Guardian Essential poll: more Australians approve of Hanson’s party leadership than Albanese or Taylor’s

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One Nation outperforms the Coalition for the first time, while the rightwing populist party’s leader has a positive rating among all age groups

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A majority of surveyed Australians approve of Pauline Hanson’s leadership of One Nation, giving her a higher job approval rating than Anthony Albanese and Angus Taylor, as the Guardian Essential poll finds the rightwing populist party is outperforming the Coalition for the first time.

The results come as Australians are becoming more pessimistic about the country and the economy, with the majority of respondents saying they expected things to get worse in coming months.

The latest Guardian Essential poll, of 1,067 Australians conducted last week, found 23% of respondents strongly approved of the job Hanson is doing as leader of One Nation, with another 29% saying they approved. Only 11% said they disapproved and 23% strongly disapproved, giving a total of 52% approving and 34% disapproving.

Hanson had a positive rating among all age groups, including 18-34-year-olds (48% approve, 35% disapprove), 35-54s (50-34%) and 55+ (58-34%), as well as among all men (56-34%) and all women (49-35%).

Hanson also received approval from 33% of Labor voters, 61% of Coalition voters and 21% of Greens voters, as well as 97% of One Nation voters.

The One Nation leader’s highest approval was in Queensland (59-30%), then South Australia (53-32%), NSW (52-34%) and Victoria (50-38%).

Hanson’s approval outstripped Albanese and Taylor. Asked about the job Albanese is doing as prime minister, a total of 41% approved and 51% disapproved. That included 10% strongly approving and another 31% approving, with 22% disapproving and 29% strongly disapproving.

Asked about the job Taylor is doing as leader of the opposition, 34% each said approve and disapprove. That included 7% strongly approving and 28% approving, as well as 21% disapproving and 13% strongly disapproving.

The Essential poll and other published polls have continued to show rising support for One Nation since at least October, despite mounting controversies – including the party’s decision to employ convicted rapist Sean Black until this month, Hanson’s inflammatory comments about Muslims, her stunt of wearing a burqa in the Senate, and scrutiny about transparency and her relationship with billionaire Gina Rinehart.

For the first time in the Essential poll, One Nation this month edged marginally ahead of the Coalition on primary votes. This trend has been seen in other published polls, including Newspoll.

In Essential’s “primary plus” metric, which allows people to remain undecided, Labor leads on 30% of primary votes, with One Nation into second with 25%. The Coalition attracted 24% of the primary vote, with the Greens on 11%, independents 5%, and “don’t know” also 5%.

“The One Nation vote remains high and for the first time we can see that it’s more than 50 per cent of all voters approving of the job she is doing. Pauline Hanson’s popularity is clearly a factor,” said executive director of Essential Media, Peter Lewis.

More broadly, Australians are pessimistic about the direction of the country. The poll found 54% of respondents felt the country was “on the wrong track”, compared to only 30% responding that the nation was “heading in the right direction”.

Replies to that benchmark question, asked in each monthly poll, have been steadily declining since mid-2025. Results were more positive in March (33% right direction, 53% wrong track) and February (34-49%).

Amid economic concern about the global fuel crisis and financial downturns, Australians are also worried about the state of the local economy. Only 14% of respondents are expecting Australia’s economy to improve in the next six months, while 55% expect it will get worse, and 31% expect it to remain the same.

“There has been a sharp decline in confidence in the economy over the next six months as the impact of the Iran war bites,” Lewis said.

• Pauline Hanson
• One Nation
• Essential poll
• Australian politics
• Anthony Albanese
• Angus Taylor
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