One Nation craves mainstream appeal, but Pauline Hanson’s bleak vision of Australia shows she’s firmly on the fringes

Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club address showed just how many Australians would be worse off under a One Nation government, Tom McIlroy writes. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA

There might not be a better symbol of the tectonic shifts happening in Australian politics than Pauline Hanson giving a landmark address to the National Press Club this week.

Amid an exodus away from the major parties, the One Nation leader arrived on Wednesday armed with a speech she knew would make headlines for days. A huge crowd of journalists, lobbyists and diehard supporters illustrated perfectly the surge of interest in Hansonism, driven by swelling public support.