Guardian Essential poll: voters reject key One Nation policies as support slips

Survey shows two-point fall in vote amid concern about Pauline Hanson’s links to Gina Rinehart and ability to run country

Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast

Australians have emphatically rejected some of One Nation’s key policies, including shutting down SBS and ending multiculturalism, with voters raising concerns about Pauline Hanson’s closeness to the billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart and whether the party has the skills needed to run the country, according to a new poll.

But even as the latest Guardian Essential poll finds voters have major reservations about Hanson and her party, more than half of respondents said they were either definitely or at least considering voting for One Nation at the next election.

The Guardian Essential poll of 1,017 voters was conducted last week – after Hanson’s controversial press club speech – and found One Nation’s primary vote dropping two points, to 26% from last month’s 28% . Labor’s primary vote ticked up one point, to 30%, while the Coalition remained on 23%. Those movements are within the margin of error of the poll but are consistent with several other published polls this week – Newspoll, Redbridge and Roy Morgan, among others – which found a slight increase in Labor’s vote and a slight decrease for One Nation.

Hanson has recorded far higher net approval ratings than the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, or the opposition leader, Angus Taylor.

But after a fortnight of media scrutiny on Hanson and her party’s policies, Australians have resoundingly rejected many of One Nation’s key proposals.

Peter Lewis, the executive director of Essential Media, said this month’s poll suggested One Nation’s poll may be “plateauing”.

Only 15% of respondents supported Hanson’s calls to privatise the ABC , with just 11% agreeing to shut down SBS. After Hanson’s calls for a “monoculture” in Australia , only 20% said they’d support ending multiculturalism.

Just 18% supported withdrawing Australia from the United Nations, while only 18% backed calls to review workplace laws to give employers more power. Slightly higher numbers said they would support stopping abortion after 20 weeks (26%) and stopping the renewables transition to instead focus on fossil fuels (25%).

More broadly, only 29% of Australians said abortion should be legal in all cases – down 12% from the last time Essential asked this question in November 2024. Forty-two per cent said abortion should be legal in most cases, 19% said abortion should be illegal in most cases and 9% that it should be illegal in all cases.

In total, 72% said abortion should be legal in some or all cases, down 7 points since November 2024. A further 28% said it should be illegal in some or all cases, up 7 points.

Despite concern about One Nation policies, many Australians are still keen or curious to vote for Hanson’s party. Some 29% of people said they would definitely vote for One Nation at the next election , with a further 23% saying they would be open to it, for a total of 52%.

Only 27% of respondents said they would definitely vote for Labor, with a further 23% open to it, for 50% total. Only 18% said they would definitely vote for the Liberals and just 8% said the same for the Nationals.

But in one bright spot for the Coalition , larger numbers of Australians said they were open to voting for those parties, potentially representing “soft” One Nation voters whom Taylor could win back. Some 32% of people said they would be open to voting Liberal and a further 36% said the same for the Nationals.

Among people saying they were open to, or definitely, voting for One Nation, immigration was cited as their key driver, followed by sentiments about the major parties not listening and wanting to give another politician a go. The third-highest driver was concern about the widening gap between rich and poor.

But when asked what their concerns were about One Nation, 51% of respondents said they were concerned that the party did not have “a team of skilled people to run Australia”.

Some 50% said they were concerned about One Nation being backed by Rinehart, while 45% were concerned that One Nation would “turn Australians against each other”.

Albanese’s net approval ratings improved slightly but remain in negative territory; the prime minister’s approval rating went up one point to 38%, with his disapprovals down three points to 51%, but his net approval remains at minus 13.

Taylor also ticked up, despite his party’s vote not improving. His approval rating went up three points to 36% while his disapproval remained at 37%, for a net approval of minus one.