Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party wants to see the Coalition win federal office at the election on May 3, and hopes it can influence the party with a stronger presence in the Senate.
These are the thoughts of Lower House candidate for Bruce in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, Bianca Colecchia.
While the right-leaning, nationalist One Nation has for years benefitted from disenchanted voters leaving the Liberal Party, the minor party says working with the Coalition is important to try cut down Australia’s expected $1 trillion debt.
“Obviously, we want to see a Coalition government. I think Dutton started off very well at the start of his campaign,” Colecchia, 32, told The Epoch Times.
“But he watered down his message, and he walked back some of the main policies that he was going strong on.
“I think that was where his campaign started to lose strength,” she said.
During the campaign period, the Coalition has watered down, or stepped back from key policies—likely due to polling of voter sentiment—like reversing work from home for Canberra-based public servants, not overtly promoting its nuclear power policy, and distancing itself from the slogan: Make Australia Great Again.
“I do believe the Coalition is not going far enough on many of the issues where we need to see them going hard on,” said Colecchia.
“We want to see them forming government, and that’s why we hope to see more of us elected from One Nation.
Trans, Women’s Rights Clash An Issue of Education
Last month, Colecchia, 32, told this publication she had genuine concerns about left-wing themes being taught on university campuses, which she blamed for a recent incident involving a clash between trans rights protesters and a women’s rights rally in Melbourne CBD. Two arrests were made.“We need to go back to common sense, and acknowledge basic biology,” Colecchia said.
“You’ve got professors telling students to vote for communist parties. It’s not a surprise that young people by the time they get out of university, the education system has produced an army of woke activists.
“That’s why education is one of my main areas.
“To walk back all the damage that’s been done, we need to fix the education system and get the ideological nonsense out of it.
One Nation Support Increasing According to New Poll
Last week, One Nation reached 10.5 percent of primary votes according to a national YouGov poll–the highest of all the minor conservative parties, and has gained ground on the Greens who sit on 14 percent support.Colecchia has noticed this increase in popularity towards her party at listening posts and early-voting booths.
“More people are getting disenfranchised from the major parties. But I think the Coalition failed to capitalise on the discontent that there was around Labor, which was showing at the start of their campaign when they were going strong at the polls,” she said.
Last week, One Nation leader Hanson ordered a re-print of how-to-vote cards in 11 marginal seats, with One Nation now putting the Coalition second in its preferences.
She has originally planned to put the minor conservative parties above the Coalition.
“But when [Trumpet of Patriots Chairman] Clive Palmer came out and said he was preferencing the teals [independents] and going to Labor before the Coalition, that was why we changed our preferences in 11 seats and we put him below the Coalition,” Hanson told ABC Radio Australia.
