Pied piper of politics misunderstood

Andrew L. Urban.

 They don’t get it: One Nation is not your common or garden party. It attracts voters because it is showing the ruling parties – Labor, Liberal, National – the way towards a better set of policies … for them to pursue. One Nation has grown from a protest party to the How To party.

Pauline Hanson isn’t hoping to move into the Lodge as her priority. She is doing politicians a favour, saying what the electorate wants. Obviously. Frankly, disenchanted voters in today’s world probably don’t much care any longer about which party wins political power as long it is used to deliver what the electorate wants. Which explains why new One Nation members come from all political sides and all from all socio-economic classes. It is the pied piper of today’s politics.

It is something of an irony that Hanson’s party is often derided for not having detailed policies. Quite apart from the fact that this far out from an election, detailed policies are rare anywhere in the political universe. And yet it is the thrust of all One Nation pronouncements that is the magnet for voters. Reduced and qualified migration, cut off climate change policies that are seen as massive waste are the top two.

The other parties can’t let themselves agree that these are valid issues and copying them is fraught with political risk…but they also know that the electorate is a wake-up to their mistaken policies. They are in a wicked situation, stuck to their disliked policies, but unable to copy ON.