From Flufferfax:
Maverick Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has called on the government to support similar positions to One Nation in order to reconnect with voters concerned about Muslim immigration and declining industries.
…”What I noticed today was the drop in the Liberal poll, there was about a commensurate lift in the ‘others’ poll. So it hadn’t gone to Labor, it has gone to others,” he told host Andrew Bolt on Tuesday night.
“And I suspect that is One Nation and others who are saying the things that I think the Liberal Party should be saying, with a bit more nuance and maybe a little bit more delicacy.”
Paul Kelly hits the panic button:
The risk now is that the ideological conflict and partisan self-interest that poisons our politics over the budget, welfare, indigenous constitutional recognition and same-sex marriage will spill into the situation of Muslims in Australia, with profound consequences.
>Australian politicians and media, weak on historical memory, seem ill-equipped to handle the return of Pauline Hanson with her irresponsible, divisive and prejudiced anti-Muslim slogans. The risk is the country will split spectacularly between insiders and outsiders, a core fault line in the growing culture war.
The progressive elites are arrogant, inept and exploitative when it comes to Hanson’s return and her predictable call to end Muslim immigration. Every sign is their response — seen at the most superficial level with the Greens’ walkout on her maiden speech — will be self-interested and counter-productive. It is a mix of moral vanity fused with a determination to promote themselves by publicising Hanson’s prejudice, the worst possible combination.
…On the other hand, we witness the nauseating spectacle of conservative ideologues in the media cheering on Hanson’s prejudice, promoting her as the voice of the disenfranchised, pumping her up as part of their fanatical campaign to destroy Malcolm Turnbull, and pouring petrol on social divisions for their career enhancement.
Don’t think polarisation between both sides in this rigid ideological divide won’t deepen very quickly. The truth is we need to manage this. Hanson isn’t going anywhere. She will be in parliament for years. Muslim immigration to this country will continue. And the global struggle against Islamist terrorism will proceed unabated.
While I completely agree with Kelly’s assessment of Pauline Hanson I completely disagree with his assessment of what her rise means. The debate is not about managing her, it’s about managing immigration. So long as the population ponzi model of growth is pursued resulting in falling standards of living for existing residents – choking cities with people, inflating asset prices so we can’t house our own youth, defraying commodity income across greater numbers – with no debate, choice or reasoning offered, then the anger will get squeezed to the fringes and Hansonite politics will rise and rise.
The problem is not Muslim immigration at all. It is the out of control immigration growth model championed by the likes of Paul Kelly and his brand of arrogant elites that is being used to disguise the post mining boom economic adjustment:
Cut immigration levels to historic norms (roughly half the current intake) give us an honest assessment of what needs to be done to reboot Australian prosperity and Hansonite politics dies.
