Pauline Hanson is all bigotry and bulls--t and the PM should let her stew

I disclose: we are not close. But my own joy at the humiliation of One Nation in the Queensland election on Saturday aside, I submit there is much for the nation to rejoice in, now that the smoke – dope and otherwise – has indeed cleared.

Reflect for a moment on what we were facing before the election. One Nation was so confident, Hanson even presumed to dictate terms to the Queensland Premier, two days before the election, via twitter: "Annastacia Palaszczuk needs to admit to the people of Queensland if she plans to step down if Labor fails so her replacement can be the one to try and deal with One Nation to secure government. If she loses will she step down? Yes or No? . . ."

As the Channel Nine coverage started on the night, her chief of staff, James Ashby – think David Oldfield, but without the charm – predicted, "We may pick up as many as 10 seats . . . I would think we will still hold the balance of power in this Parliament."

Yes, sports fans, that's what we were all facing: One Nation as a newly reinvigorated political force, capable of holding the balance of power, dictating terms to the new Premier about policies they wanted installed.

But the happy truth? They lost just about everything bar the will to live. As we go to press, they have – dot four, carry two, subtract two – ZERO seats locked in. Not only do they have no balance of power on the political see-saw, the wise people of Queensland have kicked them out of the playground! (The only possible exception is the seat of Mirani, where, as noted by Fairfax on Sunday, and I am not making this up, "a gun dealer and feral pest controller named Stephen Andrew was polling well, but he hadn't even watched the count".)

And yes, I do acknowledge, it is a little depressing that despite it all – all the stuff-ups, the lies, the sheer shuddering incompetence of her whole show – there is still one in eight voting Queenslanders who think Hanson and her politics are the answer, but . . .

But, as I have said before, it could be all so much worse. Imagine, for a moment, that the type of politics that Hanson represents – bigotry, bulls--t and blah-blah – was actually in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing! Imagine how dangerous One Nation might have been if they had political professionals the likes of which Donald Trump had to call on, and had done things like, you know, actually put people forward who didn't look like they could win gold for Australia in the Village Idiots Olympics. Which brings us, of course, to Malcolm Roberts. Fresh from being kicked out of the Senate for being a git, and for being a dual citizen, he crashed and burned on Saturday, garnering only 27 per cent of the vote in Ipswich, earning him the compliment from James Ashby, "You've done exceptional."

To be fair, given that he only got 72 primary votes for the Senate in the first place, I guess the result in Ipswich means he did do "exceptional".

But, let's bring it back to Ms Hanson herself.

"One Nation is not finished," she declared on Saturday night.

They would rise again.

"I was defeated in 1998 when I lost my seat," she said, "but look where I am today."

I think Ms Hanson misses the glorious point. That is that the voters have looked at where she is today, presiding over a complete shambles, with no coherent policies, no sense of an actual party, and no idea how to pick candidates that will even stick to the party, and instead have decided they want no part of it! Hurrah!

After all, would you even contemplate voting for a party which has had 26 candidates win office in the last two decades, only for 16 of them to be expelled, or voluntarily leave? The last one, Senator Fraser Anning, stayed for – let's see – one hour after being sworn in to replace Malcolm Roberts, before leaving.

There remain, however, serious commentators like Peta Credlin on Sky, who say that the lesson of the Queensland election, where the right-wing vote was splintered by One Nation, is that the Liberal Party must move to the right, so as to recapture "our people", who have followed Ms Hanson.

If you didn't know better, you'd swear, I mean swear, that the Prime Minister himself was trying do exactly that, when, campaigning with John Alexander in Bennelong on Sunday, he accused Alexander's opponent in the forthcoming byelection, Kristina Keneally, of being "a marketing tool for people-smugglers", because of her opposition to what is happening at the Manus detention centre.

"How many of those asylum seekers," the Prime Minister said, putting down the dog-whistle, and picking up a trumpet, "is she going to bring to Bennelong?"

Seriously! Malcolm Turnbull. He actually said that.

For what it's worth, I take the reverse view. In America we have seen the Republican Party all but destroyed from the respected entity it once was by pandering to the Tea Party. The job of those who run the Liberals now is to refuse to do the same, to let Pauline Hanson and One Nation stew in the juices of their own incompetence, and act as a warning to all those who would pursue their kind of policies. Let Pauline Hanson stay in charge for as long as she can. She looks like a bad trip, and that scared me off dope for life.

Twitter: @Peter_Fitz