“Pauline and her team hit the right buttons for an awful lot of people, or should that be a lot of awful people?” columnist HUGH SELBY returns to One Nation’s “self help” videos and despairs at the latest one…

The opening page of the One Nation website says: “We are a party that stands for Australia and Australian values… The team at One Nation puts people before politics”. 

That’s easy to understand. It feels right, decent, laudable. It shouldn’t be a problem to follow. But it has been, thanks to an understandable mix up.

This article solves the riddle of meaning.

DemosAU reports that this year they polled around 1000 people to find out what are our current values as Aussies.

The results included: respect and kindness 25 per cent, egalitarianism 23 per cent, community 17 per cent, mateship and friendship 14 per cent, freedom 10 per cent, multiculturalism and diversity 8 per cent. Eleven per cent of respondents “don’t know”.

Since these are One Nation’s values it would seem, wouldn’t it, that their “putting people before politics” means respecting people, treating them with fairness, openness and please join in? This applies to whoever and wherever they are. It means not misusing people for political ends.

I was unable to match those One Nation values with their reported antagonism to many newcomers to this country, aka migrants.

To me there has been a disconnect between those Aussie and One Nation values, and what their spokespeople, of whom Pauline Hanson is but one, have been saying.

Given the popularity of One Nation, I must be mistaken.

Understanding One Nation

The solution is obvious. I must immerse myself in Pauline’s wonderful series of self-help videos. These now run to three series, have many hilarious “explain this and that problem” episodes, are jam packed with facts, and expose those who selfishly stand against her (and us).

No doubt, by daily self-study of these engaging videos, I will be able to decide, “Is she to Barnaby as John the Baptist was to Christ, or is it the other way round?”

The latest self-study animation is just a few days old. Here is the link to her animation clip, titled The Albo-rithm. The clip runs a bit over six minutes. I think “Albo-rithm” is a word play on algorithm, but I could be wrong.

In just a couple of days, this latest bit of “South Park re-imagined” has been watched by more than 207,000 true blue Aussies, of whom some 1400 went to the trouble to write a comment.

The point, an important one, is that Pauline and her team hit the right buttons for an awful lot of people, or should that be a lot of awful people? Scrolling down those comments, page after page after page, the overwhelming sentiment is that the animation is clever, funny, incisive and apt.

The key players in this animation are Albo, Penny, Andrew, Angus and more. Among the extras are Senator Jacqui Lambie, Albo’s partner and his son.

Many of those commenting think that Senator Lambie will be fuming – a result they think is wonderful. 

I didn’t see any comments about Albo’s family, but they might be among those who take the traditional view that it was a good thing when a criminal and all their relatives were stoned to death in the marketplace.

Its references to Senator Lambie’s much publicised, defence service-related medical condition are at “-4.22 to – 4.05”, and then again at “- 3.05”.

Near the close of the video (at “-1.17”) Nathan (the name of Albo’s adult son) accuses his dad of producing content that is “puerile, unbecoming, cringe”.

Here is the link to the ABC report of what Senator Lambie and others have said about this One Nation animation.

The Senator’s quoted view is that, “people were welcome to watch Senator Hanson’s videos if you want more hatred, more spitefulness in your life”. 

The ABC article quotes one independent member of parliament that, “pelvic organ prolapse (Senator Lambie’s condition) affected about one in 12 women and was often linked to physical strain, heavy lifting or past childbirth”. 

A Labor MP said: “Politicians should be able to disagree without resorting to personal humiliation… This isn’t clever satire. It’s personal humiliation dressed up as political commentary”.

Insight at last

It took me a while, too long actually, to understand what Pauline, Barnaby and One Nation mean when they trumpet putting people before politics.

My mistake was to interpret “to put before” as giving some task or attribute priority.

That’s not the meaning, not anymore. For the charismatic Pauline, the re-invented Barnaby, and the brilliant creators of the series, “putting people before politics” means to sacrifice “collateral people” (such as peripheral politicians or family members) who are put before a Brave New World political execution squad and zapped.

Inside my empty, out-of-touch head, I keep hearing, “puerile, unbecoming, cringe”. I must get out more.

Hugh Selby is the CityNews legal columnist.

Pauline’s dangerous and captivating propaganda cartoon

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