ello (@piers)

Analysis: "In 10 years at the ABC, I've had some strange experiences. I can now add last week's #CPAC conference in London to the list, and it's going somewhere near the top [...] Australian senators Pauline Hanson and Bridget McKenzie each had their own speaking slots, but small audiences. Indeed, sparse attendances were a feature of the whole thing. "It got me thinking; who is this event actually for? "[...] Someone who was there later posted online about the lack of enthusiasm in the auditorium, saying they had seen more life in a supermarket clearance bin. Things got worse. During a session on Friday, my colleague Latika Bourke noted a man behind her in the crowd had "fallen asleep and was snoring loudly". "Away from the main stage, an adjacent room where a handful of exhibitors had set up stalls seemed to be deserted every time I stuck my head in. The corridors and bars around the cavernous five-star complex were largely empty too. Where was everyone? Perhaps the VIP area, which you had to pay £10,000 ($19,100) to access. I'll never know. "[...] **There was more youth in the crowd than you might think**. I spotted Lorcan Barker, a 19-year-old far-right activist who goes by the online alias #Angloid, taking selfies. He advocates for mass deportations and spoke at a remigration summit in Portugal earlier this year. Last month, he posted a video on Instagram claiming the Daily Mail had falsely accused him of being a White supremacist. "After CPAC concluded, he took to social media to say the whole thing had been "terrible". "I got countless dirty looks," he wrote on X. Full disclosure: I could not attend the Thursday sessions of CPAC but watched a few online. My boss, Mazoe Ford, went to some in-person, though. "By the time I arrived at the venue on Friday, things had picked up a little. In the afternoon, a decent crowd was building for the most high-profile speaker at the conference, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. "Ahead of his address, I watched Gina Rinehart sashay to a seat near the front. The Australian billionaire was hard to miss, donning bejewelled sandals and a pink cowboy hat (tell me you have just been holidaying in Sicily without telling me). "A little later, **Hanson made her way into the venue** with her chief-of-staff, James Ashby. She looked annoyed as she strode through the doors. Then I noticed my colleague Elias Clure trailing her with a microphone. Ah, that explains it, I thought. "Farage is riding high in UK opinion polls. Whether you agree with his politics or not, he is a brilliant orator. In a searing 30-minute address, he seldom looked at notes and got a standing ovation, albeit from a very friendly crowd. "[...] The fact the audience was packed out for Farage was an aberration. When Hanson spoke on Saturday morning, the room was less than a quarter full. By the time McKenzie took to the stage later that day, there were even fewer bums on seats. "The Nationals deputy leader went a little off-piste in her speech, telling those who were still in attendance that dishing out foreign aid was actually OK, so long as it was to prevent the Chinese having influence in the Pacific. She admitted those listening to her would probably be sceptical. No-one clapped. "[...] After Hanson's speech, it was my job to wait outside the VIP room and ask her questions in case she emerged. After about an hour, I abandoned my post because I had to file a story (and, to use a favoured phrase of the One Nation leader's, I'd had a gutful). As it turned out, Hanson gave Australian journalists the slip and found a way to exit the conference undetected. "If I had been able to track her down, I would have asked her about her decision to participate in an interview with anti-immigration activist Tommy Robinson — something that has been widely criticised — while in the UK. Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is a convicted criminal and did not speak at the conference. "[...] CPAC is chaired by US lobbyist Matt Schlapp, who loomed large over the event in London. Schlapp, 58, has faced allegations of sexual assault multiple times, but denies all and has never been charged with a crime. He settled a lawsuit with one male accuser in 2024 for US $480,000 ($684,000). "In the US, CPAC is huge. It has been staged in Australia multiple times [...] The conference is supposed to serve as a launch pad for conservative grassroots political advocacy and energise right-wingers. I'm not certain that happened last week [...] For the moderate right, this CPAC was too radical. For hardliners, it was not extreme enough [...]." Riley Stuart, ABC in London #auspol https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-23/inside-cpac-london-conspiracy-theories-and-empty-seats/106942500