In one week, two events shook Australian politics. One left a 60-year-old party volunteer in the hospital. The other saw high schoolers walk out of class to protest a politician — with children as young as 15 openly threatening to harm and kill her. 

So, who is the person who has got the Left in Australia so riled up? 

Her name is Pauline Hanson, and her party is One Nation. 

Often compared to Nigel Farage — or described as the “Donald Trump of Australia” — Hanson went viral globally after wearing a burqa into Parliament to protest the garment. She’s become the face of a new political establishment, challenging a two-party system she says has failed on mass immigration, cultural identity, and multiculturalism. 

With recent polling putting her party as the preferred choice just behind the current left-wing Labor government, Pauline Hanson’s third-party movement has broken past the traditional conservative wing. 

But her rise hasn’t come without threats to take her out. 

At Queensland’s largest annual country fair, known as the Ekka, a 60-year-old woman working at a One Nation stall was allegedly confronted by three females and one male, all in their late teens. Reports say she was punched repeatedly and spat on, leaving her with a broken rib and requiring a hospital stay. 

The same week, thousands of high schoolers across the country — organized by the National Union of Students and youth groups including the High School Anti-Capitalists, both operating on socialist agendas — walked out of school to protest Hanson and One Nation. 

In videos circulating online, students as young as 15 threatened to “hit her,” “beat her the f*** up,” and “slap the s*** out of that f***ing b****.” 

Others chanted even more threatening messages, such as “kill her.” 

To Americans, the scenes should look disturbingly familiar. Different country, different political landscape, but the rhetoric and motives are strikingly similar. 

Hanson herself has said she’s had to ramp up security in recent months — especially after the attempts on Trump’s life. 

But one issue this escalation always seems to come back to is young people, particularly Generation Z. 

The numbers back it up. A 2024 McKinnon Poll found that 1 in 3 Gen Z Australians — about 33% — believe political violence can be justified. 

Critics say Australian media give left-wing political violence a pass while piling on right-wing incidents — a disparity that echoes similar complaints in the United States. 

America remains the biggest warning sign of where this can lead. A Harvard Institute of Politics study found that 39% of Americans aged 18 to 29 show “some acceptance” of political violence. 

What’s most alarming is that repeated attacks in America don’t seem to scare young people straight. If anything, some seem energized by the idea of a political leader — Trump or Hanson — getting hurt or killed. 

To Americans, Australia’s political culture has traditionally seemed quite different from their own. It has leaned more toward apathy than extremism. Unlike America’s bitter two-party trench warfare, Australia’s system has historically rewarded the political center, helping keep political violence rare. 

But the groups behind the anti-Hanson walkouts aren’t chasing the center. They’re socialist-run organizations pushing outright revolution, with many young members seemingly unaware — or unbothered — by the implications of what they’re chanting. 

OPINION: POLITICAL VIOLENCE DOESN’T START WITH VIOLENCE

Some teachers reportedly backed the students, a stance partly tied to positions taken by Australia’s teachers unions. 

Ultimately, what is happening in Australia should matter to Americans because it shows that this problem is no longer uniquely American. It appears to be spreading across Western society, with resentment toward conservative leaders growing more hostile by the day. If political disagreement continues to shift from debate to intimidation and violence, the problem facing America today may soon become a problem facing the West as a whole. 

William Nye is a Brisbane-based Australian student and columnist who writes about politics, culture, economics, and international affairs shaping Australia, the United States, and the wider Western world. His work has appeared in the Spectator Australia and the Washington Examiner.