Opinion piece by Phillip Cox

Image by Philip Oroni.

Roymorgan reports that primary votes stand at:

ALP is at 28%, One Nation at 22.5%, and Liberal at 19% with Greens at 14%.
https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/10276-federal-voting-intention-july-6-2026

Now it’s great to see one of the Australian historic bastions of politics hold steady in Labor. But it has been happening for a while and One Nation has managed to hold support for a long time above Liberal. Liberal has shown its hand at being too conservative and too pro business without caring for the Aussie battler or family. One Nation, and it surprises me, has steam rolled Liberal in the polls in the last year. And it’s not to do with Pauline vs Angus. It’s to do with their policies. One Nation has developed a broader policy base that still respects business but takes into account social values of society and supporting families and strugglers. I would make amendments to some of her policies personally or suggest others, but so far they seem reasonable and Australia takes their policy changes one step at a time.

And it’s an exciting time for Australian Politics to have a change in the Two-Party Preferred system if these numbers hold, as One Nation can beat Liberal and become one of the major players in the two-party system. Greens are holding steady as well and as Australians become more aligned with social policies I suspect the Liberals to slide more closer to their polls unless they can work on their social policies more and start putting humans before business profit.

But it’s interesting, with all major parties sitting between 20-30% it will eventually make the Greens the king-makers, and typically they have been loyal to the ALP. But perhaps the Greens could coax more social policies out of a One Nation government to encourage their first time as the sitting leading party than they could an old bastion of Labour government and get more work done for the Australian people. And that’s a job for the Greens to discuss between themselves. If they could put some old disagreements aside and seek out an arrangement where they could potentially act as the king-makers and draw better human policies federally for Australia.

I implore the Greens to have a look at One Nations policies (https://www.onenation.org.au/issues) and realise that although there are some issues they disagree on (coal, net zero) there are other pressing matters in the business economy and social economy that the greens can use their leverage as king maker to draw out of One Nation. And that’s the point of politics, to have differences, but put them aside and see where you can work together to better your nation.

In regards to one major One Nation policy, Nuclear, I’d encourage the Greens to set aside their differences on nuclear, research the technology more and look at how Australia is in a unique position to manage it greenly. Out of over 439 nuclear reactors in the world there have been three major historic disasters in the past 70 years. Most businesses have hurt or killed more than nuclear reactors have. Today technology exists for micro reactors to more efficient streamlined large reactors. And the byproduct can be used for unique products too. Again, if nuclear is a necessity of the future, who better to set the regulations to manage it than the Greens who want to minimise its impact on the environment?

And it is a necessity of the future, Australia’s population will still grow and renewables cannot always be relied on to draw upon heavy demand in the electricity grid and for those moments where renewables may falter nuclear can step in. It’s not a horrible technology.

I would suggest if the Greens showed an Olive Branch to One Nation to find their common ground and hold discussions with them both privately and publicly it might bolster both their popularities against Liberal. Bipartisanship is a better play in today’s age than smear campaigns and slander.

Opinion Piece by Phillip Cox