The Populist

One Nation was the first Australian political party with a website, and its online game today is recognised as some of the most effective in the business. The party specialises in shareable anti-immigration messaging – and in bypassing traditional media to reach voters directly. ‘She tells it like it is,’ Pauline Hanson’s supporters say. But her tactics come straight from the populist right playbook: harvesting fear and grievance for political power. In the final episode of The Populist, Sarah Martin traces Hanson’s journey from her beginnings as Australia’s first ‘cyber politician’ to her leading role in the rightwing nativist movement that is sweeping the globe

One Nation receives millions in public funding, but former members have accused the party of leaving candidates out of pocket, ‘funny money deals’ and letting donations get ‘lost in the system’. When senior correspondent Sarah Martin followed the money, she discovered even those on the inside are asking questions about accountability, and why some are saying the man brought in to improve the system might be making it worse

Most Australians know the story of Pauline Hanson: the fish and chip shop, the maiden speech, the ‘please explain’. But Hanson’s top adviser James Ashby wields as much – if not more – power over One Nation as Hanson herself. When the party bars media from press conferences, it’s Ashby who makes the call. To understand how One Nation operates, it’s important to understand Ashby’s story, from his beginnings as a PR flack, through a massive parliamentary scandal, to his ascent to political power as the party’s popularity soars

‘If you’re trying to say I’m being funded by Gina Rinehart, the answer is no.’ That’s what the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, told the Guardian’s senior correspondent Sarah Martin in February. We now know that’s not true. Over months, Martin has pieced together flight-tracking data and expense records to uncover the true extent of financial support flowing from Australia’s richest person to the country’s fastest growing political force. Episode one of The Populist tells the inside story, from the Farrer byelection to the National Press Club, including exclusive new reporting

Around the globe, rightwing politicians pushing nationalist and anti-immigration policies are on the rise. The Populist explores the growing appeal of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation – a party that has imported the modus operandi of the populist right, including Trump-style attacks on the media. In a new four-part podcast series, investigations correspondent Sarah Martin asks who One Nation really stands for and whether the party has what it takes to achieve power in Australia