One Nation: public funding
Over the past two decades Australia’s political parties have legislated to massively increase funding to themselves — per-vote payments after each election and ongoing administrative funding. If One Nation’s surge in popularity holds, the party is on track to receive over $219 million in taxpayer funding over the five years between the 2026 SA state election and the 2031 federal election.
Taxpayer funding to One Nation, by year
Each bar is one year of public funding — counting the five-year period from the March 2026 SA election through to the 2031 federal election, due by mid-2031 — stacked by jurisdiction. The spikes are the per-vote payments that land after each election (▾); the steady base is ongoing administrative funding. The final bar folds in the per-vote payments of the two contests at the close, paid in the months after each poll. Click a bar for the year’s itemisation.
Every bar above is built from individual, dated payments — by jurisdiction and funding type. See the full $219.0 million laid out in detail.
Eleven elections in five years
One Nation has faced — or will face — the polls eleven times between March 2026 and mid-2031. We deep dive on five with a story each — the four state and federal elections, plus the Farrer by-election it won outright in May 2026 — and close with a brief story on the six forward contests.
- South AustraliaMar 2026$7.3m2026 election result
- Farrer by-electionMay 2026$140kOne Nation won the seat
- VictoriaNov 2026$38.5mScenario: Freshwater — June ’26
- New South WalesMar 2027$33.8mScenario: Resolve — May ’26
- Federal2028$56.7mScenario: Newspoll — June ’26
- QueenslandOct 2028$14.2m*One Nation at 31% — current polling
- Western AustraliaMar 2029$5.1mOne Nation at 31% — current polling
- South AustraliaMar 2030$6.1m*One Nation at 31% — current polling
- VictoriaNov 2030$17.6m*One Nation at 25% — current polling
- New South WalesMar 2031$11.6m*One Nation at 22% — current polling
- FederalMay 2031$57.3m*One Nation at 31% — current polling
A partial cycle: for Queensland, SA ’30 and Vic ’30 the figure covers only the funding that lands before the recurring cut-off of March 2031; for NSW ’31 it is the campaign payment its March 2031 election earns, paid a few weeks after; for Fed ’31 it is the per-vote entitlement the 2031 federal election earns, paid in the months after polling day. Later payments from those terms fall outside the cut-off. The Vic ’30 and NSW ’31 figures re-state money already counted in the Victoria and New South Wales cards above, so the eleven figures deliberately overlap — the four states, Farrer, Queensland, WA, SA ’30 and Fed ’31 sum to the national total.
Before the surge: Queensland, Western Australia and the nation
Queensland, Western Australia and the nation all last voted before the surge — Queensland in October 2024, WA in March 2025, the federal election in May 2025 — so they double as a control group: what One Nation’s vote was worth before it took off.
In Queensland it polled 8% — worth up to $1.7m in per-vote funding. Its ongoing state allowance, meanwhile, has fallen to zero: with no MP since 2024, the policy-development payment that once paid it $120,000 a year now pays nothing.
At WA’s election it drew 61,174 votes (4.0%) in the lower house and 59,296 (3.8%) in the upper house, banking exactly $79,570.
Federally One Nation drew 991,814 first-preference votes (6.4%) in the House of Representatives and 899,296 (5.7%) in the Senate — worth about $6.1m in per-vote funding at the old rate of $3.386 per vote.
All told, the pre-surge vote was worth up to $7.8m across the three — none of it counted in the totals above, which begin with the 21 March 2026 SA result.
Methodology
South Australia is the actual 21 March 2026 result; Victoria, NSW and the Commonwealth are projections from each jurisdiction’s most recent poll as at a 4 June 2026 publishing cutoff, on a full-entitlement basis; polls released after that date are not included. Queensland (Oct 2028), Western Australia (Mar 2029) and South Australia’s next election (Mar 2030) are forward projections at One Nation’s national polling on that same basis, counted from their first dollar within the period; the 2031 federal election — the last contest of the period — is projected on that same national polling. Victoria’s 2030 and NSW’s 2031 second elections repeat each state’s pinned poll; their money is part of the Victoria and NSW figures, not an addition.
Figures are nominal and cover the period from the SA election to the 2031 federal election — April 2026 to mid-2031. The window opens the quarter after the 21 March 2026 poll, when the first public money flows; recurring administrative funding is counted to 31 March 2031, five years on. Money banked just before it opens — including about $6.1m in per-vote funding from the May 2025 federal election — is not counted here.
Two contests sit at the close. The NSW election of 22 March 2031 earns per-vote funding paid a few weeks after — a full projection of the 2031 result, with One Nation’s 2027 Legislative Council seats carried over on their eight-year terms. The federal election is due by May 2031 on full terms, and is reasonably likely earlier; its per-vote entitlement is paid in the months after polling day. We count those two per-vote payments in full — and nothing else after March 2031. Each region’s own page may show funding before or after the period; each story sets out its own method.
Written, designed and coded by Simon Holmes à Court.