- by D Clive
- The Guardian
- Issue #2188
The 2026 South Australian state election resulted in the predictable outcome of a majority for Labor with Peter Malinauskaus securing a second term as premier of the state.
Labor is sitting comfortably with a majority at 34 lower house seats.
The Liberal Party, given the tumultuous past few years of internal fighting and the ongoing rift within the Coalition, has had a significant -16.8% swing against them, securing only five seats and 18.9% of the vote.
The big news coming out of this election and what is likely to be a sign of things to come both in other state elections and in the next federal election is that Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON) has increased their percentage of the overall vote from 2.6% to 22.8%.
This has been attributed by many analysts to the vacuum left by the decline of the Liberal/National Coalition, leaving only centre-right minor parties and PHON to fill the void. While this may be partly true , there are other, much more sinister and systemic issues at play.
One factor is the ongoing crisis of the global imperialist system and the declining material conditions felt by working class Australians who are led not towards progress, but goaded towards the forces of reaction by the very forces causing the issues in the first place.
Many One Nation voters are working class folk who rightly feel disenfranchised by the capitalist political system but lack, due to no fault of their own, the class consciousness and scientific analysis to recognise the real causes of the problem.
This leads them directly into the hands of PHON who are backed by the ruling capitalist class to set the stage for fascistic “social revolution” in order to temporarily stabilise the decaying system through the scapegoating of minorities, immigrants, and the increasing return of red scare era anti-communist propaganda. The backing is blatant, as evidenced by the frequent use of mining mogul Gina Rhinehart’s private jet by Pauline Hanson.
PHON continues to use bread-and-butter issues such as the cost of living and housing crisis to directly target the Australian working class. Instead of offering real, long-term solutions, Hanson’s party tries to pin the blame on the easiest targets to deflect blame away from the ruling class and towards other struggling workers.
Karl Marx’s adage remains as true as ever, “history repeats, first as tragedy, then as farce.”
While these results are very concerning, there some hope can be found in with the newly-formed SA Socialists polling in at around 7% in the electorates of both candidates – highlighting the growing rise of not only the far right who have the backing of the big capitalists and media conglomerates alike, but the growing desire for a progressive alternative to the mainstream parties. What is needed are stronger left-wing alternatives that can empower the working class towards their own salvation through collective organisation and action, both within and without the electoral system.
The role in these situations for Communists is to intervene and offer the working class, real and genuine materialist solutions to the problems that we face, and to unite the working class against the forces of reaction.
As both the international and domestic situation continues to decline, the need has never been stronger to build a new popular front against fascism and to build coalitions of resistance against the forces of reaction that will stop at nothing to maintain their power and prevent the rise of a real left movement – the workers united will never be defeated.
