{"id":919893,"date":"2026-10-07T22:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T22:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919893\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T22:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T22:22:13","slug":"one-nation-fancies-itself-as-the-real-deal-at-least-paulines-party-has-a-sense-of-humour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919893\/","title":{"rendered":"One Nation fancies itself as \u2018the real deal\u2019. At least Pauline\u2019s party has a sense of humour"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 8, 2026 \u2014 5:30am<\/p>\n

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One Nation is not without a sense of humour. How else to explain The Real Deal, the ironic choice of title for a state election manifesto that offers so little detail as to how any given policy might work, let alone cost.<\/p>\n

To set the scene, imagine Pauline \u201cThe Real Deal\u201d Hanson in a wrestling tunic and a sequined cape, biceps oiled and bulging, strutting to the ring for a tag team match with Warren \u201cThe Warrior\u201d Pickering.<\/p>\n

\"PaulinePauline Hanson emerges from the smoke to launch her party\u2019s Victorian campaign.Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n

That is the feel of the politics-meets-sports-entertainment, championship wrestling-style campaign launch that accompanied the release of a policy document which sets out One Nation\u2019s plans for governing Victoria.<\/p>\n

All of which would be fine \u2013 if the contents of the document, like the political theatre, were not so unreal.<\/p>\n

From the opening Shutterstock image of a pearly white family who look like they live in an Ikea showroom, to AI-generated phrasing that, among other things, advocates greater use of AI in policing, the policy platform leaves you wondering whether One Nation is run by people or a flame-haired avatar lifted from a 4Chan message board.<\/p>\n

As my colleague \u201cRowdy\u201d Kieran Rooney complained between pages, the more you read, the less you understand.<\/p>\n

\"RoyalRoyal rumble: Wrestlers ham it up in San Antonio, Texas.Getty Images<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean One Nation isn\u2019t putting forward some reasonable ideas.<\/p>\n

If we stick with the party\u2019s area of greatest focus \u2013 the state\u2019s criminal justice system \u2013 it would be wonderful if everyone charged with violent offences could progress to trial within 90 days and the Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) and Legal Aid Victoria were properly funded to run and defend all cases.<\/p>\n

There is also something to be said for the idea of holding parents legally responsible for the damage caused by their under-16 children who become roaming, recidivist offenders. As one senior Labor official remarked under his breath, he would have liked to have come up with that one.<\/p>\n

But if we accept the adage that an uncosted policy is just a slogan, pledging unspecified \u201cadditional funding\u201d to the OPP or a \u201cproportional funding boost\u201d to the Drug Court doesn\u2019t raise these promises above the status of wistful aspiration.<\/p>\n

There are further promises to build new magistrates courts in Melton, Epping and The Warrior\u2019s marginal electorate of Pakenham and to expand from 140 to 170 the number of magistrates currently active on the court lists.<\/p>\n

\"OneOne Nation Victorian leader Warren \u201cThe Warrior\u201d Pickering addresses the campaign launch.Photograph by Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n

The Wyndham Law Courts that opened last year cost $270 million to build but, as we know from the short history of that facility, it is easier to build a new court than staff and operate it<\/a>. One Nation won\u2019t get change from $1 billion if and when its new courts put their first 10-year-old child in the dock \u2013 one of the less palatable \u201ccommunity safety\u201d measures in The Real Deal.<\/p>\n

The deeper problem here is less what One Nation is advocating than its misunderstanding of Victoria\u2019s sentencing laws as they are currently written. Remember, this is the party that will very likely hold the balance of power in the next parliament\u2019s house of legislative review.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"One<\/a><\/p>\n

In its policy document, One Nation claims judges, when passing sentence in Victoria, are not required to consider anything other than the rehabilitation of the convicted person, and that competing sentencing principles within the act \u2013 deterrence, denunciation and community protection \u2013 are routinely ignored, resulting in the \u201clightest possible\u201d sentence.<\/p>\n

This is a nonsense reading of how judges balance sentencing principles. Having confected a fictional problem, the party proposes to solve it by requiring judges, whenever dealing with violent criminals, to consider every sentencing principle in every case while prioritising community safety.<\/p>\n

One Nation would also compel judges to impose cumulative sentences on anyone convicted of violent crimes against multiple victims and to \u201cbenchmark\u201d all sentences against the maximum penalty for any given offence.<\/p>\n

Monash University Emeritus Professor Arie Freiberg, a former, long-serving chair of the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council who reviewed the Sentencing Act for the Bracks government, has looked at One Nation\u2019s policies. He says they misunderstand the aims of sentencing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe basic common law principle is that the sentence must be proportionate to the offence taking into account both harm and culpability,\u201d he explains. \u201cRehabilitation is an aim but just deserts and deterrence rank much higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Nation\u2019s reference to the \u201clightest possible sentence\u201d is lifted from a section in the act that sets out the principle of parsimony \u2013 doing no more harm than necessary to achieve the purpose. This idea, which dates back to the Enlightenment, serves as a check against excessive punishment in common law jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

Freiberg says that One Nation\u2019s suggested changes to sentencing, when considered together, are a recipe for unjust outcomes. \u201cThere are already many provisions in the act regarding concurrent and consecutive sentences,\u201d he says. \u201cHowever, the basic principle is totality \u2013 the total punishment should be proportionate to all the offences that the person has been found guilty of.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf One Nation wants sentences of hundreds of years to be imposed, it would be both unjust and require building thousands of new prison beds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Victorian<\/a><\/p>\n

One Nation wants to make Victoria the \u201ctoughest state on crime in Australia\u201d. It advocates adopting police pursuit policies from Western Australia and Serious Crime Prevention Orders from NSW. It would also up the Carroll government\u2019s ante on bail laws, with an exceptional circumstances test to be applied to all \u201crepeat offenders\u201d.<\/p>\n

Finally, it wants to arm ordinary folk with pepper spray and provide greater legal protections for home owners who confront intruders.<\/p>\n

One Nation are not without a sense of humour, but there is something darkly unfunny about their approach to this election. They didn\u2019t take questions at their campaign launch and since then, have refused to answer any posed by this masthead about their election manifesto.<\/p>\n

The complete 64 pages of The Real Deal are published on the One Nation website. If you have trouble finding it, you\u2019d do just as well to ask ChatGPT to write your own.<\/p>\n

Read more on the Victorian election:<\/p>\n

The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"ChipChip Le Grand<\/a> leads our state politics reporting team. He previously served as the paper\u2019s chief reporter and is a journalist of 30 years\u2019 experience.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 8, 2026 \u2014 5:30am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-919893","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\/919893","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=919893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}