Organising Australian far-right parties: Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the organisation of two Australian far-right political parties: Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party (FACNP) and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON). Based on semi-structured interviews with election candidates and office bearers and an analysis of official party documents, I examine how these parties manage their internal organisation and cope with problems of collective choice. I argue that their organisational practices are characterised by disorganisation. Namely, a lack of meaningful organisational structures and procedures, a core of socialised activists, andcoherent decision-making processes. By focusing on campaign mobilisation at the expense of party building, I argue that their disorganisation is inseparable from their muted electoral performance at the 2019 Australian federal election.