Chris Coomber, 52<\/p>\n
The steelworker said he was planning to vote for One Nation. \u201cThey just say what they feel. No bullshit. I mean, she [Hanson] probably lies like the rest of them do. But I actually haven\u2019t voted in, like, 12 years. Don\u2019t trust any of them. But I\u2019ll go back and vote this year.\u201d Coomber previously voted Labor.<\/p>\n
On One Nation\u2019s policies on race and culture, he said: \u201cI don\u2019t mind [multiculturalism] but I can see where she\u2019s coming from because people don\u2019t mix any more \u2026 It\u2019s changed in the last 20, 30 years. I grew up in Clarinda [a suburb between Pakenham and the city] and back then there was a lot of Yugoslav groups, Lebanese, but we all got on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coomber said migration, crime levels in Melbourne and what he saw as over-investment in infrastructure had fuelled his distrust in politicians. \u201c[Politicians] should actually go out in public, you know, and see what the real world is actually like. I mean, they\u2019re in their own bubble. They should live like an average Aussie would for a month, see how they go \u2026 I don\u2019t think they\u2019d fancy it too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Coomber says migration, crime levels in Melbourne and what he sees as over-investment in infrastructure have fuelled his distrust in politicians. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The GuardianVictoria Oh, 38<\/p>\n
Oh said her impression of Hanson was that she was \u201cracist\u201d and politics was becoming \u201ctoo American\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cutting back on migration would be \u201ca big loss to the Australian economy\u201d, she said, \u201cespecially with international travels, holidays, student visas, the amount of work that we have here that is reliant on immigration, and reliant on international students as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always been a very multicultural country and that\u2019s not really what [Hanson] intends to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oh did not agree with Hanson\u2019s claim that childcare workers were being paid too much. \u201cI look after my child, I don\u2019t send him to childcare, but the work is crazy, so I believe that they deserve as much as they can get. Same with teachers \u2026 there\u2019s so much responsibility. Six children to one \u2013 I\u2019m struggling with one to myself!\u201d<\/p>\n
Rochelle Bennett, 30<\/p>\n
Voting these days, Bennett said, was about \u201ctrying to pick the better of two evils\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s real hard. I think that literally they\u2019re all liars, they\u2019re just all liars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of One Nation, Bennett said: \u201cThat\u2019s a tough one. Some things I think are good, some things I think are a little bit controversial\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said \u201ca little bit of a crackdown on immigration, a little bit\u201d would be a good thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think some of the things [Hanson] comes up with is a little crazy, like walking up to Uluru and saying she should be allowed on because she was born in Australia, so she\u2019s Indigenous Australian when she\u2019s clearly not \u2013 that was crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rochelle Bennett says \u2018a little bit of a crackdown on immigration\u2019 would be a good thing. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
On Hanson\u2019s \u201cmonoculture\u201d policy, Bennett said: \u201cAustralia has always been multicultural. Australian was originally Aboriginal and then the English come in and the Irish and all these other cultures \u2026 so I don\u2019t think you can just make it one culture, it just isn\u2019t doable. Australia is known for being multicultural.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tara Coles, 42<\/p>\n
Coles said One Nation \u201cmake a lot of sense\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the fact that [Hanson] is honest and she\u2019s actually putting the average Australian first and just cutting through the bullshit, not trying to pander to minorities a lot, and just says it as it is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Other politicians weren\u2019t \u201ctransparent with their policies at all\u201d, she said. \u201cThey\u2019re just saying what will get them the vote and then backflipping on everything and just doing whatever they want and not listening to average people at all\u201d.<\/p>\n
Coles said she wasn\u2019t interested in politics until recently. \u201cI\u2019m just kind of sick of the bullshit and I want to give someone else a go, because how worse can it get?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coles firmly believed in a connection between migration levels and housing scarcity. \u201cI know people that are borderline homeless now and it\u2019s not like from lack of trying. They\u2019ve worked their asses off, they\u2019ve got partners, they can\u2019t save anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tara Coles says Pauline Hanson \u2018says it as it is\u2019. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The GuardianKatrina, 72<\/p>\n
Katrina, who spoke to Guardian Australia on condition her last name not be used, said she thought Hanson was \u201cracist, probably is not coming from a place that she makes herself out to, she gets lots of money, she\u2019s done a lot of things that are really bad\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never liked the woman. Never will.\u00a0I don\u2019t really agree with much of what she has to say \u2026 I don\u2019t have time for her or anything like that at all. It doesn\u2019t matter if she\u2019s got one or two good points, to me, the rest outweigh anything that she might have good to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI think we\u2019d be going backwards if we elected her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam Mukherjee, 47<\/p>\n
Mukherjee said he understood One Nation was \u201cgiving a good fight to Labor\u201d but there was little fiscal and material detail in the party\u2019s policies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way things are going, it\u2019s a good alternative but then also what we could see is some concrete plans which are missing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mukherjee was equivocal about Hanson\u2019s \u201cmonoculture\u201d claims. \u201cI don\u2019t think she necessarily means that she is not inclusive. That\u2019s what my understanding is. And obviously Australia is a very large country and we do have people from various countries here,\u201d he said. On migration: \u201cI think definitely it has to be a planned migration. It can\u2019t be an unplanned migration, not having infrastructure, not having housing in place \u2026 that would obviously not be good for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he would vote for the party, he said: \u201cYou know, if they have come up with a good plan, then why not?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam Mukherjee said there was little fiscal and material detail in One Nation\u2019s policies. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Coomber, 52 The steelworker said he was planning to vote for One Nation. \u201cThey just say what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-751377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}