Brisbane cafe owner targeted by review-bombing after One Nation shares his blackboard joke
A Spring Hill cafe owner says his business was hit with fake one-star reviews, phone calls and abuse after One Nation shared a photo of his blackboard on its official Facebook page.
Glen Morris, owner of Glen’s Espresso on Wharf Street, wrote the message last Thursday in response to news that One Nation was moving its headquarters into a nearby building owned by billionaire backer Gina Rinehart.
“I’m not sure if One Nation have done their due diligence putting their head office three doors down from my blackboard,” Morris wrote.
One Nation shared a photo of the board within hours. “Oh, we did [due diligence],” the party said in the caption. “We’re very lucky to be surrounded by a number of cafes serving delicious coffee (yours included). We will always support small businesses, regardless of the owners’ politics.”
Morris said a wave of negative reviews followed within an hour and a half.
“We started noticing within that hour-and-a-half period that we were getting one-star reviews on our Facebook and Google profiles from people who’d never been to the coffee shop and were intent on maligning the shop in ways that would ruin the business if the reviews were upheld,” Morris said.
The cafe held a flat five-star rating on both platforms before the reviews appeared. Google detected the activity and removed the reviews posted over the 24-hour period.
“So it was a definite and deliberate attempt by their followers to ruin someone’s livelihood, based on what I perceived to be a fairly innocuous joke that wasn’t in any way harmful.”
Morris said he sent One Nation screenshots of the reviews and received no response. The party also did not respond to The Age’s requests for comment.
“One Nation demands tolerance for their own opinions, but refuses to extend that right to their critics,” he said.
Griffith University political scientist Paul Williams said online mobs were becoming more common, particularly on the “hard right” of Australian politics.
“It’s like there’s now an army of barrackers that we’ve not really seen before, whose mission seems to be destroying any hint of progressive thought,” he said.
“And if that means taking down a business, well, it’s a case of whatever it takes.”
Morris said he still welcomes One Nation staff and volunteers at the cafe. His issue, he said, is with followers being mobilised against a small business, not with individuals.
It is not the first time the blackboard has stirred political trouble. During the 2014 G20 summit in Brisbane, Morris referenced historical allegations against then-South African president Jacob Zuma, who was acquitted in 2006, prompting a visit from Zuma’s security detail.
Jonathan Jackson, 13th October 2026
