Right on the heels of my post on Female Politicians in Australia, comes the disquieting news that Pauline Hanson is now running for a seat in QLD’s state election.

I suppose it was inevitable that Hanson would pop up, given that elections tend to be quite profitable for her, afterall she made $213’000 courtesy of the AEC in her failed attempt as a senator at the 2007 Federal election. Indeed Hanson has run and failed in most elections for the last decade including, Federally in 1998(as a MP) & 2001 (as a Senator), in 2003 for NSW (in the upper house), the aforementioned 2007 run and now in 2008 is going for a MP spot in QLD.

Hanson has always been a media and political phenomenon far more than an electoral one, a distinction worth remembering in these days of democracies omnipresence. Just because people are talking about you, doesnt mean you the people will be voting for you. Hanson was significant for what she represented, anger at the change and upheaval of globalisation, and a lightning rod for changes conservatives wanted in the national conversation that those on the right and left interpreted as an encouragement for racism. (The former doing, the latter condoning).

But Hanson herself has never been that popular and whilst QLD is her native backyard, we should not expect any more chance of her being elected this time around. For a start, the only time she won an election it was because (despite a last minute disendorsement) she was still listed as a Liberal Party candidate on the electoral ballots.) Her latest run comes after being reduced to a celebrity reality TV star and far from the political debate or even consciousness over the last 4-5 years. She has yet to nominate which seat she will stand for, or even assemble any kind of political operation (Though Possum Pollytics at Crikey has a post up suggesting she will run in Beaudesert).

Secondly, whilst these are tough economic times, Australia is yet to really feel the pinch in job losses, or business closures, and there isn’t the simmering long term resentment that the Government/major parties arnt doing anything about it that there was in 1996-1998. Bligh may well face a tough fight, but few will blame her, or Rudd (or the Liberal National Party) for the economic conditions they face. As such Hanson’s ability to whip up economic discontent will be limited. Likewise for Immigration, after several years debating the topic, the people are exhausted by it. Hanson’s message will play better in rural QLD than most of the country, and she has easily slid from being anti-asian to anti-muslim/Lebanese. However given 9/11 is now 8 years old, and the Lebanese community in QLD is tiny, she wont find a lot to work with. And finally, the election is set for march 21, that is 26 days away. 26 days to persuade tens of thousands of people to vote for her. Of whom many would have not heard of her in a decade, other than as an item of celebrity gossip. 26 days to establish a credible base, whilst the Labor Party (at both state and Federal levels) will turn their full guns on her, and the Liberals once bitten, twice shy (and afraid she will cost them a seat) will be doing all they can to deny her oxygen and credibility.

One final point about this noxious woman. Whatever our personal disgust with her views on race, religion, economics (a 2% tax on everything!), her imprisonment was a breech of justice and the rule of Law. Whilst I dont have a problem with her political opponents aiding legal efforts against her, the judges made major mistakes in reading and interpreting the law. Whilst one could only charitably classify her actions as ‘self-interested’, it was not illegal, and her imprisonment a miscarriage of justice. One that is unacceptable with a normal person and doubly so with a politician (Politicians are just as accountable under the law as everyone else, however the law has been the favoured tactic for centuries to remove and censor popular but radical politicians. The highest possible standard of justice is required in their case to ensure the law, not politics is the cause of any legal sentencing)

Hopefully this is the first and last post I’ll have to make on Hanson. She was a freak electoral result, who showed us only two significant points. 1 – That Politicians (Keating) can not get too far in front of the community when making changes, lest it cause outrage, and that 2 – Politicians (Howard) cant afford to ignore or justify this outrage when it works for their electoral/political benefit. Her story is one of main party failure, not personal capability. She should well lose in March, and with that fifth straight electoral defeat be consigned to the dustbin of Australian Political history.