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date: 31 March 2019

Abstract and Keywords

Compared to its European counterparts, Australia was for the most part spared the rise of powerful extreme right movements, and at times appeared immune to their appeal. However, rather than immunity, the absence of extreme right politics can be explained by the ability and willingness of mainstream politics to readily, openly, and officially absorb such values. This chapter discusses how, for most of the country’s history, Australian mainstream politicians suffocated the extreme right, not merely by borrowing some key ideas of the extreme right, but by negating entirely its ability to appear as an alternative to the power in place. It then turns to the 1990s and explores the rise of Hansonism and its impact on mainstream politics. The final part of the chapter is dedicated to the current state of radical right politics in Australia.

Keywords: Australia, radical right, nativist populism, right-wing movements, extreme right, Australian mainstream politics, Hansonism

Andy Fleming

Andy Fleming is a writer and anti-fascist researcher based in Melbourne, Australia.

Aurelien Mondon

Aurelien Mondon is a Senior Lecturer in comparative politics at the University of Bath. His research focuses predominantly on elite discourse and the mainstreaming of far right politics, particularly through the use of populism and racism. His first monograph, A Populist Hegemony? The Mainstreaming of the Extreme Right in France and Australia, was published in 2013.

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