When Pauline Hanson returned to Canberra last year after nearly two decades in the political wilderness the conventional wisdom was that she was older and wiser, more "sophisticated".

She had learned from the mistakes of the 1990s, when the party fell apart as a result of infighting and incompetence.

Citizenship, for example. In 1999 the party lost a senator, Heather Hill, when it was revealed she was a dual citizen of Australia and Britain. The new and improved One Nation would never be so careless.

When questions were raised about Malcolm Roberts' citizenship in July this year, that was the party's message in a nutshell. As Hanson's chief of staff James Ashby told Fairfax Media at the time: "We learnt from the Heather Hill case so weren't going to fall for that a second time."