Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party is using Minecraft to cape for the Australian mining industry on TikTok. A new video on the PHON TikTok channel features cartoon versions of Hanson, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Nationals politician Matt Canavan, mining magnate Gina Rinehart and others.
The video is a weird, overwrought paean to Australia’s mining industry that asserts mining built the entire nation (it didn’t). It depicts Hanson and a coterie of conservative losers trying to win Albanese over by introducing him to Minecraft and its supposed hero, Roy. This is, as far as I can tell, a subtle nod to the Roy Hill iron ore mine in Western Australia because Albanese’s character frequently asks for iron ore throughout.
It then goes on to throw some breathless climate denialism and renewables fearmongering in the mix as well. It’s like being walked through all of One Nation’s worst, most repeated, most easily debunked talking points. All this, and it’s wrapped up in the world’s least-funny, lowest-effort South Park parody. Seemingly not understanding that brevity is the soul of wit, the video also clocks in at five excruciating minutes, well beyond TikTok’s 1-minute sweet spot.
This isn’t even the first time Hanson’s moronic cartoons have gotten her in trouble. Last year, a similar cartoon in which it falsely suggested Labor would utilise electoral fraud to win the Federal election landed PHON in hot water. That cartoon was pulled from social media after the Australian Electoral Commission got involved.
It is exceedingly concerning to see a game like Minecraft — a game played and enjoyed by millions of children — used to appeal to them in this way, on an app that is also predominantly used by children.
The video’s contents also stand in direct opposition to many green initiatives that Xbox has publicly pursued in recent years. I sincerely doubt that One Nation contacted Xbox or Microsoft before using its most valuable IP in this way. Kotaku Australia has reached out to Xbox ANZ to see how it feels about this and will update this piece when we hear back from them.
One Nation’s video comes on the heels of the Australian Liberal Party also using video games to push its political messaging. Earlier this week, we reported on the LNP’s use of Lethal Company and Fortnite gameplay to attack its opposition and even TikTok itself. Between them, a worrying trend of appealing to young voters using popular games as a Trojan Horse is beginning to appear.
Image: Xbox, Sam Mooy / Stringer, Getty, Kotaku Australia
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