Opinion
Pauline Hanson’s dip in the polls came about because a few voters parked with her in protest stopped hyperventilating long enough about how rotten Australia is to ask themselves one question: would they be better off if Hanson was running the show?
The only logical response was one word. No. They realised after her appearance at the National Press Club that Hanson is definitely not the messiah, only a very, very, naughty girl.
However, for most of her supporters, the deeper question remains. Do they care? The answer is probably not, and largely thanks to a crushingly ineffectual official opposition.
The combination of arrogance and ignorance displayed by Hanson at the club and her subsequent ludicrous attempts to clean up should have demolished the fantasy that after 30 years of grasping and griping, bigotry and outright racism, One Nation was fit to govern.
The performance did stall her rise and revive the government, yet unsurprisingly – according to the Redbridge and Newspoll surveys – One Nation continues to threaten to obliterate the Coalition.
As a result, Angus Taylor’s leadership hangs by a thread. Without dramatic changes, including a concerted corporate effort to cut down One Nation, he invites rebellion or defections or both.
Taylor’s obvious replacement, Andrew Hastie, a conservative who can be both cerebral and cut-through, has pledged to destroy Hanson before she destroys him. Hastie’s rationale is that Liberals have to fight on all fronts. If they can’t convince voters they can stand up to Hanson, they will never convince them they can stand up to Labor.
Despicable threats to Hastie’s family incited by his opposition to One Nation and his appearance in court against accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith have understandably had a profound impact on Hastie’s thinking and approach.
Those two issues have won him admirers outside the Liberal Party, however they have undoubtedly cost him support internally, to the point where if he feels abandoned by the Liberal Party in this fight to the death, he will abandon the Liberal Party.
The departure of Senator Jonno Duniam for family reasons was bad enough; the departure of Hastie would be devastating.
Regrettably not all politicians – and not all media – have responded in the same principled way to the threat of Hansonism.
Some tremble, fearing a backlash. Others slobber.
For some “journalists” and outlets, ideological and monetary interests lie in eliminating those who oppose Hanson – like Hastie – or promoting puffed-up little Hitlers, often under the guise of free speech.
Nationals Party leader Matt Canavan says Karl Stefanovic and others like him should be free to interview whoever they choose. Of course. They are free to do or say, within the limits of the law, whatever they like on their own time on their own platforms.
The rest of us, journalists and politicians, are free – nay, obliged – to condemn them when they drool over racists, bigots, thugs and criminals who peddle lies, spread hate and corrupt our institutions.
Immature Coalition MPs have been rattled by Coalition polling and their experiences with supporters recoiling when Hanson is criticised.
Rather than a united, ferocious assault against Hansonism, pointing out where she is wrong and why her policies and beliefs are likely to cause incalculable, irreversible damage to the economy and the community, Taylor chose a different strategy.
After consulting colleagues and others, he followed the advice of those who urged him to stay above the fray and leave the dirty work to others. Occasionally, on a specific issue, that can work. With the party’s very survival at stake it was a devastatingly bad call. Another one. The leader has to lead. Otherwise, what is the point of him or her?
On the day Hastie vowed to die before kneeling to One Nation, Taylor was crouching, squirming over whether he supported multiculturalism or monoculturalism. The answer was a no-brainer. Take that any way you like. Taylor neither backed Hastie nor condemned Hanson.
At Tuesday’s party meeting, without naming anyone, Taylor complained about MPs’ self-indulgence and lack of discipline. Colleagues said he was mainly talking about frontbencher Melissa McIntosh, who infuriated Taylor by saying the party needed to rebrand – shorthand for reform. How dare she.
Senior Liberals insist support for a unity ticket with One Nation does not extend beyond South Australian MPs Alex Antic and Tony Pasin, so there are few internal risks to Taylor condemning Hansonism. They now believe Taylor has got the message. We shall see.
The problem is that he has saddled the party with a federal president who has repeatedly supported deals with One Nation.
Tony Abbott and friends, who have been at summer camp for conservatives in the UK, also played a key role in promoting and supporting scandal-plagued Victorian state MP Moira Deeming, a project which fundamentally destabilised the Victorian Liberal Party.
The upcoming state election against a deeply unpopular government should have been a foregone conclusion. It now hangs in the balance. The Liberals could even be forced to govern with One Nation. Brilliant work, Tony and Peta.
The fate and direction of today’s Liberal Party is being determined by Hanson, someone who has shown she is clueless about almost everything including paid parental leave.
Someone who considers voters dumb enough to swallow arguments that black is white – literally – by claiming the Socceroos embody her vision of monoculturalism because people of different cultures and races play under one flag, when really that is the very essence of the multiculturalism she despises.
No other politician would get away with such baloney.
No other politician would survive telling voters they have to wait until after the election to see their tax policy. No other leader would get away with dictating who can ask questions or who can attend press conferences, or argue their party is not racist then routinely denigrate Aboriginals, Asians, Muslims, workers, vulnerable people, and anyone refusing to speak English at home.
Yet here we are, with a once great party now in moral decline, ensuring One Nation stays afloat.
Niki Savva is a regular columnist and author of award-winning book The Road to Ruin: how Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin destroyed their own government.
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Niki Savva is an award-winning political commentator and author. She was a staffer to former prime minister John Howard and former treasurer Peter Costello, and is a member of the board of Old Parliament House.From our partners
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