One Nation is campaigning directly to Christians. But will party policies rub against worshippers’ conscience?

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and MP Barnaby Joyce speak at the Farrer byelection celebration. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP View image in fullscreen One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and MP Barnaby Joyce speak at the Farrer byelection celebration. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP Analysis One Nation is campaigning directly to Christians. But will party policies rub against worshippers’ conscience? Jonathan Barrett Anti-abortion policies may have appeal, but with one in three Australian churchgoers born overseas, talk of a monoculture may put them off Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast When One Nation recruit Barnaby Joyce addressed anti-abortion campaigners at a Sydney rally in early June, the former deputy prime minister told the audience he could see “about 1,500 people who can hand out how to vote cards”. Christian leaders spoke at the rally. The Lord’s Prayer was recited. Many there were active churchgoers. As Pauline Hanson’s popularity surges, her party has extended its hand to Australia’s Christian community, an elusive group of voters who can swing behind a party in the right conditions. Will Australian Christians take up Joyce’s instruction and support One Nation ? 3:30 ‘I’m seeing what I saw in the US’: hundreds attend anti-abortion rally in Sydney – video ‘Reason to pause’ Christianity is the largest religion in Australia, with about 44% of the population identifying as Christian. Anglicanism and Catholicism are the two largest affiliations. About one in five Australians regularly attend church, according to the National Church Life Survey (NCLS). While voting patterns of churchgoers historically favour the Coalition, Christians are known to abruptly shift their vote based on wide-ranging policy issues affecting everything from abortion, marriage and religious schools to social services, immigration, climate and refugees. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Kevin Rudd drew many conservative voters to Labor in 2007 by being a practising Christian who argued that a faithful ethos must care for the marginalised. In 2019, Scott Morrison won many Christian votes for the conservative side, helping him claim the “miracle” election result in a year when religious freedom policies were hotly debated. One Nation’s strong rhetoric against abortion may entice some Christians into the party fold, but believers may not like everything they hear given Hanson’s wider platform is constructed around her long-held, anti-immigration position. “The anti-immigration, anti-refugee stance of One Nation will be a stumbling block to people whose faith calls them to welcome the stranger and to view all people as precious because they’re made in the image of God,” the executive director of the Centre for Public Christianity, Simon Smart, says. “Those Christians who are drawn to the rhetoric of Pauline Hanson may have good reason to pause and reconsider.” 1:30 Pauline Hanson says Australia must be ‘monocultural’ in Press C