This paper does three things. First, it offers a critique of the academic literature on the One Nation vote, focusing on the limitations of the work of political geographers and the methodological shortcomings of survey researchers. Second, it re-examines data from the 1998 Australian Election Study in order to explore the demographic and attitudinal forces that both drove the One Nation vote and distinguished it from the votes secured by the Labor Party, the Liberal and National parties and the Australian Democrats; this highlights the importance of gender, geography and class, of political alienation and of attitudes to Aborigines and immigration. Third, it suggests that the basis of One Nation's mobilisation did not lie in concerns about economic insecurity so much as in opposition to 'new class' values, particularly around race. In doing so, it challenges common understandings of the Party's constituency and of its distinctiveness.

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The most comprehensive survey of Australian attitudes to multiculturalism has been variously interpreted as showing that multiculturalism enjoys a high level of support or very little support at all. A re-analysis of the data suggests that both views are mistaken: while multiculturalists appear to outnumber monoculturalists, many Australians — perhaps most — are caught somewhere in between. Attitudes to multiculturalism correlate strongly with several things: views about assimilation, equal opportunity, government support for ethnic organisations and multicultural programs; the teaching of European as well as Asian languages; and the number, source and kinds of migrants Australia should accept. Attitudes are also related to age, party preference and place of birth. Support for multiculturalism is strongest amongst those who came of age after the official birth of multiculturalism, among those who support Labor or the Australian Democrats, and especially among those born in Europe or Asia. This suggests, other things being equal, that support for multiculturalism is likely to grow.

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