‘More formidable’: Hanson's comeback after UK controversy should ‘terrify’ opponents

I'm sorry but I've got to talk about Pauline Hanson again because really it's now funny.Not just important, funny.Yesterday we had Hanson hate us the money, she come back from Britain and explain her outrageous self.

She needs to front up to the Australian people, explain herself.

And journalists of the left, same call, you know, claiming she'd run from them in London.She stayed out of sight.Tough politicians take questions.Weak ones run away.It never occurred to me that Pauline Hanson is weak, but there you go.And funnily enough, the Hanson haters today got their way.

Pauline Hanson, on her first full day back, gave a speech and answered questions from a moderator and also gave a press conference.And to the haters, I say, be careful what you wish for, because Pauline Hanson knocked it out of the park.I haven't seen her look more in command and more formidable.Now, I still have a lot of concerns and questions about her, but today should, I think, terrify her opponents.Now, I'll start with the trivial, because no surprise, that's what's been obsessing the media today, that One Nation's Barnaby Joyce is lost, or maybe he was showing the pressure of scrutiny, or he was being erratic, or whatever negative spin you can give, to when he shouted at his dog in the middle of a live interview with a typically rude ABC presenter.

Are you really comfortable with where she is taking you?

I think...Sit down!Sorry.It's a dog.I have to apologise for this dog, which has decided to bail up.Don't worry about the dog.

Just answer the question.

Don't be rude.Don't be rude.Otherwise, this interview will come to a grinding halt, Sarah.

Now, apart from that stroppy Sarah Ferguson, I thought that thing was funny and maybe even inflicting.deflection.But there is such a get handsome frenzy now, I'm sure you've noticed that even Labour ministers were today making this a political scandal.

Was the dog not tethered?Why did it need to sit down?What was it doing that wasn't sitting?I mean, genuine questions.

God, spare me. I'm surprised she took time off making her dodgy expenses claims to give us that.But anyway, Hanson today just laughed it off, of course, which still upsets some journalists at a press conference who are also trying to make this into some huge Watergate.

What is your problem with that?

Well, no, it's well, because it just sort of seemed a little bit erratic.Did you did you not think the whole thing?But it's sort of yelling at his dog.

Oh, my God.Is this an insight for you into what's going on at the moment?These are the question that Hanson had to rush home to Australia to answer the dog.Let's since we're talking about doggy things, let's get to the meat today, because I do want to show you how Hanson, for all her weaknesses, now has her One Nation Party level with the Labor and News poll, and why Australia really is witnessing a political revolution.Now, naturally, Hanson, at this event that she gave at the Perth Casino, she rebutted the lie that I nailed last night, that in London, she supposedly lamented the end of the white Australia policy.

I don't want to see this anti -Semitism that's going on.I don't want to see this.that's happening.And I just feel that, you know, that's why I'm very strong.On certain countries, you've got to say no.And I've got to...

I mean, is that...In a way, though, that is a version of a white Australia policy, is it?No, it's not.

No, it's not.No.No, it's got nothing to do with that.That's not to do with the white Australia policy.at all.So don't go there with me, I'll tell you what, because I won't stand for it.

So you hear the support there for Hanson, which came from a sellout crowd of mainly small business people in Perth.So lots of support and obviously anger now, but anything sounding like another other than those Tyson media gotchas, which suggests that Hanson is right, that to a great many Australian voters now, no, she is not extreme.

I'm not extreme.People might say that about me, but I tend to say what people say to me.But you're only saying what we're thinking.But I've got the guts to get out there and say it.

In fact, let me interrupt myself on that point.You know, you've seen the media jumping up and down about Hansard going through parts of London this month that are heavily Muslim, saying she doesn't want that for Australia, saying again today she wants to deport illegal immigrants.You know, oh, how racist.And you might have seen Liam Bartlett on Channel 7's Spotlight program this week indeed seeming to suggest that Hansen might be going overboard.But hello, the guy here on Hansen's left in this photograph is Spotlight producer Luke Mortimer, who sent Hansen a long letter askingher staff to go to London, Channel 7 would even help pay to film all that, saying, and Hansen put this on her website, We want to do a full hour show on Australia's recent years of record -breaking net migration.

Uncontrolled immigration is shaping up as next year's defining issue.The show, ideally, will further enlighten our viewers to the scale of the issue we are facing and what we might face if we don't take back control of who comes to our country.We can discuss travel arrangements for you and Pauline to the UK.And, you know, really, it might surprise you to hear by saying that most journalists in private probably do admit that there is a real problem.But in public, which of them dares admit it?Except, of course, there's Hanson who does.

And then they smash it.That's how it works.But back to Hanson today.Moderator Christopher Doar asked Hanson how she'd been affected by decades of being treated like that, as an extremist, a racist, and so on.

Are you scarred by that experience?I mean, you talk about being a loner in parliament and being put down and abused and so on.I guess the first question is, has that changed in parliament now?Do you have more people talking to you, being friendly with you, or do you still face some of that same isolation in the federal parliament?

To tell you the truth, yes, I do.I have to stop.It's funny, and I've got to be honest, a lot of the people in that place wouldn't even give them the time of day.The Greens, you tell me one of the Greens that you want to spend time with.And a lot of them I don't respect becauseI can't believe it.

Surely they've got to see what's happening to our country.But they won't speak up, they won't put their hand up, they won't do anything.They just sit there and go along with what they're told to do.

Now I think that side of Hanson is going to resonate with many, many Australians, provided of course the media let people see it.Now Hanson also today showed she's going to broaden her pitch further.to include a lot more economics.She's going to go around the country asking business owners what's wrong with this sick economy, what needs to be changed so they can make a buck.And I think that'll be good.But one benefit of that tour, of course, you've got to admit, is that it's going to buy Hanson time to actually produce some business policies.

But there was one curious thing in her performance today.Is she actually too scared to be prime minister herself?Does she recognise her own weakness?Does she prefer the freedom to say whatever's on her mind without having to make the hard choices as a Prime Minister that come with actually running a country.Well, listen to her response to being asked if she actually did want to be Prime Minister.

Let me just tell you, it's not about Pauline Hanson becoming Prime Minister, Chris.I want the right person in the right job.And if someone that I believe can do a better job than I can, you go for it.

That's strange, you know, even if Hanson won the election, would she be the Prime Minister?Would Barnaby?Would Angus Taylor?I don't know.So, whatever.Hanson today did what her haters yesterday demanded and fronted the media.

The result?It just made her stronger.So, maybe the other political parties should learn that the best way to survive the Hanson challenge is not to lie.about her or freak about Barnaby's dog, but to simply be better themselves.And I have to say, a lot better.