{"id":100923,"date":"2016-07-10T17:53:46","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T01:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=100923"},"modified":"2016-07-10T17:53:46","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T01:53:46","slug":"swamped-by-muslims-party-finds-supporters-in-australian-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=100923","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Swamped by Muslims\u2019 Party Finds Supporters in Australian Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

News<\/a>: A closely-fought Australian election has brought with it the revival of a fringe party led by right-wing politician Pauline Hanson, showing the country is not immune to the anti-immigration mood sweeping parts of western Europe and the U.S.<\/p>\n

While Hanson\u2019s party secured only 4.2 percent of the primary vote in Australia\u2019s upper house, that\u2019s enough under the country\u2019s preferential voting system to secure her a Senate spot and the chance to influence legislation. Another Hanson-led One Nation party candidate may win a Senate seat.<\/p>\n

Hanson, who wants a Royal Commission into Islam and a ban on the wearing of the Burqa in public, benefited from a protest vote against the major parties. She was also helped by the implosion of another small, conservative group, the Palmer United Party, and needed only half the usual votes to win a seat due to the counting peculiarities created by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull\u2019s decision to force an early election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in danger of being swamped by Muslims,\u201d Hanson, 62, told News Corp. in May, even as data show they represent just 2 percent of the population. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to bury your head in the sand about it, you\u2019re a fool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Count<\/p>\n

Hanson\u2019s influence over the next government remains to be seen, and the Senate makeup is not yet finalized. During her brief stint in parliament 20 years ago, the Liberal-National coalition government of the time criticized her views on Asian immigration as misguided and dangerous, and she faded from view as her party imploded in infighting.<\/p>\n

But as governments around the world battle concern about refugees and immigrants — U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump is threatening to build a wall to keep Mexicans out — fueled in part by rising income inequality and jobless rates, Hanson\u2019s anti-Asian, anti-Muslim rhetoric may be harder to shut down.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisillusionment with the major parties is clearly a trend in Australia, as elsewhere,\u201d said Anne Tiernan, a political scientist at Brisbane\u2019s Griffith University. \u201cThey will have to be careful in the way they deal with Hanson and will need to walk a fine line between understanding, but not accepting, some of the more extreme views she represents.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: A closely-fought Australian election has brought with it the revival of a fringe party led by right-wing politician Pauline Hanson, showing the country is not immune to the anti-immigration mood sweeping parts of western Europe and the U.S. While … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islam"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100924,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100923\/revisions\/100924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}