Why former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is responsible for Pauline Hanson and One Nation’s revival

Pauline Hanson’s political revival a decade ago today was only possible because a then Liberal prime minister — living in a Sydney Harbour mansion — called a double dissolution election over a forgotten building industry watchdog.

July 2 marks the tenth anniversary of One Nation returning to Federal Parliament for the first time since 2005 and now threatening the very existence of the Liberal and National parties.

Every Senate seat was up for grabs on this day a decade ago, instead of just half the Senate, leading to One Nation winning four Senate seats in Queensland, NSW and Western Australia.

Rod Culleton, who was elected in that class of 2016, acknowledges the lower quota to get elected to the Senate in that double-dissolution election was a factor in One Nation’s revival.

“I think that move definitely gave One Nation a leg up but hey, that’s politics,” he told The Nightly on Thursday.

The farmer from WA’s Great Southern region said former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s move to call a double dissolution election led to the revival of One Nation, which is now outpolling both Labor and the Coalition.

“Indirectly, I guess he did. You’ve got to remember politics is about strategic moves and I’m thinking it was a move that he didn’t give careful consideration to,” Mr Culleton said.

He also joked about One Nation replacing the Liberal Party.

“I wouldn’t say it’s threatening the Liberal Party; it’s the new branding for the Liberal Party.”

The Turnbull Government was only narrowly re-elected a decade ago, losing 14 seats in the House of Representatives, less than a year after Tony Abbott was deposed as a first-term, socially conservative Liberal prime minister by a moderate challenger in favour of gay marriage.

The Senate’s rejection, twice, of a Coalition bill to revive the Australian Building and Construction Commission sparked the first double-dissolution election since 1987.

In the Senate, the quota to be elected was halved to 7.7 per cent, down from the usual 14.3 per cent in half-Senate elections that typically coincide with a general election.

“It was crucial. Pauline only needed half the quota of a half Senate election,” a former Federal Liberal minister told The Nightly.

Former Cabinet ministers from the moderate and conservative sides of the Liberal Party were scathing of Mr Turnbull, who The Nightly contacted for a comment.

“Malcolm disenfranchised so many Liberals; one, it achieved nothing which disappointed everybody,” another former Liberal minister said.

“His political judgement was appalling and some of the things he did or didn’t do; no EQ, unbelievable IQ and it certainly was demonstrated by his tenure as prime minister.”

Senator Hanson was also elected in Queensland, along with her running mate Malcolm Roberts, and Brian Burston in NSW.

The One Nation leader also returned to Parliament for the first time since 1998 when she lost her bid to be elected in the new Ipswich-based seat of Blair, south-west of Brisbane, after a redistribution saw her old seat of Oxley take in the Vietnamese-heavy suburb of Inala.

A decade ago, One Nation also had representatives in Federal Parliament for the first time since Len Harris finished up as a senator for Queensland in June 2005.

Mr Culleton was disqualified as a senator in January 2017, following a theft conviction that was later upheld by the High Court, and he has since established his own right-wing Great Australian Party.

Mr Burston left One Nation in 2018 to sit as an independent after falling out with Senator Hanson.

But One Nation now has now four senators and two Lower House MPs — former Nationals deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and new Farrer MP David Farley — giving it six members in both houses of Parliament.

A Sky News/YouGov poll published this week showed One Nation with 30 per cent support, marginally ahead of Labor on 29 per cent and the Coalition on 17 per cent.

Should those results be reflected at the next Federal election, due in 2028, One Nation can thank a progressive, former Liberal PM from harbourside Point Piper for giving it the platform to win over the forgotten people in outer suburban and regional electorates that live a long way from the millionaire bankers with water views.