The Hanson phenomenon is being written up as a revolt against "economic rationalism" and the economic reform agenda of the last 15 years. There are several problems with this analysis.
First, it was not economic issues which first brought her to national prominence -- it was talking about issues such as indigenous policy and immigration. These are issues of cultural identity, not economics.
Second, the economic direction Pauline Hanson has since offered was already on offer from the Australian Democrats, from the Greens, Graeme Campbell's Australia First Party and Rex Connor junior's Advance Australia. (The profound similarities between the economic and immigration policies of these parties is outlined in a recently released my publication -- Odd Bedfellows: The Economic Nationalists and Why They Are Wrong.)
The Democrats and the Greens were already pushing the same frightened economic nationalism that Pauline Hanson has since adopted, and so should have gained similar support.
Third, Queensland has had less experience of economic reform than anywhere else in the country. Its state finances were not botched, its government business enterprises were not grossly mismanaged, so it has had less need to undergo reform.
While concerns about unemployment, and foreign competition no doubt help fuel her support, they are not the real basis of One Nation's support. What is distinctive about Pauline Hanson is that she offers a series of culturally powerful themes in a public persona which aids her effectiveness in delivering her message. And while people continue to focus on economic issues -- leaving the cultural field to her -- she will continue to build support.
Her themes are about pride in being Australian, pride in a traditional conception of Australia, about fears of Australia becoming a divided nation. She also taps into the resentment many people outside the "Triangle" of Canberra-Sydney-Melbourne feel about having that triangle dominate national policy.
Accusations about Pauline Hanson's racism miss the point. The point is not that she taps into racist sentiments (she does) but that she taps into sentiments of pride in traditional Australia. And the wasteful failure of special programs for indigenous Australians provide a perfect indicator of Canberra's isolation and incompetence.
Along with official multiculturalism -- the doctrine that the hosts must pay to adapt to newcomers -- and Mabo and Wik -- special property rights on the basis of race -- they provide a lightning rod for fears that Australia is becoming a nation of tribes. Fears well articulated in Paul Sheehan's best-seller Among the Barbarians. The policy of targeting government welfare on the basis of "identity politics" -- of getting money if you "prove" you are oppressed and the "culture of complaint" that generates -- creates the impression of an Australia divided on the basis of special deals. So there is both "downward envy" and a feeling of being insulted.
Attempts to tell the Queenslanders who voted for One Nation that they are "beyond the pale" will build her support, not undermine it
This is the real failure of the Howard Government. In March 1996, the ALP was effectively wiped out in mainland Australia outside the triangle. The Howard Government was given a mandate to articulate the concerns of Australia outside the triangle, a mandate it failed to take up.
This failure created a political vacuum. In walked Hanson. She is a person not of the triangle embodying resentment at the triangle's dominance and at the sneers of the "guilt industry", a person whose blatant patriotism resonated loudly.
The solution to the Perils of Pauline is not to adopt the economic policies of the Democrats, the Greens and One Nation -- more centralised interventionism. It is to articulate a sense of a common citizenship rejecting both sneering elitists and old-fashioned bigots. It is to revisit the Hawke-Greiner move to a new federalism that Keating derailed back in 1991. It is to articulate a new national contract which gives people far more ownership of decisions, rather than being dictated to by a remote Canberra.
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