If you want to understand why One Nation keeps rising, come to the protests against Pauline Hanson.

I was on the ground in Melbourne as protesters gathered to condemn Hanson, but what unfolded was less a serious policy debate than a collection of slogans, contradictions and hostility toward anyone willing to ask questions. Some of the people demanding that Australians reject One Nation could barely explain the policies they were protesting.

One after another, people told me Hanson is a racist, then froze when I asked for a single thing she had said. A young man who identified as Palestinian said Hanson was racist against Palestinians, then admitted he could not remember what she had said about them. Moments later, he said he did not like Israelis. When I pointed out the contradiction, he still would not walk it back.

He also said he had not really looked into October 7. He had no answer for Australians who look at that kind of hostility and conclude Hanson has a point. Conveniently Australian when it suits. Conveniently Palestinian when it suits.

Elsewhere in the crowd, capitalism was blamed for genocide, inequality and racism, while socialism was presented as the answer. One girl said she was there for immigrant rights and gay rights, then struggled to name a Hanson policy she had actually read. Another admitted he had researched One Nation’s website, but not the socialist organisers he was marching alongside.

A teenager argued Australia should keep immigration roughly where it is. She acknowledged that the housing and infrastructure crunch was a fair concern, but still put open hearts ahead of catching up on capacity. She was articulate. She was also 15. Give her time. The adults around her are another story.

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You could see the influence of older activists in real time. A girl was happy to talk until an older activist stepped in, and the fear hit her face. Someone waved an Australian flag and was egged for it. Police pulled the alleged thrower aside.

 

The hostility extended to us as well. Victoria Police tried to move us on, while the security team accompanying us prevented the crowd from swarming the cameras. I stood my ground. I have the apology letters from the last three unlawful arrests, and there will not be a fourth without lawyers attached.

That security was funded through ProtectAvi.com, and it matters because six security guards between us and an angry crowd can be the difference between getting the questions answered and having the entire encounter shut down before anyone hears them.

The protest itself looked thinner than the last one, and people in the crowd noticed. One Nation’s numbers are going the other way. When I put that to protesters, some shrugged, some snarled and a few of the calmer kids understood the problem even if they hated the conclusion.

Screaming at people does not persuade Middle Australia. It can have the opposite effect. The people who came to get Pauline Hanson out of Parliament may be doing more for her brand than any press conference she could stage.

There were a couple of kids willing to argue in good faith, including some who admitted Hanson might have a point on nuclear power or that puberty blockers are a legitimate subject for debate. Credit where it is due. They were the exception.

The rest was cardboard-salad politics: Free Palestine, eat the rich, love is love, always was, always will be, trans lives matter, all on one sign, with almost no one able to defend the pile with anything deeper than a TikTok feeling.

I will keep walking these protests because the footage does what the slogans cannot. It shows what people actually say when they are asked to explain themselves.

If you want that coverage to continue, support the security that makes it possible at ProtectAvi.com. Without that support, the mob gets the veto and you never hear the answers.

Watch the full report. Share it. Then decide for yourself who is really doing the recruiting.