Bryan Dawe interviews a senior Labor figure about the smoothest national conference in decades — three days, one open debate, and not a face in the room. A tribute in the spirit of Clarke and Dawe.
Tag: One Nation
The Scorecard
One Nation has won the seat of Farrer. The Liberal vote collapsed by 31
points. The journalists filed the numbers. Urban Wronski asks the harder
question: what does a win like this mean when the information ecosystem that
democracy depends on is owned, hollowed out, and burning? A Martin Amis-
flavoured reckoning with journalism, dark money and the Palace of Lies.
The Front Fell Off The Coalition
Written in tribute to the late great John Clarke and his long-suffering straight man Bryan Dawe, whose two chairs and a clipboard remain the gold standard of Australian political satire. The occasion: One Nation’s historic first win in the House of Representatives, the Coalition’s nine-point-eight per cent primary vote in a seat held since 1949, and an exit strategy that turns out to be no exit at all. Going forward.
That Was the Week That Was, Part 3: “The Farrer fracture:
One Nation’s David Farley has taken the once‑impregnable Coalition seat of Farrer. But with Gina Rinehart’s funding and the party’s rural base, who really owns the populist rage?
One Nation’s battler lie unravels
One Nation calls itself the battler’s friend. Gina Rinehart’s plane, the NRA’s phone calls and Big Coal’s Senate votes tell a different story. Howard sowed the tares.
The Boys Are Back in Town: How the Liberal Party’s Glass Cliff Claimed Its First Female Scalp
Sussan Ley lasted nine months. The glass cliff, the men’s rights vote, and the conservative faction that never wanted a woman leader — Urban Wronski connects the dots.
The Blue Bacillus: How the Liberal Party’s Corporate DNA Became a Fatal Infection
The Coalition’s polling collapse reveals a terminal decline. When corporate DNA meets authoritarian legislation, democracy itself becomes the casualty.
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Australian men are defecting to One Nation in record numbers. This isn’t hardship—it’s status dislocation marketed as political rescue. Meet Kevin.
The Hypocrisy of Hanson: Howard’s Political Love Child
Pauline Hanson wags parliament for Mar-a-Lago while One Nation surges to 15%. From Tampa to Family Court, how Howard’s bastard child betrays her voters.
Ask Not What You Can Do for One Nation—But What Has One Nation Ever Done for Anybody?
If Helen of Troy had the face that launched a thousand ships, Pauline Hanson has the face that launched a thousand chips. But the real story isn’t about Hanson at all—it’s about Long John Howard, who stole her racism in the 1990s, laundered it through the language of sovereignty and security, and left both major parties trapped in a political theatre he built thirty years ago.
One Nation polls at 14% between elections but collapsed to 6.4% in May—the evergreen boost that never makes it to the ballot box. Yet even with Anthony Albanese’s historic landslide, Labor still governs within Howard’s frame, still talks tough on “border security,” still uses his language. The government changes. The script endures.
From Barnaby Joyce playing pantaloon to Hanson serving up warmed-over resentment with extra chicken salt, this is how we all ended up living in Howard’s Australia.
Urban Wronski Writes 