After Pauline Hanson’s controversial speech at the National Press Club, Guardian Australia headed to Pakenham, one of the electorates One Nation is targeting in the Victorian state election, to see how the message landed
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In Pauline Hanson’s inflammatory first appearance at the National Press Club on Wednesday, she laid out her party’s major policies. She declared Australia must exist as a “monocultural society” and could not be multicultural, claimed migration was too high, argued against paid parental leave, and said “too much money” was going to the wages of childcare workers.
One Nation has been polling strongly in Pakenham, south-east of Melbourne. One of the most marginal state electorates in Victoria, it’s held by Labor on a razor-thin margin of just 0.4%. The popular sitting MP, Emma Vulin, will not recontest the seat in the state election in November due to illness, with Labor preselecting 23-year-old Alessandra Soliven as its candidate.