My seat, Wright, had the highest first-preference vote for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation in the nation: 21%. My state (Queensland) elected her and a running mate to the Senate. I put One Nation last.

During the election, the prime minister said she would “not be welcome” in parliament, and Australia’s most senior political commentator, Paul Kelly, said it would be “a disgrace to democracy” if she was elected.

Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) Elitist snobbery about Hanson & her voters makes me sick. Wrote Off the rails: The PH Trip (1999) to help cross 2 nations divide. Fat chance

Well folks, she’s back, and so are her voters. Will we replay the same script as last time, back in the 1990s, or will we, the educated, the elites, the right-thinking city folks, learn from that nightmare?

As a political journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald I followed Pauline Hanson around the country for the 1998 election campaign, and I learned a few things.

Pauline Hanson elected to Senate as Turnbull's double-dissolution gamble backfires Read more

• Her supporters were by and large nice people with little money who were largely uninterested in politics. They were suffering badly from the effects of competition policy, which had seen basic services and jobs stripped out of their towns. They loved Hanson’s grit and plain speaking. Most of all, they loved that she listened.

• Hanson is also a nice person. She’s a Liberal who’d always worked very hard in small business and was surprised to have been expelled from the party for racially charged remarks. She had no idea that what she’d said about Aboriginal people was racist. Because she’d been isolated by other politicians when she got to Canberra, she was easy prey for hard-right carpetbaggers.

• When I tried to converse with supporters about politics I misinterpreted everything they said, and likewise. I thought they were racists and they thought I was a racist. Communication was impossible without getting to know each other first.

Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) Instead of Greens leader saying Hanson a racist a bigot his job to expel her, how about "I look forward to discussing her views with her?"

After Hanson lost in 1998, the then National party leader, John Anderson, convened a rural summit in Canberra to address what I had come to see as an intelligent scream from rural and regional voters. Rural transaction centres and rural leadership programs were created.

However, a surge by One Nation in 2001 again threatened to fracture the Coalition, until John Howard boarded the Tampa and instituted the Pacific Solution, adopting One Nation’s policy. Its vote collapsed.

One Nation is now back in parts of Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia where hard economic times have hit hardest. Note it is not back in South Australia, where a centrist protectionist party, NXT, has captured the economic discontent.

This time the race element is Islam. The fears are natural, and understandable. The policies, like closing mosques and holding a royal commission, are, like most One Nation’s policies, misconceived.

So what to do?

First, understand that Pauline Hanson’s jailing in 2003 drew almost universal condemnation and transformed her into a celebrity. She has appeared on popular reality shows and has a weekly spot on Seven’s Sunrise program. She is LIKED by most “ordinary” Australians. It follows that sneering put downs, nasty labels and suggestions she has no right to be in parliament are utterly counterproductive and will, like last time, increase her support.



Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) I learned covering Hanson that neither side understands the other. Literally. Different language. Different norms. https://t.co/A4OfDv67xw

Second, understand that her high vote signifies a serious scream about what life is like in those areas, and address the issues.

Third, welcome Hanson to the parliament. She has the right to be there and her voters have the right to be represented.

Fourth, have the conversation. Go with her to where her voters are and have a chat.

Western democracies are splitting up into warring tribes. I think Hanson’s return to our parliament is a chance to bring ours together a little bit.

If we try.