Why Australia needed to elect Pauline Hanson

All I ask is that you read this all the way to the bottom.

AUSTRALIA needed to elect Pauline Hanson.

The country needs someone in the Federal Parliament to bring attention to the issues she stands for.

We need someone to stand up and talk about stopping Mosques from being built and someone has to speak on the urgent need to stop Sharia law influencing our judiciary.

Someone needs to introduce a bill to stop Halal certification and say it is an unjust religious tax on decent Australians.

And we need Pauline to say Muslims should no longer be able to migrate to our country as they divide us.

Yes, I think someone needs to say all of those things and it's not because I support these policies.

The poll in our Senate clearly shows about nine per cent of people in Queensland agree with Ms Hanson - that's why they put her as their first preference.

Ms Hanson tells us it's time for everyone to have a conversation around race, indeed many Australians feel their views on racial issues aren't represented by mainstream politics or media.

So, I'm glad if Ms Hanson's election provides an avenue for us to have this conversation.

I'm 30 and I'm old enough to remember the last time Ms Hanson was in parliament.

I don't really remember her election in 1996 but I do remember very clearly when she lost her seat in 1998 and when she failed to get enough votes to get into the Senate in 2001.

You see during the late 90s Australia had this conversation and what happened was those pushing the politics of division lost.

The country hasn't changed greatly since then.

But what has happened is those who know better, those who are educated enough, articulate enough and smart enough to call friends out when we see them share a Facebook post propagating fear against people of Islamic faith, have fallen silent.

The thoroughly decent but often apathetic majority have simply quietly shaken their heads when far right groups agitate against having Mosques being built, or tell us Islam is a manual for terrorism.

These views are so ridiculous most decent people feel they don't warrant their attention or discussion.

However for those out there who have been silent, now is the time to let your views be known and to speak up as it seems we are now called upon to remake the obvious case that a multicultural Australia, a tolerant and decent Australia, is a better Australia.

So to Ms Hanson and her supporters I say this: you lost last time, you will lose again, Australians are far better than you might expect.

Oh and for the record - our judges aren't about to forget how to apply the law, Halal certification is not funding terrorism and people of all faiths are welcome in my country.