Electoral Guerrilla Theatre in Australia: Pauline Hanson vs. Pauline Pantsdown

Election Night

Sydney, 3 October 1998. Election night for the Australian Parliament. Pauline Pantsdown, candidate for the Federal Senate, hobbles down a dark street in Marrickville--a working-class, multicultural, immigrant, inner suburb of Sydney--headed for the headquarters of Anthony Albanese, local Member of Parliament (MP) for the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Although ostensibly an Independent rival to the Labor Party, Pantsdown is the ALP's entertainment on this crucial evening. Scores of the local electorate and several local leaders of the left faction of the ALP are present. Pantsdown is in his full campaign costume, a cartoon-drag version of far-right MP and founder of the One Nation Party, Pauline Hanson: a bright-red frizzy wig, outrageous lopsided makeup, high heels, and an inexpensive, bright-red dress--the same brand that Hanson wears. Pantsdown is no traditional drag queen, but a radical, critical, ¹ candidate drag queen, who apes grotesque politics through grotesque mask work and mimetic excess.

When Pantsdown arrives, Albanese, a shoo-in for reelection, tells him that Hanson has lost her seat in Parliament. The mood in the hall is festive as Albanese introduces Pantsdown to the audience as "the person who has done the best job of exposing the fascism that Pauline Hanson represents." Pantsdown immediately launches into a lip-synch performance of his anti-Hanson, chart-topping hit, "I Don't Like It." The crowd cheers as Pantsdown bobs about like a puppet on a string--lip-synching to Hanson's own voice, digitally remastered and rearranged to form the anti-Hanson lyrics of Pantsdown's creation. These lyrics mock both Hanson's cultural racism and her taste in music.

A bit of Pantsdown political stand-up follows: The candidate mocks Hanson's cultivated image as a working-class "battler" by detailing the huge profits she made and tiny wages she paid as the owner of a fish-and-chips shop. Pantsdown then recounts buying the same brand of dresses at the same warehouse where Hanson does her shopping. Those dresses cost only $39 apiece, says Pantsdown, "so where is the money going?"

The performer then details his current legal troubles--his first song, "I'm a Backdoor Man" has been banned as a result of a lawsuit by Hanson's One Nation Party against JJJ (also known as Triple J), the youth radio station of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Hanson's lawyers claimed that the song, an earlier cut-and-paste satirical reworking of the parliamentarian's words, is defamatory.

As the setup for his closing song, Pantsdown pulls the deputy premier of New South Wales, the local state-level representative, and Albanese up in front of the blue-collar Vietnamese/Turkish/Greek/Anglo audience of about 300. The politicians are each assigned a part, which they awkwardly but good-naturedly struggle through. They play lawyers and judges, reciting actual transcripts of Pantsdown's day in court, which ended with the banning of "I'm a Backdoor Man" from airplay. A good, beery, left-wing time is had by all and Pantsdown shakes many hands on his way out the door.

After the show, Pantsdown is whisked by his campaign staff (a couple of friends) to Sleaze Ball '98--the huge, annual gay performance event (which in '98 happened to fall on the same night as the election). ² Pantsdown, the main event for the 16,000 people in the hall, performs his second song, "I Don't Like It." The grand scale of the Sleaze Ball contrasts sharply with the labor hall. There is a huge, frightening, papier-mâché Hanson head on stage; laser lights beam and a powerful sound system booms. A dozen "Dancing Hansons" back up Pantsdown in an earthy, bawdy, and tightly choreographed routine. At the end of the song, the massive Hanson head explodes and the Dancing Hansons collapse to the floor. Pantsdown steps to...