EDITORIAL: Labor failed to take note of One Nation warning signs

It now seems clear Labor didn’t take note of the One Nation warning signs.

The signs saying that the way voters looked at the traditional political parties had changed. In a big way.

But Labor just didn’t see it as their problem. Until it hit them between the eyes at the weekend.

The State by-election in the seat of Secret Harbour on Perth’s southern fringes would not have even registered in the rest of the country in previous times.

Now the One Nation victory in the formerly safe Labor seat is a tangible sign that spells trouble for Labor Governments across the country.

If we look for the moment the change began to take hold we need go no further than the Bondi massacre.

Bondi came on the back of months of angry pro-Palestine street protests and anti-Semitism which challenged the old notion that Australia was a harmonious society far from the problems and enmities of the old world.

For many Australians the direction of the country was deeply unsettling.

They looked for straight-talking. For more than they could see in the major parties which dominated the political landscape.

They decided it was time to give someone new a go.

A January Newspoll showed One Nation outpolling the Coalition at the Federal level for the first time in Australian political history.

And while Labor was returned in the South Australian State election in March, One Nation picked up four seats.

Then came the Federal by-election in Farrer, in regional NSW, in May, which was called after former Liberal leader Sussan Ley resigned from Parliament.

You could almost hear Labor screaming the loss of a Liberal seat to One Nation was “not our problem.”

But the issues mounted. The cost of living. Interest rates. Housing. The Albanese Government’s broken promises.

Then came Secret Harbour. And while it was a State by-election the feeling picked up on the ground during the campaign was that it was about more than State issues.

It was very much also about Pauline Hanson and Anthony Albanese.

But what was the response to the result from the Labor bunker in Canberra? Humility? Pledges to get to the bottom of what happened?

Not likely.

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers fell back on attacking a “dangerous and divisive coalition of chaos — a three-ring circus of Liberals, Nationals and One Nation”.

And Mr Albanese attacked “hard right populists . . . on the march, peddling politics that is dangerous, divisive, and downright dishonest”.

“They’ll say anything and do anything to win votes, bend any facts, and all misinformation and disinformation turns Australian against Australian,” he said.

Senator Hanson has accused Mr Albanese and Dr Chalmers of fuelling the risk of political violence — including against her.

However it is characterised, their attacks certainly did not meet Mr Albanese’s own call to “lower the temperature”.

And the rather rattled language was perhaps a sign that finally Labor is starting to realise what has been clear to others for some time.

One Nation is very much their problem too.

But unless they listen to voters’ concerns — really listen, and take note of what they are told — the problem they face from One Nation will only get worse.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore