‘Stunts and the vibe’: Deputy PM Richard Marles dismisses One Nation after populist party seizes two seats in SA election. Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister has delivered a scathing dismissal of One Nation after the party’s historic breakthrough in the South Australian election.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has dismissed One Nation as a party driven by “stunts and the vibe” following the populist party’s shock results in the South Australian election.
Mr Marles said it was no surprise the South Australian people endorsed the economic agenda of Peter Malinauskas’ government with a “thumping re-election.”
“I really want to congratulate the Premier and his entire team on their remarkable win,” he said.
“Now, this stands in contrast to One Nation which have really only ever been about stunts and the vibe.
“Never about the actual delivery of jobs and defence capability.
“It also stands in contrast to the Coalition.”
Labor was re-elected in a landslide victory in South Australia on Saturday, while One Nation clinched two Lower House seats in the parliament.
Sky News reports the party could take a further three.
It marks the first time that One Nation has secured lower house seats at the ballot box outside of Queensland.
One Nation South Australian leader Cory Bernardi looks to have won a seat in the state’s upper house with the party eyeing another five.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation took home a significant 21 per cent of first preference votes in the lower house in a blow to the major parties.
Labor won just shy of 40 per cent of the primary vote in the lower house.
As of Saturday night, the Liberal Party was poised to pick up about eight lower house seats after receiving just 16 per cent of the primary upper house vote, where it was also behind One Nation which racked in about 23 per cent.
‘Started overseas’: Barnaby’s One Nation claim
An “overseas movement” has arrived in Australia with One Nation’s success at the South Australian election, Barnaby Joyce claims.
One Australian political academic says the rise of the far-right populist party should send “chills up the spine” of the Liberal Party.
As counting continues following Saturday’s ballot, One Nation has won two seats and could pick up as many as five seats.
Labor was declared re-elected barely two hours after the polls closed but so far has slipped about 2 per cent in the primary vote.
In a sometimes combative interview on Sky News, Mr Joyce on Monday morning said the result showed “polling is not mythical” and that the world had “changed”.
“This movement started overseas and it’s arrived here,” Mr Joyce said.
“And I think One Nation led the way with Pauline some 20 or so years ago. But now it’s the second iteration of it, more powerful than the first.”
Asked to elaborate on what overseas movement, My Joyce said there was an “organic party structure that One Nation has developed that resonates” with Australians.
“But, it’s similar to policy structures overseas,” he said.
“You can see in Europe … pick the social media of your choice and you’ll see issues in regards to social cohesion in France and England, in the Netherlands, in Italy, the concerns they have becomes an issue that resonates.
“You can see issues in regards to people just chasing philosophical butterflies, like having a department of climate change, a department in Canberra that can change the climate, even though a lot of the people within it couldn’t change a tyre.”
Challenged on Labor’s success in South Australia, Mr Joyce instead lambasted climate policies of “godlike figures such as (Energy Minister) Chris Bowen” and claimed re-elected Premier Peter Malinauskas “must be stealing from One Nation” over comments about people being “for Australia”.
One Nation’s success should send “chills up the spine” of the Liberal Party
Dr Benjamin Moffitt, a senior politics lecturer at Monash University, said One Nation’s success should send “chills up the spine” of the Liberal Party.
“One Nation’s success is part of a wider rise of far-right populist parties across the globe. The real question is why it has taken almost three decades since the party’s creation to get here,” Dr Moffitt said.
“One Nation’s rise in the polls since mid-2025: hot air, or does it have legs?
“That was the question on everyone’s lips watching the South Australian State election this weekend, the first real electoral test since the rise began. And the results are in: the rise is real.
“One Nation is the second most popular party in South Australia, and these results should be sending chills up the spine of the Liberal Party across the country.
“If these kinds of results can be replicated in coming elections, we will be witnessing a serious realignment of the Australian political party landscape.”
Seismic One Nation result
Appearing earlier on Sunrise, Mr Joyce said One Nation’s result was seismic.
“You better understand the seismic shift out there in Australia,” Mr Joyce said.
“It’s quite clear, and that’s what a lot of people are doing, people are seeing One Nation with the clarity, the unity, the strength, the clear message which attracts the vote.
“Now, One Nation has gone from nowhere to ‘we do have seats’.”
The new One Nation recruit and former Nationals deputy prime minister also tipped his cap to the suite of pollsters who charted One Nation’s rise since the Liberals were firmly rejected at the federal election in May.
“It was an incredible result in South Australia and congratulations to the South Australian people who’ve made a big step of not only changing South Australia but changing Australia,” Mr Joyce said.
The in-progress count shows One Nation’s support has grown substantially in outer-Adelaide suburbs, with an overall primary vote of 22 per cent. In comparison, the Liberals have 19.2 per cent of the primary vote.
In his victory speech on Saturday, re-elected Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas recited Henry Lawson’s poem The Duty of Australians, calling for a more subdued form of patriotism than in the US and Europe.
“We can, and we should wave our flag with pride, knowing that Aussie patriotism sometimes means sitting with a stranger and having a cuppa or a frothy and arguing about the footy, not our faith,” he said.
“It’s been a hot summer in Australia. Something we should all look forward to is the temperature coming down just a little bit.
“Diversity has always been our greatest strength … in our state, it’s all hands on deck.”
Peter Malinauskas the real winner: Plibersek
Appearing opposite Mr Joyce on Sunrise on Monday, federal cabinet minister Tanya Plibersek also pointed to Australia’s multicultural fabric while pumping up Mr Malinauskas’ leadership.
“I know that my brothers and I had a better life here than (my parents) would have, than we would have had if my parents had stayed in the former Yugoslavia after the Second World War,” Ms Plibersek said.
“The real winner on the weekend was Peter Malinauskas.”
SA Labor’s focus on education, health, and the economy was a major factor in the landslide win, Ms Plibersek said.
“I think that really resonated with South Australians. It was a very good win and Peter Malinauskas should be congratulated for it,” she said.