Video by Topher Field — The Topher Project

Topher Field of The Topher Project has put out one of his most important videos yet — and if you're a One Nation supporter, or simply someone who believes in political fairness, you need to watch it.

The Albanese government, with the help of the Liberal Party, recently rammed through new hate group legislation. Topher argues this isn't just bad policy — it's the foundation for a political persecution campaign. Specifically, a campaign aimed at Pauline Hanson and One Nation.

Sound dramatic? He thought you might say that. Which is why he takes you through exactly what happened the last time powerful people decided Pauline Hansen had to go.

---

👑 She's Already Been to Prison — And It Was a Stitch-Up

Most Australians have forgotten — or never knew — that Pauline Hanson actually served 11 weeks in a maximum security prison in 2003. She and One Nation co-founder David Etridge were convicted of electoral fraud over questions about whether the party had the 500 financial members legally required for registration.

The civil case that started it all was funded in part by Tony Abbott, who raised close to $100,000 to support the prosecution of One Nation — this at a time when the party had already won 11 seats in the Queensland Parliament. A party apparently too small to be legally registered, yet large enough to win 11 state seats. Make that make sense.

Pauline and Etridge were convicted, sentenced to 3 years, and she was placed in the maximum security wing of Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre — supposedly for her own protection. In Topher's words: maximum security for what amounted at worst to a white collar technicality. A modern-day flogging in the town square.

---

📄 It Started With a Letter to the Editor

Before any of the lawfare, before the prison sentence, before Tony Abbott's fundraising — it started with Pauline writing a letter to her local newspaper. Topher reads it in full in the video. Here's the core of it:

For writing that letter, she was branded a racist and dis-endorsed by the Liberal Party — allegedly on direct instruction from PM John Howard. Then she ran as an independent anyway, and won the seat — becoming the first woman ever to win a lower house seat in the Australian Parliament as an independent. Rather than being celebrated for breaking that barrier, she was treated as enemy number one.

---

⚠️ Why This Matters Right Now

One Nation is now sitting at the number two spot in national polls — ahead of the Liberals. Topher's point is blunt: the more One Nation rises, the more desperate the established powers become. And now they have a new weapon — hate group legislation that is, notably, retrospective.

That means they could potentially designate One Nation a hate group based on nothing more recent than that letter to the editor Pauline wrote in the 1990s.

Topher's advice? Don't just vote — become a member. Make One Nation too big, too fast, for lawfare to work. The bigger the party, the higher the political cost of attacking it.