Steve Price: Australia correspondent chats Pauline Hanson's unprecedented stardom

Far-right politician Pauline Hanson's party One Nation has seen an unexpected surge in popularity ahead of this year's election, and Hanson's stardom has skyrocketed as a result. 

Australia correspondent Steve Price told Mike Hosking about his encounter with her at a local football club.

"She walked in and got a standing ovation from people, and then a queue formed to her right of mainly young people I would say. And they all wanted a selfie, they all wanted to have a picture taken with Pauline Hanson."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Steve Price, how are you lovely spot down there in Braconta.
I did a day trip down there not that long ago.
You beautiful bluff.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I went to Bluff, Yes, indeed, and that's the place
to go for the oysters. Of course, this pole this
morning and the two points. Is there anything in this
so one Nation twenty two, Coalation twenty three, Labour thirty two?
Is there is there anything material in this the Have
we seen peak? One nation?

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Maybe? But there's a long time to the next federal
election and they're still in front of the coalition, so
that's a pretty healthy result for them still. And the
government itself, well, they're flat, they're not going up, not
going down, and the Coalition is staying about the same.
So it tells me that people are still not feeling
engaged by the major parties, either Labor or the Coalition. Coincidentally,

(00:48):
on Saturday, I spent the day with Pauling Senator Pauling Hanson.
She visited my local area because we have a by
election here coming up state by election on the second
of May. So she was down here with the local
candidate and I can tell you she got a rock
star welcome. I mean, I've never seen anything like it.
So I was at the local football club luncheon which

(01:11):
they have when they have a home game, and she
walked in and got a standing ovation from people and
then a Q form to her right of mainly young people,
I would say, and they all wanted to selfie. They
all wanted to have a picture taken with Wallen Hanson,
and they waited, you know, waited for half an hour
or more just to get a picture with us.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
So what club are we talking about?

Speaker 1 (01:35):
The Sorrento Sharks AFL team.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Right, so you are down on the you you live
out of town to explain to people, so you you've
got to So this is I don't know what what
do you call it? Provincial victoria, rural victoria, rich person's Victoria,
the latter.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yes, definitely, although Portsya's a bit more wealthy than Sorrento.
But nevertheless, I'm an hour and a half out of town. Right.
The local hospital needs to be rebuilt. She's promises going
to get that done. So look, I mean, you and
I have seen politicians come and go, and I've known
Pauline for a hell of a long time. Had some
really very tough arguments with her when I was on radio,

(02:15):
but what I witnessed on Saturday was quite remarkable.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
She has she got a magnetism about her in person.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
I wouldn't say that, no, but it's the iPhone generation.
They all want to have their picture taken with people
who are well known, and so that's what that's what
it's about. Will that transfer into vote, I don't know.
We'll wait and see. May two will be a big.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Test interesting Ben Robert Smith. But I watched as I
don't know what do you call It wasn't a press conference.
He didn't take any questions, but I mean, where does
that stand and how long is that going to take
to unfold?

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Well, reports This Morning's Lawyers. This has been Robert Smith.
Of course, VC serived in in I think three tours
of Afghanistan's facing serious charges of war crimes murder. This
story has really generated a lot of emotion right across Australia.
You're either in the Ben Robert Smith camp or you're not.

(03:14):
And he's gone back to the Gold Coast. He was
in a jail cell in Sydney for seven or eight days,
released on Friday, Lake Friday and drove back to the
Gold Coast as you said. Made a media appearance yesterday.
Australian Disbaber reporting today that his lawyers are considering an
application to permanently halt the proceedings because they argue there's

(03:36):
no way Ben Robert Smith can get a fair trial.
Now it's Commonwealth charges that have been laid against him.
That means it has to be heard before a jury
and a judge. And I guess the lawyers are going
to say, well, how can he possibly anywhere in Australia.
Can you put a jury together that doesn't know any
of the details of what Ben Robert Smith is up against.

(03:57):
I thought it was interesting he didn't take questions, probably
not surprising. He said, I understand this is an unprecedented case,
public interests huge, Media's got a job to do, but
can you please leave my family alone. The one quote
from him that I found quite remarkable or quite interesting
was I never ever turn away from a fight. I

(04:18):
never run away from a fight. If you go and
read his VC Award nomination as you can tell exactly
why he has that pinned on his chest.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Interesting. So free you're on the tram this morning or
the bus from Sorrento because it's free, does it go
all the way to Sorrento. Is it just downtown Melbourne.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
It's a combination of bus and train if you wanted
to do that trip. It's not something I've ever enjoyed myself,
I must say. But yes, all public transport is going
to be free until the end of May. Now I
get very annoyed when I use the word free, because
it's not free. The taxpayers are paying for it. Now,
as I said, we've got a by election I made too,

(04:59):
then a state election in November. And guess what the
premiers decided, She's going to make public transport half price
after the end of May, when it stops being completely free,
half price until the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Wonder why that would be exact?

Speaker 1 (05:13):
I mean, she must know what's going to happen in
the straits of all Moles in October, I presume, because
otherwise why would you be doing that.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
You call it now that that Pharaoh thing, the by
election in Pharaoh, which is out of your state, obviously,
But is that like, is that building a head of
excitement at all?

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Not really one hundred percent, because it's tests to one
nation and the Labor Party are not standing a candidate
there is a so called independenteeal that is being funded
by a climate two hundred. There's a national candidate, there's
a Liberal candidate. So yes, whatever happens here in the
by election and then in Pharaoh will tell you where
the one nation's numbers are real or fake?

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Okay? And would you call the election in Victoria for
Labor at this point? I mean they should, They should
have been three years ago. And I just don't understand
why or not.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
My call on that, and it will change between now
November obviously would be that the Premier herself loses her
seat in Bendigo and Labor gets back with a majority
of not sixteen as it currently is, but about three.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
And who will the leader be?

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Probably called Ben Carroll as the deputy premier. But I mean,
you're right, they should have been thrown out. The state's busted,
broke and not a particularly nice place to live at
the moment.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
No, I'll speaking of which Geelong, did they I take it,
they put it all out. How badly damaged is that
in terms of supplying fuel and gas and petrol and stuff.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Well, Viva the Boss tries to downplay it every time
he's on with the Prime Minister I think that's because
he hopes that the government's going to help repair it.
But it's ten percent of Victoria's petrol which is now out,
and so the prices while they dropped across the weekend,
and I think diesels even now under two dollars. A
leader that is going to put a big dent into

(07:00):
live for sure.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
I'll go on see Wednesday, Appreciate It.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
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