EDITORIAL: The pivot to One Nation shows a hunger for change

“It’s the economy, stupid.”

This was not what Anthony Albanese muttered to his reflection as he pondered why his net approval rating had gone sub zero.

What was perhaps intended as a clever mic drop moment on Monday, channelling as it did James Carville’s Clinton era soundbite, instead came across as the vaguely cringeworthy quip of a man not quite reading the room.

“It’s always the economy that sets the parameters for debate,” the Prime Minister said when asked whether financial stress among young Australians was behind the One Nation’s rising popularity.

Which is true, though it tends to avoid another truth, which is that the state of the economy is something he’s had a hand in. The instability and uncertainty people are feeling has his fingerprints all over it.

“Many people feel that the system isn’t working for them, that they’re working for the economy, not the economy working for them … If governments don’t respond to that, there’ll be a continued rise in populism, be it of the right or the left.”

Which is what Newspoll has revealed, with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation emerging as the first choice for 31 per cent of people, ahead of Labor on 30 per cent sand the Coalition at 18 per cent.

Labor’s primary vote has gradually edged downwards from 33 per cent in February, while the Coalition’s has oscillated between 18 and 21 per cent in the Newspoll survey.

Last week, a Redbridge poll also put One Nation’s primary vote ahead of both major parties, as did a YouGov survey for Sky News.

A flat economy, low growth and the spectre of a per capita recession is weighing heavily on the minds of hardworking Australians.

Their pivot to One Nation is not necessarily a sign they are embracing their philosophy, it’s a sign they’re rejecting the major parties and are hungry for something different.

Most of the people who indicated One Nation would get their vote probably don’t genuinely believe Hanson could run a ripping economy. But the sharp-tongued, no nonsense senator from Queensland offers beleaguered voters some sort of hope.

Even Labor’s Pat Conroy concedes One Nation has capitalised on “unease and anger” in the electorate, becoming the most popular political party in the nation.

However senior minister Tanya Plibersek warned One Nation “was not the answer” to people’s concerns.

One thing is for certain, and that’s that the major parties would be unwise to write off Hanson, who has exploited a weak government with a weak economy to get the kind of mainstream popularity explosion almost nobody thought she was capable of.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said the polling should confirm Labor was in trouble.

“That polling is the sentiment of the people,” he said. People who are “underwhelmed” by a government they feel is routinely letting them down and providing false hope.

“They’re underwhelmed by the fact that you lied to them before the budget and then did something completely different so they can’t trust you.

“They feel that their life just does not change.”

Joyce and Hanson and co may not be rocket scientists but they know what keeps the punters awake at night: It’s the economy, stupid.

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