The Conversation Documentaries
Jun 9, 2026 · 25 min · 8 segments
The media made Pauline Hanson and One Nation, but now the party holds all the power. It’s a perfect storm for democracy: a shrinking and cowering traditional media, the toxic algorithms of the…
Kurt SengulGuest
Ashlyn McGeeHost
Kurt Single, you're a political scientist at Macquarie University, and you've researched the nexus between the media and the rise of far-right populism.
But I think what is interesting is that even detractors, what unites detractors and supporters of One Nation is the belief that the media have been pivotal in her rise and success, and that's really interesting.
Everybody agrees that particularly in her first iteration, the 1990s, the amount of coverage that she received was enormous, and there are even scholars who go so far as to call Hanson a media-fueled phenomenon.
I think there was certainly demand for a type of politician and a type of political style like Hanson, but I think that the media were really pivotal to Hanson's rise, both in the '90s and also her return in the 2010s.
How would you describe the role that the media's played throughout Pauline Hanson's career?
The role the media have played has been one of visibility and amplification, and it's really a love-hate relationship.
From the outset, they've gone out of their way to generate media coverage, so they know how important the media have been.
During the '90s, they would kick journalists out of sort of One Nation meetings.
So if you could just relax and wait for the police to arrive and arrest those people who don't belong here.
[crowd cheering]
Particularly Hanson herself views the media as part of the elite who are really set out to destroy them.
For 23 years, I have been targeted by the media with their biased political agenda who have not bothered to report the full facts or give me a fair go.
Hanson's advisors sort of love the antagonistic relationship that Hanson and One Nation have with the media.
Whenever the media were attacking her, essentially they just saw her popularity increasing.
Hanson, I think, recognizes that too, but she really does see the media as having a personal grudge against her and really sort of setting out to destroy her.
To the media here today, you have come here baying for my blood, and I will not give it to you.
So there, there is that intense hostility towards the media while also recognizing that the media have been so critical to their rise and success.
Kurt Single, you're a political scientist at Macquarie University, and you've researched the nexus between the media and the rise of far-right populism.
But I think what is interesting is that even detractors, what unites detractors and supporters of One Nation is the belief that the media have been pivotal in her rise and success, and that's really interesting.
Everybody agrees that particularly in her first iteration, the 1990s, the amount of coverage that she received was enormous, and there are even scholars who go so far as to call Hanson a media-fueled phenomenon.
I think there was certainly demand for a type of politician and a type of political style like Hanson, but I think that the media were really pivotal to Hanson's rise, both in the '90s and also her return in the 2010s.
How would you describe the role that the media's played throughout Pauline Hanson's career?
The role the media have played has been one of visibility and amplification, and it's really a love-hate relationship.
From the outset, they've gone out of their way to generate media coverage, so they know how important the media have been.
During the '90s, they would kick journalists out of sort of One Nation meetings.
So if you could just relax and wait for the police to arrive and arrest those people who don't belong here.
[crowd cheering]
Particularly Hanson herself views the media as part of the elite who are really set out to destroy them.
For 23 years, I have been targeted by the media with their biased political agenda who have not bothered to report the full facts or give me a fair go.
Hanson's advisors sort of love the antagonistic relationship that Hanson and One Nation have with the media.
Whenever the media were attacking her, essentially they just saw her popularity increasing.
Hanson, I think, recognizes that too, but she really does see the media as having a personal grudge against her and really sort of setting out to destroy her.
To the media here today, you have come here baying for my blood, and I will not give it to you.
So there, there is that intense hostility towards the media while also recognizing that the media have been so critical to their rise and success.
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