‘Swamped’: the populist construction of fear, crisis and dangerous others in Pauline Hanson’s senate speeches

Abstract

This paper critically examines the discursive construction of fear, crises, threat and dangerous Others in Pauline Hanson’s populist political communication from 2016–2018. Specifically, it looks at how a politics of fear manifests through the construction of Islam and Muslims as Others who pose an existential threat to Australia’s security and ‘culture’. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, this paper examines the way in which discursive strategies and other linguistic devices are used purposefully in order to serve Hanson’s right-wing populist agenda. This paper argues that Hanson is emblematic of both liberal and illiberal Islamophobia and that she strategically draws on liberal critiques of Islam to justify draconian policies such as immigration bans and restrictions on religious freedoms. Underpinning this research is the belief that populist communication is consequential and must be examined for a holistic understanding of the populist phenomenon.

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