Australia faces resurgence of One Nation party

By Andrea Hopkins

CANBERRA (Reuters): Riding a wave of Australian voter discontent, Pauline Hanson's xenophobic One Nation party has arisen from the political ashes to once again threaten the government and damage Australia's reputation in Asia.

One Nation's stunning comeback in a state poll on Saturday has forced Prime Minister John Howard to scramble to woo disgruntled voters ahead of an expected end of year election.

Hanson's political rebirth has been splashed across the pages of Asian newspapers, which excoriated the anti-immigration firebrand when she first burst onto the scene in 1996.

"They're (government politicians) not listening to the people of Australia and really getting the feedback of what's concerning the Australian people," a triumphant Hanson said on Monday.

"So, if they don't listen to the Australian people they'll find they'll be voting for someone else," Hanson warned.

And that's exactly what voters did on Saturday.

Preaching an end to Asian immigration and "privileges" for Aborigines, One Nation won nearly 10 percent of the vote in the Western Australia election, helping topple the eight-year-old conservative Liberal/National state government and usher in a Labor administration.

Two of Asia's most influential newspapers, The South China Morning Post and Singapore's Straits Times gave wide coverage to Hanson's resurrection. Hanson Comeback Puts PM On Notice and Scourge of Canberra rises again, said the Post.

The Times ran a front page story State poll shock for Howard govt, warning of "chilling implications" for Howard.

Australian analysts said on Monday the resurgence of One Nation dealt a massive blow to Howard's re-election chances.

The government faces a swing to the opposition Labor party, a rise in voter support for minor parties and independents, and now One Nation's politics of revenge which places sitting members of parliament last on their how-to-vote cards.

The Western Australia election showed an eight percent swing to Labor. In the federal poll expected by November, Labor needs a uniform countrywide swing of just 0.6 percent to take power.

Minor parties such as One Nation and independents polled almost 30 percent in Western Australia, reflecting discontent with the traditional Liberal/National coalition and Labor.

"The inbuilt cynicism about the major parties has reached crisis proportions," said John Warhurst, professor of political science at Australia National University.

While dismissing the state poll as based on local issues, Howard has already begun trying to stem the political blood.

"What I will be saying to One Nation voters is that if you are by normal inclination a Liberal support, by voting One Nation and following their preference advice you're voting for (Labor leader Kim) Beazley," Howard said on Monday.

Political analysts said Hanson supporters voted against the conservative coalition due to discontent over high fuel prices in the countryside, unhappiness at a new 10 percent sales tax introduced by Howard last year and deregulation of the dairy industry, which has forced many farmers off the land.

The surprise of One Nation was not only in its healthy support -- after almost self-destructing since winning a million votes at the 1998 federal election and a Senate seat -- but in how chillingly it was able to punch above its weight.

Hanson, a red-haired former fish and chip shop owner whose current motto is "A fair go for Australians", unleashed a deadly strategy in Western Australia, putting sitting members last on the preferential voting slip, the complex trickle-down system under which Australian elections are run.

"If you've got a force of people who are effectively saying 'we don't care who gets in', and if they can marshall five to 10 percent of the vote, that is an extraordinarily potent weapon," said Warhurst.

The Australian newspaper said One Nation was "an angry force with no raison d'etre other than to punish the big parties".

Hanson, described as "Lazarus in a floral frock" and "the country's ultimate anti-politician", has vowed to employ the same strategy in Saturday's election in her home state of Queensland, where her party won 25 percent of the vote in 1998.

"The 10 percent vote for One Nation scares me," Queensland's Labor premier Peter Beattie conceded on Monday.

But Hanson's real target is Prime Minister John Howard.