EDITORIAL: Big parties don’t get it. Politics has changed

Way out west something quite different is happening.

And the ramifications are set to be felt across the nation, reaching all the way down the corridors of power in Canberra. It is a by-election in a West Australian State seat held by Labor by a margin of just under 12 per cent.

This should be a walk in the park for the Cook Labor Government and the party machine.

But using a lens which focuses on a traditional Labor versus Coalition contest does not tell the story this time.

It looks highly possible that the voters in Secret Harbour, in the suburbs on the southern outskirts of Perth, will elect the One Nation candidate Luke Herdegen on August 29.

It would be One Nation’s first Lower House seat in WA.

Of course by-elections can be tricky for incumbent governments. They give voters an opportunity to give the government a kick in the pants without throwing them out of office.

So some sort of swing away from Labor would be expected.

But something else is going on which feeds into a much wider narrative.

The political mood has turned sour.

Local issues like promises of a new train station, the fact that Labor candidate Georgia Tree lives a long way out of the electorate, and how she was told not to answer questions at two Labor media events early in the campaign have caused a bit of a ripple.

But the big waves have been made by Anthony Albanese and Pauline Hanson.

It is almost as if they are the candidates, for they are the names which have been regularly picked up by party door-knockers.

But they are mentioned in two very different contexts. Mr Albanese is on the nose.

And Senator Hanson has got people talking.

About authenticity. And plain-speaking.

The contest feels very much like what we could see at a national level next time around.

It is Labor versus Hanson, with the Liberals trailing behind, almost irrelevant apart from the impact of its preference flows, which will favour One Nation.

The Labor Party is clearly very nervous. It should be.

Senator Hanson has tapped into worries about immigration, multiculturalism and woke ideology, housing and interest rates, all fed now by the ongoing Federal Budget shambles.

Politics has changed since the days when many voters were rusted on to a major party.

There is a general sense of malaise hanging over the political environment.

Many now feel the majors haven’t delivered for them.

Yet the Labor and Liberal parties just don’t get it.

They appear unable or unwilling to come to grips with what is going on. That voters are ready to try something new.

To give One Nation a go.

That mood will only change when the major parties wake up and realise the extent of the unhappiness and figure out what is driving it.

And then do something about addressing it.

Until they do that Senator Hanson will run riot.

And if her momentum is not halted sooner rather than later, her support could grow to levels which the majors will be unable to wrestle away in the short term.

Plenty of water remains to flow under the bridge.

But politics in this country looks to be heading into uncharted waters.