There’s a good reason Pauline Hanson is so successful

THERE’S a reason that support for One Nation has reached a massive 23 per cent in Queensland.

One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson during Senate Question Time at Parliament House on Feb. 7, 2017. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

OPINION

IS IT true that we’re witnessing a more sophisticated Pauline Hanson in her Senate incarnation? A more polished parliamentarian this time around?

According to Federal Industry Minister Arthur Sinodinos we are. In his defence of the WA Liberals’ decision to preference One Nation ahead of the Nationals at the March 11 state election, Mr Sinodinos said One Nation had “evolved” and was “a lot more sophisticated” now.

“They’re more sophisticated because in this chamber, since they’ve been here, they’ve supported important pieces of Government legislation, they’ve been prepared to work with us,” Senator Sinodinos said.

He’s not the first politician to radically change tack over One Nation.

The Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has also held out the prospect of preferencing One Nation ahead of Labor on the federal stage, while former PM Tony Abbott, in the most cloying of about-faces, appeared in a video last year with Ms Hanson, welcoming her to the Senate.

Of course, the truth is, One Nation hasn’t changed. It is still espousing the same half-baked and regressive ideas that became a hallmark of the party’s platform in the late ’90s.

Take a look at their policy blueprint. There’s the call for a Royal Commission into Islam; the restrictive immigration policy; and downright strange propositions, such as forcing newlyweds to have pre-nuptial agreements and a flat two per cent tax rate for everyone — including welfare recipients.

But the politicians are right to be nervous. Ms Hanson’s swelling support base cannot be ignored, and her rise in Queensland is nothing short of startling.

Pauline of the people. Posing for photos with supporters in Buderim Tavern on Australia Day. Picture: Lachie Millard

A Galaxy poll published in News Corp papers last week showed One Nation support had reached 23 per cent in Queensland, a state that is widely seen as a crucial battleground in the fight for The Lodge.

Voters in Queensland are turning to One Nation in large numbers because, outside of the south eastern corner of the state, people are doing it tough.

The downturn in mining is acutely felt in many regional and country towns, where unemployment is high. Many voters in these areas feel that the suits in Parliament not only fail to address their concerns, but may not even be from the same planet.

And who can blame them? Last week, Treasurer Scott Morrison brandished a lump of coal in the House of Representatives, passing it along the bench to prove Australians have nothing to fear from coal-powered energy. The Greens followed up with a stunt of their own, this time waving around a solar panel. It forced Speaker Tony Smith to warn federal politicians to stop bringing props into Parliament.

The disconnect between reality and the activities of Parliament could not have been more glaring. At a time when much of the country was sweltering through a terrible heatwave, there were our elected representatives acting like private school boys on debate camp, treating one of the most serious of issues — climate change — with a depressing casualness.

Is there any wonder a growing number of people are rejecting the centre ground for Ms Hanson’s version of politics, which is a kind of politics for those who hate politics? Someone who deplores elitism in all of its forms, and makes a great show of feeling her voters’ concerns with the might of her pitched histrionics.

Ms Hanson’s tight link with her support base is crucial to her success, and by acting like out-of-touch elites, politicians are only emboldening her cause.

Ms Hanson represents a kick out against the tomfoolery of Parliament and politics, a bridge across the chasm separating voters’ concerns and politicians’ actions. The fact that her policies are chimerical is largely irrelevant. She is not one of “them”, those prop-wielding politicians speaking an entirely different language of one upmanship and incessant braying, and that is what matters most.

If political moderates want to see off One Nation, or at least mollify their power, they cannot simply dismiss Ms Hanson as a fool, and they would be even more foolish to call any of her supporters one. (In fact, I would suggest Mr Morrison is in no position to call anyone else a fool ever again in light of his juvenile coal stunt).

Politicians need to chase the One Nation vote not by cuddling up to Ms Hanson, nor by co-opting her less-offensive policies, but by addressing the concerns of her support base, by acknowledging there is something deeply broken with our political system when a large portion of people reject its mainstream representatives.

Otherwise, sit back and watch her grow.

Johanna Leggatt is a Melbourne-based freelance journalist. Follow her on Twitter @johannaleggatt