Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

Please Explain by Anna Broinowksi & Rogue Nation by Royce Kurmelovs

by
December 2017, no. 397

Please Explain: The rise, fall and rise again of Pauline Hanson by Anna Broinowksi

Viking, $34.99 pb, 312 pp, 9780143784678

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

Rogue Nation: Dispatches from Australia’s populist uprisings and outsider politics by Royce Kurmelovs

Hachette, $32.99 pb, 272 pp, 9780733639241

Please Explain by Anna Broinowksi & Rogue Nation by Royce Kurmelovs

by
December 2017, no. 397

More than any other political party in Australia, One Nation represents a puzzle for commentators. When trying to explain its support – which has hovered around ten per cent since its revival in 2016 – the temptation is to look for subtext, something deeper, beneath the surface. Could the party’s cultural pitch really be a code for economic concerns, with immigration a metaphor for the genuine fear of international competition? Perhaps we are witnessing a new political coalition of those ‘left behind’ by social change, bound together by a suspicion of everything cosmopolitan. Or is One Nation simply a vehicle for those pissed off at a stagnant political order, hoping to unseat and humiliate its representatives? What really motivates the mythical One Nation voter?

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.