Hanson prepares to take the big stage as Husic hits out at straitjacket on caucus |
When One Nation leader Pauline Hanson addresses the National Press Club on June 17, there will be landmines everywhere.
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It's her first formal speech to the club in her 30-year (on and off) parliamentary career. How times have changed. When she spoke at a One Nation meeting there in July 1997, a contemporary report said the gathering was held at the club "after being refused permission to use other venues. The Press Club decided to host the meeting on the basis that it is a forum for 'free speech'".
For Hanson, this month's address a big opportunity. It's also a big risk.
Come across well, and it's another step forward for one of the most unlikely major political figures of our time. Stuff it up, and all her flaws will be on national display.
And there are multiple potential pitfalls. Making a thin address that lacks any credibility. Giving bad answers to questions, or not being able to answer them. Most dangerous of all, a firecracker loss of temper with journalists, for whom she has disdain.
A leader appearing at the NPC faces a higher-than-usual bar. Those who have to prep Hanson, including Barnaby Joyce, have their work cut out.
There'll be a few landmines for the journalists to avoid, too. They'll be detonated if questioners come across as snide or arrogant.
It's the time for the deep dive not just on Hanson but, importantly, on how her rapidly expanding party is behaving on the ground.
Margo Kingston, who as a reporter covered Hanson in the 1990s, last month attended a One Nation branch meeting in Taree, New South Wales. Margo is (sort of) retired but old habits die hard, and she recorded proceedings and took some photos of what had been advertised as a "public event". She was accosted (she hadn't realised she was supposed to register) and a branch official gave her a hard time.
This comes after the ABC was banned from a press conference in Farrer.
With One Nation surging past Labor in polling published this week, Hanson's role as a disruptor in federal politics has echoes - despite the very many differences - of the "Joh for Canberra" push by then Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Finally........