• ARTICLES

One Nation: Unity or Division.

Bob Green

Keywords:
Textual analysis, Personal Construct Theory, constructivism, populism, Pauline Hanson.

Abstract:
In Australia, the populist politician Pauline Hanson has been a controversial and divisive figure. While not advocating violence, her views can serve to legitimise or give a voice to the views of others with more extreme views. Employing techniques from Corpus Linguistics and informed by Personal Construct Theory, Ms Hanson’s parliamentary corpus from 1996 - 2023 was examined. Fundamental contradictions between her call for unity and the divisiveness and potential harm her comments may provoke were identified. While the focus was an Australian politician, the method could be used to highlight the construct dimensions and construing of other political figures.