Source : Perth Now news
One Nation has kicked off its Victorian state election campaign with a rambunctious campaign launch in Melbourne on Saturday.
In front of about 750 party faithful, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson declared “what I provide is a vehicle, now you are the engine, now you drive it” to cheers from the crowd.
The 2½ hour event was held at Crown Conference Centre in Southbank and ended as dozens of One Nation candidates swarmed the stage to AC/DC’s Thunderstruck.
Senator Hanson, who walked on stage to rap artist Skrxilla’s Big Time and a standing ovation from the crowd, said Victorian Premier Ben Carroll had been on national television the week prior to say he was “terrified of One Nation”.
“That surprised me because, if I were the Premier, I can think of a few things that would terrify me a lot more,” she said.
“Like handing the CFMEU $15bn … like running up $200bn of debt, like having machete-wielding gangs terrorising Victorians while they sleep.”
Senator Hanson said Victoria used to be “strong and prosperous” but was now a place where business “go broke under Labor”.
“You only get good government if you have got a good opposition,” she said.
“Victoria has had neither. Labor has won every election but one this century. They’ve given you the debt, the lockdowns, the crime and the corruption and still won three elections in a row.
“That happens when the opposition doesn’t do its job.”
Senator Hanson argued both Labor and the Coalition parties were two sides of the same broken system, but there were “no safe seats left for any party in Australia”.
“Red or blue it’s the same outcome: rising cost of living, mass migration, higher taxes, record levels of debt, a broken healthcare system, out of control crime, less freedom, schools that indoctrinate our kids instead of teaching them,” she said.
“Australians have had a gutful of the uni-party, they want change and real change.”
First to address the crowd, One Nation candidate Mark Nicholson, co-creator of the Please Explain cartoon series, said he believed Victoria was “at a turning point” and ready for a “revolution”.
“What started as a ripple in Farrer reverberated across the country to South Australia, and now the orange wave hit Secret Harbour and turned the tide, and now the orange wave is about to hit Victoria which will reverberate across the country,” he said.
“This is a movement, this is the real deal and this is how together we can take Victoria back.”
Announcing the party’s policy platform, titled The Real Deal, Mr Nicholson said One Nation would make Victoria the toughest state on crime in Australia.
Mr Nicholson said a One Nation government would be transparent with spending, cancel the Suburban Rail Loop and axe the Victorian State Treaty – the final point receiving a large burst of applause.
“If I had it my way Dan Andrews and Jacinta Allan would be in prison by Christmas,” he said.
One Nation Victoria’s leader Warren Pickering labelled One Nation’s candidates for the upcoming state election, set to be held in eight weeks time, “soldiers … prepared to fight for Victoria”.
“We are mission focused and we are ready to take this state back and put it into the hands of those who build it,” he said.
“This is our moment, let’s show the rest of Australia what a One Nation Victorian government can do.”
Ahead of speeches from Senator Hanson, Mr Pickering, state MP Rickie-Lee Tyrrell and others, attendees mingled among platters of doughnuts and a sales table selling, among other things, blue MAGA – Make Albo Go Away – hats.
There was a small protest outside the venue. The election is set to be a major test for the upstart party, which secured just over 2 per cent of primary votes in 2022 but has surged in popularity according to polls.
The Victorian state election will be held on November 28.
The latest Freshwater Strategy poll of 1030 voters between September 24 and 28, found the Coalition leading on 29 per cent, Labor at 24 per cent and One Nation at 22 per cent in the state.
