Autistics must oppose Pauline Hanson’s One Nation

 

By Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Victoria, Australia

In Victoria, we face the very real prospect of a One Nation – Liberal Coalition coming to power at this November’s state election. This will be a disaster for Autistics, First Nations people, immigrants, women, LGBTIQ people and the environment. One Nation is a notoriously discriminatory, anti-Autistic party, funded by billionaires, that wants to build nuclear power stations and abolish our climate change goals.

Our State Labor Government has been in power for twelve years and it is un unusual for governments to remain in power for much longer. At the state election this November, we are bracing for a three-way contest between centre-left Labor, centre-right Liberals and the ascendant far right party, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. (The Greens, which campaigned against cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, do not attract a large percentage of votes.)

Because we have preferential voting, and because right wing parties exchange preferences, the Liberal and One Nation votes combined are expected to outnumber Labor’s votes in a large number of electorates, turning our governing Labor Party into a minority in the state parliament. This could well lead to a hung parliament where all political parties are in a minority. In this case, it is predicted that the Liberals and One Nation will jointly form government, putting the far right One Nation into powerful positions within a government for the first time.

Why is a One Nation – Liberal coalition government a danger for Autistics?

·         One Nation opposes Autistic kids in classrooms. In 2017 Senator Pauline Hanson infamously accused children with disabilities of putting strain on teachers and schools, wrongly claiming that other children were being 'held back' by teachers spending time with children with disabilities.

·         Pauline Hanson promotes the debunked vaccine-autism link. In 2016, Yahoo news reported, “Ms Hanson went on to tell the Daily Mail that more research needs to be done about the link between vaccination and autism and cancer. "I have had so many people who have brought it to my attention, that's why their kids are autistic," she said. Hanson further advised parents to have their kids “allergy tested” for vaccines, before admitting that no such allergy test exists.

Similar views, pedalled by the Trump administration, have seen a rise in preventable measles deaths in the US.

·         Pauline Hanson ridicules people on NDIS and calls for means testing of services. A One Nation video mocking the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which includes offensive depictions of people with a disability, has been condemned, with advocates calling for Pauline Hanson to remove the video and apologise. The clip is from the YouTube series Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain, describes the NDIS as a “scam” and a “rort”.

·         Pauline Hanson questions why disabled people should stay in housing commission. She recently attacked the prime minister’s late mother, a disabled single mum, for remaining in a housing commission flat, suggesting that disabled pensioners should be kicked out of housing commission property after a certain length of time.

·         Prominent One Nation politicians are homophobic, transphobic and anti-abortion. While Pauline Hanson has opposed extreme homophobic slurs, One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts is ‘in two minds’ about whether gay people should be equal. He also said he would push for the party to claim that life begins at conception.

One Nation WA senator Tyron Whitten said during a podcast interview segment about 'gender' in August last year that "there's male, there's female, and then there's mental illness".

Cory Bernardi, who is One Nation's lead in South Australia, says he stands by previous comments he made linking gay marriage to bestiality and polygamy.

In 2019, Hanson rejected a parliamentary motion to recognise intersex people. She also criticises “gender ideology”.

·         Pauline Hanson promotes racism. Throughout her 30-year parliamentary career, Pauline Hanson has claimed that we are being “swamped by Asians”, “swamped by Muslims”, that “there are no good Muslims”, that Indigenous Australians are "the most primitive race on Earth,” that “we must be a mono-culture” and she blames migrants for everything that goes wrong in society. Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman, has repeatedly warned that public rhetoric from political figures and populist groups that dehumanises or scapegoats migrants, First Peoples, and minority communities lays the groundwork for discrimination, exclusion, and escalation to violence. Pauline Hanson opposes Welcome to Country and will support a Victorian Liberal Government scrapping Treaty.

·         Pauline Hanson excuses domestic violence and attacks women’s rights. She has infamously complained about police spending too much time on domestic violence at the expense of “real crime”, even though there is an epidemic of femicide. She also opposes paid maternity leave and suggested women are just having children for the money.

·         One Nation chooses many crooked candidates and staff with criminal and drug associations and extreme views. Its Victorian leader, Warren Pickering, lost his license three times for drink driving, is a self-confessed former druggie, has been called a “sexual deviant” by his former partner and promotes conspiracy theories. He owes the government $13,500 he should not have taken for first home buyers

·         Most One Nation politicians have left the party because of Pauline Hanson’s dictatorial ways.

·         One Nation’s constitution makes Pauline Hanson leader for life and is undemocratic. She will choose her successor – no internal party elections!

·         One Nation has been lax in handling its finances and has had to repay money to the Electoral Commission

·         Pauline Hanson obviously cannot run the economy. Her policies are not costed. She hasn’t learned much in 30 years in parliament as she often doesn’t turn up to work. Experts say her plan to stop migration “will tank the economy”. Politicians who have worked with her say she has no idea about economics.

·         Pauline Hanson is supported by billionaires and opposes workers’ pay rises. Instead, she wants us to empty our superannuation funds, leaving us poorer in old age. She also wants to make cigarettes cheaper, which will ruin workers’ health and help the tobacco industry. One Nation will team up with the Liberals who want to cut $40 billion from the public service, threatening jobs and services in our hospitals and schools

·         Pauline Hanson wants nuclear power plants and opposes Net Zero. Despite the fact that almost all scientists are sounding the alarm about global warming, Pauline Hanson opposes climate action. She has abandoned her support for a gas reservation plan, which sets aside gas for domestic users, because it has been vehemently opposed by Senex, a $900m company that is 49% owned by Hancock Prospecting, which belongs to One Nation’s billionaire backer, Gina Rinehart. One Nation wants to build two nuclear reactors on Victoria’s east coast.

·         Pauline Hanson supports Donald Trump and increased military spending. She wants Australia to support Trump’s war on Iran. She wants Australia to spend 5% of our GDP on military, an extra $400 billion over the next 4 years, a change that would likely need Australia to introduce compulsory military service for young people.

Obviously, our community and environment are in grave danger with the growing influence of far-right politics, so what can we do as Autistics to help counter this trend?

·         Get vocal and active in any way you can – through social media, talking to people, joining in meetings, making donations, displaying election stickers and signs

·         Make sure you are enrolled to vote and apply for a postal vote if you cannot tolerate the sensory environment of polling booths on election day

·         Make sure you understand voting instructions for each ballot paper and make your vote count.

·         Vote 1 Labor, but if you want to register a progressive protest vote, vote 1 and 2 for Socialists and Greens and 3 for Labor, putting Liberals and One Nation last!

Let’s stick together – regardless of the outcome of Victoria’s elections, we still need to live by our values, support one another and care for Mother Earth.