The Sketch: Stand by for more alternative candidates like Pauline Hanson as our trust in politicians wanes

THE lack of trust Aussies have in politicians is paving the way for those who can pass themselves off as non-political. Beyond Pauline Hanson and her ilk, there are more wannabe pollies waiting in the wings.

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A new survey has found Australians don’t trust politicians, which could make things rather awkward this Saturday when we are supposed to elect them as our leaders.

The University of Canberra survey, which polled 1400 people across the nation, is hardly ground breaking but is, in the wake of Brexit, unsettling.

Across the Western world people are losing faith in politicians and when that happens, voters inevitably elect politicians so skilled in politics they can deftly pass themselves off as non-political.

Pauline Hanson did it when Donald Trump was just another real estate salesman; the more cerebral Nick Xenophon in South Australia has refined it into an art form.

Waiting in the wings are scores more political aspirants looking for your vote this Saturday with a history of criticising, but not creating, public policy, and pledging little more than a vague promise they will not be “politicians”.

And people, in their rather endearing way, will vote for them.

It’s always a reminder of why politics and religion have always been so closely entwined and how, with the decline of the latter, we have come to put so much faith in the former.

Hopefully, most Australian voters will not indulge themselves in the adolescent fantasy that a selfless redeemer with only our best interests at heart will materialise out of the wilderness to lead us into a promised land.

Australian federal politicians have been, for the most part, remarkably decent sorts, largely untainted by corruption.

But we should accept that the primary motivation for anyone entering political life is simply personal ambition, and temper our expectations of what they can achieve with an acknowledgment that, much like ourselves, they’re only human.

Originally published as The Sketch: Stand by for more alternative candidates like Pauline Hanson as our trust in politicians wanes