Populism In Australia Essay

Australia, like many successful democracies is a representative democracy and is governed, for the most part, by a two-party-dominant system. There are some defining factors that set Australia apart in these two regards though. In terms of the political parties seen in Australia, the two major parties are the Australian Labor Party -- the equivalent of the Democratic Party in the United States -- and the Liberal National Coalition -- the equivalent to the Republican Party in the United States -- which is a political alliance of four centrist and conservative parties. Although, since the 1950s there has been a steady incline in third party candidates to the House of Representatives that voters have listed as first on their ballots -- as opposed

With these growing anti-establishment sentiments there becomes space for movements like populism to begin to make way into the Australian political landscape. A current example of populism can be seen a political group called One Nation which has now gained four seats in the Australian senate (fourth most seats behind the two major parties and the Australian Greens). One Nation is a right wing group led by Pauline Hanson -- once an independent member of parliament -- who holds views including a national ban on muslim immigrants into Australia and climate change as a fraudulent claim made by scientists to slow down Australia’s fossil fuel industry. Potentially two of the largest reasons for One Nation gaining traction is rising immigration -- in particular the immense influx of immigrants in Europe in response to the Syrian conflict -- and wealth inequality -- the top 10% of households hold 45% of the national wealth. At this point in time, Pauline Hanson’s and One Nation’s victory of four senate seats is nowhere close to the success of Donald Trump populist movement in the U.S. which has earned him the Republican nomination for president of the United