Sunday 10th of May 2026
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bigoted humility wins the seat of farrer....

Following One Nation's extraordinary victory at the Farrer by-election last night, the party's leader Pauline Hanson has taunted critics who said she could never break into the mainstream.

One Nation has won Farrer in a landslide victory, decimating the Liberal and National vote, and claiming the first lower house win for the conservative party since Senator Hanson first entered parliament in 1996.

Senator Hanson told Sky News she had been "ridiculed" in the past by political rivals who claimed she could never win a lower house seat again and now that barrier had been broken.

The One Nation leader said politicians and the media had been "arrogant".

"It's the sheer arrogance, like we don't have any right to be on the political scene. What the hell? Isn't this a democracy? Don't you put your policies forward and what you want to do for the people?

"Or are we a third-world country; we have no right to go out there and express what we want to do for the country? This is why they will lose."

One Nation's victory on Saturday, while anticipated, has still caused ripples in the major parties.

Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson acknowledged the defeat at Farrer, which had previously only ever been held by the Liberals and Nationals, was a condemnation of the Coalition, which only 12 months ago won 43 per cent of the vote in that seat.

But Mr Wilson warned Labor it should not be complacent either.

"Because what people want to see is change," Mr Wilson told ABC Insiders.

"One of the most consistent messages is people want someone who is going to fight for them and their future.

"[And] people are going to be very antagonistic towards the government breaking its promises on tax issues in the lead-up to the budget."

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the result was a "bloodbath" for the Coalition, teasing that they would not reclaim power without One Nation's help.

"There's no future Coalition government, I think, without One Nation in it," Mr Chalmers told the ABC.

"And I would be very surprised if the clock wasn't already ticking on Angus Taylor's leadership."

Mr Chalmers added the budget he would hand down on Tuesday would not "lightly dismiss or deny" the real concerns of voters that played out at the Farrer by-election.

Liberals open door to future coalition with One Nation

Inside the Liberal Party, still finding its feet from its worst election result in modern history, senior figures are now entertaining whether the party would enter a coalition with One Nation if it was the only pathway to power at the next federal election.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott, who is now contesting for the party's federal presidency, has openly mulled that possibility.

Mr Wilson, a Liberal moderate, did not reject the possibility of a coalition with One Nation.

"Of course we traditionally form a coalition with the National Party, but it's up to the Australian people to decide who they want to vote for," he said.

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume did not entertain whether the Liberals would govern alongside One Nation when asked on Sky News this morning.

But the senator also did not rule out the option.

"We're already in coalition, we're in coalition with the National Party and that coalition has served Australians well," Senator Hume told Sky News.

Ousted opposition leader Sussan Ley, whose retirement triggered the Farrer by-election, said last night the party would have to "change or die".

That remark was the same Angus Taylor made when he gave his justification for challenging Ms Ley.

Senator Hume said Ms Ley was entitled to have her say, but "it was interesting on the booths though, no-one mentioned Sussan Ley to me, not in pre-poll and not on election day".

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-10/pauline-hanson-lashes-critics-one-nation-win-farrer-by-election/106662978

 

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         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

 

PLANE COURTESY OF GINA.

green notion?....

UNITING ONE NATION AND GREEN VOTERS....

The idea is being praised by some and ridiculed by others, but Charlotte Mortlock is convinced a new political party is just what Australia needs right now. 

"If you can't have a crack in Australia, where can you have a crack?" the former political staffer tells triple j hack.

"I am not naive, I am ambitious. Australia can do hard things."

Promising to "reinvent the wheel" and support "Australians who are feeling politically abandoned", Mortlock says her Something Better campaign is focused on capitalising on the common interests of Australians, rather than their differences.

"So many Australians aren't happy with the establishment, and they think that there are a lot of systemic flaws in our society," she says.

"The problem that we have with the major parties is they have refused to pick up on that sentiment."

Mortlock says she hopes the grassroots campaign will lead to the establishment of Australia's "next major political party".

"We are in a unique political landscape at the moment that is ripe for disruption," she says.

"We either let the disruption go the way that it continues to go … or we try something new."

 

'No hope' for Liberals

A few months ago, Mortlock herself might have aligned with those laughing off her dream.

A strong advocate for the Liberal Party for years, the former journalist was well-known as the founder of Hilma's Network, a national movement encouraging more women to join and shape the Liberal Party.

But in February Mortlock quit the Liberal Party and the group she set up, in protest at the direction the party was heading.

She says the decision felt inevitable after the party toppled its first female leader, Sussan Ley.

"It was time to accept that they weren't going to change," she tells hack.

"I could no longer, in good faith, keep putting my energy towards it and also to keep encouraging other people to join a movement that was starting to feel like it actually wasn't aligning with me anymore."

While acknowledging that she thinks Ley "made mistakes" as party leader, Mortlock maintains the former member for Farrer was not given a fair chance.

"The second that she got up, they just circled her like sharks."

"They", according to Mortlock, were Liberal MPs with "ambitions for themselves and for their own factions", who she says "undermined and rattled" the former opposition leader.

Mortlock says the move against Ley was a mistake, pointing to research showing the number of women voting for the Liberal Party has been dropping since 2004.

"There is no resentment from me … I just don't have hope for the Liberal Party, and I don't think it can evolve."

Learning from One Nation

Mortlock says the idea for Something Better came after noticing a rise in "anti-establishment" rhetoric in Australia, which has led many voters to turn away from the major parties in favour of independents and One Nation.

"[People] are working really hard and they aren't getting ahead," she says.

"They just genuinely want change and they don't think the major parties are going to be able to deliver it.

"I think people want a political party that is radical, but not necessarily in ideology. They want it to be radical in ambition and in tenacity."

Asked where the party she's hoping to kickstart will sit on the political spectrum, Mortlock says it will be more issues-based than ideologically bound.

"We've got to get away from this left versus right, conservative versus progressive discussion," she tells triple j hack.

"There are so many policies that I think could be unifying for everyone from the Greens to One Nation.

"Is it left or right, or is it just common sense?"

Uniting Australians

According to Mortlock, Something Better will focus on long-term goals and a vision for Australia, rather than election promises.

She is convinced her policies will have broad appeal, citing high-speed rail as an issue that galvanises support across the country.

But she is quick to point out that she will not be running her own agenda.

"This is a movement that I'm starting, but over my dead body am I having the arrogance to say what I think a policy should be," she says.

"We will be hosting events that have panellists that pitch different ideas and hopefully really creative, bold policies.

"We listen to experts, we listen to evidence, and we have the right people talking to policies."

With hundreds signing up to the campaign within 24 hours of launching, Mortlock says it is clear the idea is worth pursuing.

Eventually she is hoping the movement will launch an official political party, which can only be registered once at least 1,500 members are signed up, or at least one senator or member of the House of Representatives comes on board.

'It's not the teal movement'

She is dismissing criticism that her idea is just a rebrand of the existing Teal movement.

"The Teals are independents," she says.

"No matter how effective an individual is, I think it would be really unifying to create a new party that is a collective movement.

"If you get really valuable candidates who win a seat, you want them in cabinet, you don't want them scattered on the crossbench."

'Why wouldn't I?'

While the policies remain undecided, the one thing Mortlock is sure of is that she will not be running for parliament herself.

"I don't want to be a politician," she stresses.

"I would like to work for the new party … but I'm definitely not running myself."

She's putting the call out to anyone who is interested in change, including current independent MPs.

Mortlock says anyone is welcome to join the movement, regardless of their political beliefs.

"Yes, I am a former Liberal, but I am happy to make compromises on various things.

"I really think that there is more common ground than there is stuff to disagree about."

She is also dismissing those who claim that she is in over her head, or should give up politics altogether.

"We have to take personal responsibility for things that we want in our society, not complain," she says.

"Why wouldn't I have a crack at this?

"I am resilient enough to withstand a bit of public humiliation for the risk of creating something that could be really incredible."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-10/charlotte-mortlock-something-better-liberals-greens-one-nation/106658632

 

GO GREEN, YOUNG WOMAN... GO GREEN... 

 

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PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….