Pauline Hanson spoke at the National Press Club on 17 June 2026. This might not sound like major news — except Hanson founded One Nation, a political party, back in 1997, and it's still influencing Australian politics nearly 30 years later.

Hanson started One Nation in Ipswich, Queensland, after being kicked out of the Liberal Party. She built the party around opposition to high immigration and certain Indigenous land rights policies. Both major parties — the Labor Party and the Coalition — were hostile to her. Electoral law changes in the late 1990s weakened One Nation in the Senate, but the party never went away.

What keeps One Nation alive is straightforward: it speaks to voters who worry about issues the major parties have largely stopped talking about. When Labor and the Coalition agree on something — like accepting high immigration or pursuing net-zero energy — One Nation's voters often disagree. The party rebuilt itself after 2016 and now holds Senate seats again. Those seats give it real power in a Parliament where neither major party has an overwhelming majority.

Choosing the National Press Club as a venue matters. This is where national leaders give big speeches to signal their party's direction. Hanson has used this platform before. By speaking there, she moves One Nation's message from talk-radio and cable news into official political conversation. It's a way of saying: we're still here, we're still relevant.

We don't yet have full details of exactly what Hanson said that day. But the fact that she chose to speak there tells us something: One Nation plans to be active in the next election cycle. The party's long-term strategy has been to keep its core issues — immigration, cultural identity — inside mainstream political debate. When major parties ignore these concerns, One Nation fills the gap.

The Senate has changed over the last decade. There are now more independent and minor-party senators holding the balance of power than there were in the past. One Nation is one player in that system. Any government now has to negotiate with multiple parties to pass laws. That's why Hanson's voice still carries weight even though One Nation wins fewer votes overall than Labor or the Coalition.

One Nation started in a working-class region tied to manufacturing and farming — not in a fancy think tank in Sydney or Melbourne. That origin shapes how the party talks: blunt, anti-establishment, focused on ordinary people's concerns. Hanson has kept that voice intact.

A party that started 29 years ago in a single Queensland city has outlasted many political leaders who predicted it would vanish. That's worth noticing.