acolytes deserve.

Trump built his powerful movement upon an anti-woke, anti-groupthink, and anti-Washington swamp vibe, appealing directly to working-class voters whom Hillary Clinton famously dismissed as "deplorables". Pauline Hanson is now successfully replicating that formula.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas accurately diagnosed this phenomenon recently. He said the intense self-righteousness, sanctimony, and piety underpinning the great "awokening" on the far left tilled the soil for the inevitable countercultural movement on the right.

The Labor Party must find a way to avoid being outflanked by the true-believing leftists who have rallied to the Green banner, while wooing the core constituency it has steadily alienated - the blue-collar worker, the tradie, and the people who still make things.

This cohort is at breaking point. For years, real wages have stagnated while the cost of everyday necessities rocketed upward. People are working longer hours, taking on side gigs, and sacrificing their time with family, only to find that their paycheques buy a little less month on month.

Many feel as though the social contract has been shredded by an establishment that does not understand the pressure they are under.

This betrayal is felt most acutely in the housing market, which has mutated from a foundation of Australian security into a wedge of generational wealth. The great Australian dream has been walled off for a growing underclass of renters, while those who managed to scrape together a deposit are now chained to eye-watering mortgages.

Yet, instead of addressing this material decline, the left appears increasingly preoccupied with an entirely different conversation. For a family agonizing over grocery prices or skipping dental appointments to pay the power bill, the constant drumbeat of culture wars and identity politics feels like a deliberate insult.

Voters aren't necessarily rushing toward One Nation because they have suddenly embraced a sweeping new ideology; they are simply expressing sheer exasperation.

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