Australia's far-right party leads in national poll for first time


Campaign signs depicting One Nation candidate David Farley and former Australia soldier Ben Roberts-Smith are displayed outside a pre-polling centre ahead of the Farrer by-election in Albury, Australia, May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Hollie Adams

SYDNEY, June 1 (Reuters) - Australia's ⁠far-right populist party One Nation overtook the ruling Labor ⁠party in a national opinion poll for the first time, ‌buoyed by voter discontent over the centre-left government's recent budget measures.

• Primary support for One Nation rose four percentage points to 31% from a month earlier, ​according to a closely watched poll by ⁠Redbridge Group and Accent ⁠Research.

• The ruling centre-left Labor party polled at 28%, down three points.

• ⁠Support ‌for the conservative coalition opposition fell two points to 20%.

• The polling comes after the government's May 12 ⁠budget introduced the biggest changes to property taxes ​in decades, to ‌tackle intergenerational inequity.

• The results suggest the proposed measures failed ⁠to win ​over voters, and were especially unpopular with the Gen X and Baby Boomer cohorts.

• But it also appeared unpopular among younger Australians it ⁠aims to benefit.

• Just 26% of Millennials ​and 13% of Gen-Z voters believed the budget would be good for them, it showed.

• Labor was still ahead of One Nation 51% ⁠to 49% on a two-party-preferred basis, when respondents distribute preferences under Australia's ranked-choice voting system.

• The poll of 1,005 voters, with an error margin of 3.4%, was held between May 25 and ​May 28.

• Since its 1997 launch, One ⁠Nation, led by Pauline Hanson, has had only a peripheral presence in ​Australia's parliament.

• But its recent resurgence ‌came after it tapped into voter ​anxieties over high living costs, economic uncertainty and anti-immigration sentiment.

(Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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