By Byron Kaye and Melanie Burton
SYDNEY/MELBOURNE, May 7 (Reuters) - A few months before Australia's conservative Liberal Party suffered its worst election defeat last May, Sydney stockbroker Angus Aitken donated A$230,000 ($165,000) to the party, a political cause he thought he would support for life.
This year he is changing teams, committing A$1.1 million to populist anti-immigration party Pauline Hanson's One Nation as he turns away from a conservative establishment racked by infighting and dismal
polling.
Aitken is not alone: encouraged by mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, some of Australia's wealthiest voters are shifting support from the Liberal-National coalition to an outsider party that has, until recently, relied on small donations.
Since launching in 1997, One Nation has had only a peripheral presence in parliament with its hardline anti-immigration stance and antagonism toward environmental and progressive social issues. After U.S. President Donald Trump's 2024 re-election, the party emulated his plans for mass deportation of visa overstayers and wholesale deregulation.
"The biggest change I reckon you'll see in the next 12 to 18 months is the groundswell of business and wealthy people supporting One Nation who have been frustrated with the Coalition," said Aitken, who met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in March as a prize in a One Nation fundraiser.
"People are just sick of all the red tape and shit across their individual segments of business. They think this is the person and the party that's going to cut through some of that," he added, referring to Hanson and One Nation.
Political researchers say reasons for the shift include the high turnover in Liberal leaders, and a split in the coalition partners over energy and hate speech policies.
It also reflects a broader global realignment, with high-net-worth donors in Britain and France increasingly backing populist parties as traditional centre-right rivals fragment.
One Nation has benefited from "coalition chaos, a general decline in support for major parties in Australia and internationally, then things like frustration with the cost of living (and) housing crises, as well as the changing media environment", said Jordan McSwiney, a researcher at University of Canberra's Centre for Deliberative Democracy, who studies far-right politics.
BY-ELECTION COULD SEE FIRST SEAT IN HOUSE OF REPS
Opinion polls suggest One Nation is on track to win its first House of Representatives seat off the Liberals at a by-election on Saturday.
While that would not directly affect the majority of centre-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, it would mark a significant advance for One Nation on the national stage after a strong showing in a recent state vote.
Party leader Pauline Hanson, a senator, now claims higher personal approval than Albanese or conservative opposition leader Angus Taylor, polls show. Hanson's party, which barely featured in the May 2025 federal election, has ranked second nationally - ahead of the conservative coalition - since the start of this year.
Though Hanson, a flame-haired former fish and chip shop owner, has been a fixture of Australian politics for three decades, her party has never held more than four of 76 Senate seats.
Pollsters currently view it as unlikely One Nation will win enough lower house seats to form a government in the next federal election scheduled for 2028, but polling suggests it could double its Senate representation, giving it more sway over which bills get passed.
Mark Riboldi, a social impact researcher at University of Technology, said that while the conservative coalition fought for its life, it was unsurprising wealthy voters were hedging their bets on which party would form the opposition.
One Nation and Hanson did not respond to Reuters questions about Rinehart and One Nation's changing donor base.
A spokesperson for Liberal leader Taylor was not immediately available for comment.
JOINING THE JETSETTERS
While Australian Electoral Commission data shows publicly listed companies are sticking with donations to the major political parties, One Nation's appeal to some wealthy private sector figures - led by Rinehart - has grown.
Rinehart, Australia's richest person, had been a vocal supporter of then Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton, including providing him flights on her private aircraft at least twice ahead of the 2025 election.
After Dutton lost his seat, Rinehart has focused her largesse on One Nation, last month donating a Cirrus G7 plane worth about A$1.5 million. Hanson also disclosed that two employees of Rinehart's flagship company had given her party A$500,000 each, far exceeding One Nation's previous record donation from an individual of A$100,000.
Rinehart has held several events per week aimed at converting Liberal donors to One Nation, including A$15,000-a-seat dinners and a fundraiser culminating in the March visit to Mar-a-Lago, said five people familiar with the events.
Rinehart also hosted Hanson and other One Nation representatives on her Gulfstream G700 jet and other private planes for about 20 flights, including at least one to Florida, electoral commission records show.
A spokesperson for Rinehart declined to comment on the businesswoman's relationship with One Nation but sent a statement criticising the "billions being spent on green energy" and "inadequately-screened immigrants straining the accommodation supply (and) putting strain on our hospital emergencies", among other issues.
Rinehart, who rode a iron ore export boom to a personal fortune of about A$40 billion, has occasionally weighed in on politics including a 2012 complaint during a speech that Australia's minimum wage was too high.
She began attending Trump events during his first term and has used her ties to the U.S. president to attract other wealthy donors to One Nation.
Doug Tynan, chief investment officer at GCQ Funds Management, met Trump at a One Nation fundraiser after donating A$100,000.
"The donation was made in the days following the Bondi tragedy and because I feel it should be illegal to burn the Australian flag," said Tynan. He didn't say why the Bondi attack, where Islamist gunmen shot dead 15 people at a Jewish celebration last December, drew him to the party.
"I was also keen to take Mrs Rinehart up on the opportunity to travel to Mar-a-Lago to meet Donald Trump," Tynan added.
($1 = 1.3963 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Byron Kaye and Melanie Burton; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
