It's a toss up. Assailed by the whine of a leaf blower on the weekend, I'd all but decided it was the most annoying sound known to humanity. But then another whine came to mind, that of Pauline Hanson.

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Her trademark nasal tone coupled with the rising inflection at the end of every sentence has the same effect on me as hearing a fingernail rasping against a blackboard. Just like me, she has a voice best suited to print, certainly not radio or TV.

But on balance she's a fraction more tolerable than a leaf blower. I can't mute the neighbour when he's on his futile quest to corral the plane tree's autumn droppings. But I can mute Pauline. Over the years, it's become a reflex.

On the most superficial level, her surge in popularity in the wake of the Coalition's self-destruction remains a mystery to me. How could anyone remember, let alone take seriously, anything she has to say when she sounds like the broken wheel on a shopping trolley? But people do, in numbers that alarm not just the opposition but the government as well.

She says it she sees it, supporters say. She's authentic, unlike the other mob, they add. A battler like us, even if she's flitting around the country in a million-dollar aircraft given to her by that other Aussie battler Gina Rinehart, whose plummy tones and rounded vowels are the polar opposite of Pauline's drawl.

To be fair, Hanson is not the only pollie to have me scramble for the mute button. Michaelia Cash is another. The sulfur crested cockatoos which often visit sound almost musical compared with the iron-bobbed WA senator. Again, the substance of what she's saying is lost in the screech of her saying it.

I should listen to more of what the PM has to say but lack the patience to sit through his tortured delivery. When every word sounds like it's been approved by a committee, listening to paint dry is more appealing. During this energy shock we've had to endure the PM in a double act with his hyperactive energy minister Chris Bowen, who's clearly been told to tone things down, a small mercy for which I am grateful.

If he occasionally spoke as if he was not preprogrammed like an AI-generated Liberal leader from last century, I'd probably pay more attention to Angus Taylor. I........

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