One Nation: Pauline Hanson

In April 1997 Hanson, together with her senior advisor David Oldfield and professional fundraiser David Ettridge, founded Pauline Hanson's One Nation. Many of her branch formation meetings and political rallies across Australia in the next two years would attract protests, occasionally spilling over to violence between Hanson supporters and protestors.

In June 1998, One Nation attracted nearly one-quarter of the vote in the Queensland state election and won 11 of 89 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland.

During this period, a host of new right-wing parties emerged in virtually every state in the country, running on platforms which were equally anti-elitist but not entirely as populist as One Nation. Australia First, led by Graeme Campbell, began building considerable support in Newcastle and the southern suburbs of Sydney. The United Australia Party, led by Ellis Wayland, fielded candidates in the 1997 state election in South Australia; the Australian Reform Party, led by the gun lobbyist Ted Drane, was active in rural Victoria and New South Wales; The Australians, led by Tony Pitt, formed out of the defunct Confederate Action Party in Queensland; and Tasmania First fielded candidates in the 1998 state election.