Speaker 1: I'm Daniel James and you're listening to seven AM. South
Speaker 1: Australia does not usually wake up on election day at
Speaker 1: the center of the national mood. But this morning a
Speaker 1: contest that looks settled on paper is carrying a much
Speaker 1: stranger ategy. The government, led by Peter Melamowskis is expected
Speaker 1: to win comfortably. The real movement is happening elsewhere in
Speaker 1: the noise around one nation. The protest vote in the
Speaker 1: middle of a cost of living crisis, gathering around a
Speaker 1: once marginal party, and the possibility that a state election
Speaker 1: could end up telling us something bigger about where Australian
Speaker 1: politics is heading today. Editor of In Daily Say Belinda
Speaker 1: Willis on the state election that might be a whitewash
Speaker 1: for Labor, but a warning for everyone else. It's Saturday,
Speaker 1: March twenty one, Belinda. A lot of people are looking
Speaker 1: at South Australia as a test case for how one
Speaker 1: nation might go federally and in other states. We've seen
Speaker 1: videos of Sky News and Pauline Hanson walking the streets
Speaker 1: being formed over by fans.
Speaker 2: Hello, this is like random?
Speaker 1: Is that genuinely how South Australians are feeling? What's the vibe.
Speaker 3: Well, it's an interesting one. Pauline Hanson has been here
Speaker 3: more than usual. She did come here during the federal
Speaker 3: election campaign as well. You know, it has been an
Speaker 3: interesting vibe. South Australia is in a state that normally
Speaker 3: votes one nation. We don't have a single one nation
Speaker 3: member in the Upper and Lower House.
Speaker 1: Hello Peter, thanks, thank you very much.
Speaker 4: Photo for you.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Pauline Hanson obviously has been around a long time and
Speaker 3: people recognize her.
Speaker 1: Was there any foodage of Pauline Hanson having a pie floater?
Speaker 1: For instance?
Speaker 3: I haven't seen having a five flater at this stage.
Speaker 2: There has been all sorts of stunes going on here.
Speaker 3: She did have a confrontation with the premiere at one
Speaker 3: stage leaving one of the media outlets recently, where she
Speaker 3: took him to task over some comments he'd raised recently.
Speaker 3: But I haven't seen her in a pie floater personally.
Speaker 1: Apart from the pie floater. How much of a present
Speaker 1: says she actually had in the state herself in the
Speaker 1: leader to the vote and what are some of the
Speaker 1: things that one Nation are offering here?
Speaker 2: Well, it is quite fascinating.
Speaker 3: This has been an election where at times I wonder
Speaker 3: is the media helping raise the profile rather than the
Speaker 3: party itself. I guess it's very difficult in the media
Speaker 3: when you cover politics to keep people engaged, and One
Speaker 3: Nation obviously is an outlet that does grasp people's attention
Speaker 3: with some of their more out their comments that they make.
Speaker 3: So in terms of policy, it feels like there's been
Speaker 3: a transferring of the national policies. There's been a huge
Speaker 3: focus on anti migration.
Speaker 4: The Premier of South Australia's finally revealed hebacks the immigration
Speaker 4: ponzi scheme. Yep, that's right. We haven't got enough workers
Speaker 4: today apparently, so we'll bring some in to care for
Speaker 4: the elderly, and when those workers get to old, we'll
Speaker 4: just keep bringing more and more and more.
Speaker 3: There has been a lot of talk about the poison
Speaker 3: of the left in education institutions and how they want
Speaker 3: to stab that out.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's the reality of what we're dealing with.
Speaker 4: We've got drag Queen story time, you've got the education.
Speaker 3: You're referencing ects a small cohort of that. There's been
Speaker 3: a lot about that politics around the haves and the
Speaker 3: have nots, and there's a lot of people here, like
Speaker 3: people around the nation who are concerned about the rising
Speaker 3: cost of living, whether they can afford to buy a house,
Speaker 3: whether they can actually rent a.
Speaker 4: House found it an independent property analysis group have said
Speaker 4: that if migration was cut by one hundred thousand well
Speaker 4: houses would be more affordable. In the face of everything
Speaker 4: the uniparty leadership keep telling us, they've.
Speaker 3: Been calling labor and Liberal parties the UNI parties to
Speaker 3: sort of push that agenda even further, that they're the elite,
Speaker 3: that they're the haves, you're the have nots.
Speaker 2: We're here to speak out for you.
Speaker 4: The people South Australia clearly want an effective and strong voice.
Speaker 4: It's going to stick up for them after being let
Speaker 4: down by uniparty politics for far too long.
Speaker 3: And Cory Bernardi, who's the essay leader here, also has
Speaker 3: been creating little videos on Instagram mocking Aboriginal people at
Speaker 3: various institutions around town.
Speaker 4: We at the front of the Women's and Children's Hospital.
Speaker 4: It's an institution, but apparently it's now called the Younger
Speaker 4: Kicking Yoga. Kuka wildly sender, why why are we doing
Speaker 4: this to ourselves? No one knows where that Google Waggly
Speaker 4: center is they just know where that women's and children's
Speaker 4: hospital needs to be.
Speaker 3: There's sort of little snippets that don't really go into
Speaker 3: any detail, but work on divisiveness and that sort of
Speaker 3: disaffected voting population.
Speaker 1: So the usual one nation stick. Really, what have you
Speaker 1: been hearing from voters who are planning to vote for
Speaker 1: one nation? What are their reasons? Are there local issues
Speaker 1: at play here or is it similar case to elsewhere
Speaker 1: around the country where it's all bundled up in a
Speaker 1: protest vote.
Speaker 3: I think there is a huge element of protest vote
Speaker 3: around this. Our most recent polling has shown that the
Speaker 3: areas most likely to vote for one nation are actually
Speaker 3: in the country regions or out of suburbs. We do
Speaker 3: have a labor government and a lot of people in
Speaker 3: the regions traditionally vote liberal. Our Liberal party has been
Speaker 3: in disarray. We've had a regular changing of leaders here.
Speaker 3: Our campaign has not been helped at all by having
Speaker 3: the federal coalition emploding, and people in the country areas,
Speaker 3: a lot of people are.
Speaker 2: Saying that they've had it. They don't feel like they're
Speaker 2: being listened to.
Speaker 3: And there's this party that is emerging and saying, oh,
Speaker 3: we've got someone you can blame you can blame the
Speaker 3: amount of immigrants that are coming in, or you can
Speaker 3: blame the party for just pandering to the elite.
Speaker 2: So there is an element around that.
Speaker 1: I think, how are the major parties actually trying to
Speaker 1: head off one nation, particularly the government who was expected
Speaker 1: to be returned quite comfortably. What have they been doing
Speaker 1: to try and steiny one nation's ascent?
Speaker 3: Well? I don't think how government really has a great
Speaker 3: deal to be concerned about in terms of being returned.
Speaker 3: We have forty seven lower House seats and they currently
Speaker 3: hold I think it's twenty nine of those, and the
Speaker 3: Liberal Party holds thirteen. There has been i think from
Speaker 3: the Labor Party and all seats campaigned that they would
Speaker 3: like to clean the place out if.
Speaker 2: They possibly could.
Speaker 3: I do think that both leaders of the Liberal and
Speaker 3: Labor Party have tiptoed around the issue in the early
Speaker 3: stages of the camp pain that they haven't spoken out
Speaker 3: about some of those more concerning statements and policies that
Speaker 3: One Nation have been putting forward.
Speaker 2: Yesterday, I did hear.
Speaker 3: Them during interviews where they were more robust and gradually
Speaker 3: have been stronger about picking apart some of those arguments
Speaker 3: that One Nation is making but they've left that run
Speaker 3: a bit late, considering we're at the polls.
Speaker 1: Today coming up in South Australia, the Canaryan the coal
Speaker 1: mine for one nation in federal politics.
Speaker 5: Pauline, I've got to jump in here.
Speaker 1: This surprises me.
Speaker 5: Right up down Street walks with a lot of politicians
Speaker 5: over the years, and you're such a polarizing figure, but
Speaker 5: you're treated like a rock star here. Everybody wants to
Speaker 5: get a photo with you every and most of them
Speaker 5: have got kind words to say.
Speaker 1: Christ they have people are are screaming up. All they
Speaker 1: want is hope.
Speaker 2: They seem to hope for the future.
Speaker 1: What do you think success would look like for one
Speaker 1: Nation as the results rolling over the coming days.
Speaker 2: Well, I guess even once it would be a success.
Speaker 3: Really, the polls that we have been publishing are showing
Speaker 3: that there is the likelihood of definitely one Upper House
Speaker 3: seat that Corey Bernardi is likely to pick up, possibly two,
Speaker 3: maybe even three in the upper House. The lower House,
Speaker 3: it's you know, no one can really predict what will
Speaker 3: happen there. I think that success for them though, would
Speaker 3: be that their profile has raised. I think that is
Speaker 3: a good thing for them. Nationally. No matter what, everyone
Speaker 3: seems to be talking about them. The media is talking
Speaker 3: about them a lot more than they have for years.
Speaker 3: We're talking about them the surge of oranges everywhere around
Speaker 3: the So I think that it's been a successful campaign
Speaker 3: for them no matter what.
Speaker 1: And what's the worst coast scenario for the Liberal Party
Speaker 1: here because they're polling behind one nation correct.
Speaker 3: Yes, that is the case at the moment. They have
Speaker 3: had a really tumultuous time. They've very shortly before the election,
Speaker 3: I think like a month out swapped to leaders again.
Speaker 3: We've had a former Liberal leader who was convicted around
Speaker 3: drug charges. He has popped up again in one of
Speaker 3: the seats. He's challenging Labor and Liberal back in his
Speaker 3: old seat in Black where he's always been very popular.
Speaker 2: The polling is shown that there has.
Speaker 3: Been a slight rise in awareness and support for their
Speaker 3: new leader, Ashton Hern, who has been like a dynamo
Speaker 3: really on the campaign trail. But she's had a very
Speaker 3: small runway. They could end up with single digit seats.
Speaker 3: There's another former Liberal who's standing as an independent who's
Speaker 3: facing domestic violence charges at the moment in the sup
Speaker 3: he's to standing against the Liberal member there. You know,
Speaker 3: it's going to be a fascinating day for all of
Speaker 3: us political junkies here. I'm quite excited about seeing how
Speaker 3: it all fans out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we need to get a life, don't we. What
Speaker 1: about what about pre polling? Has there been a big
Speaker 1: turnout in the days before election day?
Speaker 2: There has been? There has been.
Speaker 3: Is it really interesting how strong that has become? Actually,
Speaker 3: you know, back in the in the olden days, you know,
Speaker 3: early days of covering politics, it would always be the
Speaker 3: big hurrah would be on the Saturday polling day. But
Speaker 3: these days people get out early. They are all out
Speaker 3: of the booths, all of the candidates are at the booths,
Speaker 3: Their people are voting early. So I think it was
Speaker 3: only yesterday that the Labor Party released their costings for
Speaker 3: their policies, but a huge number of people would have
Speaker 3: already voted.
Speaker 1: If one nation does manage to convert pole numbers into
Speaker 1: actual votes and seats, what do you think that means
Speaker 1: for the rest of the country Pole And could a
Speaker 1: strong result in South Australia translate federally or be rooting
Speaker 1: too much into this at this stage?
Speaker 2: You know, that is really hard to predict.
Speaker 3: I think what it should be doing is giving a
Speaker 3: wake up call nationally too, parties that are not addressing
Speaker 3: Australians out there who are really concerned about their futures
Speaker 3: that they feel disenfranchised and not listened to. They feel
Speaker 3: like they haven't been able to have a voice, that
Speaker 3: they can't buy a house like that has always been
Speaker 3: the Australian dream that their children, they worry about their futures.
Speaker 2: I think it.
Speaker 3: Should be a wake up call for the Labor Party
Speaker 3: around that, and I think that the Liberal and National
Speaker 3: Party need to get their act together. There's been quite
Speaker 3: a strong move towards the more conservative faction within the
Speaker 3: Liberal Party and I think that as a result they
Speaker 3: have lost a lot of their voters and you've seen
Speaker 3: that nationally with the Teals. We haven't got that same
Speaker 3: strength in Teal candidates here.
Speaker 2: There will be some people.
Speaker 3: Drifting towards the Greens, and polling has shown that between
Speaker 3: the eighteen and thirty four year range there has been
Speaker 3: quite strong polling for them. But I think we have
Speaker 3: a very popular premier here in Peter Malanaskar's our Labor premier,
Speaker 3: and he is part of the right faction in the
Speaker 3: Labor Party, So I think they've just been hoovering up
Speaker 3: that section of Liberal voters who are traditionally going to
Speaker 3: be out there at the polling boost for the Liberal Party.
Speaker 1: The drift towards one nation is likely to sharpen as
Speaker 1: the fuel crisis starts. To buy blender and when people
Speaker 1: are under pressure, governments usually wear the blame. The Prime
Speaker 1: Minister has announced a fuel task force this week. Is
Speaker 1: that going to be enough for voters are already feeling
Speaker 1: the strain?
Speaker 3: I don't think it'll have any impact whatsoever. We have
Speaker 3: to recognize that there's so many people out there that
Speaker 3: don't feel connected with politics, and we know as political
Speaker 3: reporters and journalists and editors that we have to work
Speaker 3: really hard to try to get buy in from our
Speaker 3: readers for stories that are particularly focused on our democracy
Speaker 3: and around politics, and it is so important. But there
Speaker 3: has been over the years, you know, that has fallen away.
Speaker 3: There's lots of people you know that say, you know,
Speaker 3: they wouldn't vote if they didn't have to, And I
Speaker 3: think pulling together something like that around the issues around
Speaker 3: fuel isn't going to make any difference whatsoever. If you've
Speaker 3: got farmers out there who can't you know, feel their
Speaker 3: tractors and preparing for planting out on the farms or
Speaker 3: to be able to truck their good selfwhere. And I
Speaker 3: think that overall, even more so than the impact of
Speaker 3: one nation at the moment, we do have such a
Speaker 3: vast difference between the numbers of people supporting our two
Speaker 3: major parties and that labor If it does end up
Speaker 3: like Western Australia dominating our parliament, the bigger concern that
Speaker 3: I see is that there isn't going to be that scrutiny,
Speaker 3: that there's going to be, you know, sweeping through of
Speaker 3: change and legislation that won't have that same impact and
Speaker 3: import from the wider majority of people in the state.
Speaker 1: Well, Blinda, it's going to be a fascinating day. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us and have a great day.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1: Seven Am is a daily show from Solstice Media. It's
Speaker 1: made by Adigus Bastow, Aril Richards, Chris Dngate, Crystal Kellor,
Speaker 1: Nicole Johnston, Travis Evans, Zoltanfetcho and me Daniel James. Our
Speaker 1: theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hergan of
Speaker 1: envelop Bodier Thanks for listening to seven AM this week.
Speaker 1: Have a great weekend.