Pauline Hanson: The national leadership problems are the leaders

Well, as her speech is limited to a repetitious sequence of slogans, it is a little difficult to analyse her plans for Australia on assuming government ! New policies (showing no more depth of analysis or proposal than new slogans) are slowly being fed to her. Essentially, the slogans call for less (or no) immigration in response to (1) the current levels of unemployment (2) the loss of Australian identity, particularly through influence of Asian immigration (3) the use of tax payers money to assist migrant families in ways not provided to your average Aussie battler. Linked to (3) are other slogans suggesting the aborigines are receiving special (and unproductive) support. Linked to (2) are slogans linking foreign investment with a loss of sovereignty, the destruction of Australian industry and consequently the unemployment problem. There are many more, but these seem to be at the core of her motivation. My view is pretty much as I explained. Many of these complaints have kernels of truth (all of the most powerful untruths are merely exaggerations. Perhaps, all lies are merely exaggerations of different degree ?). The attraction of her message lies in its simplicity. It identifies a clear villain and suggests a clear solution. Australians have had to endure political environment that, for decades, has been dominated by vacillating visionless servants of capitalism or "private enterprise". I mean both Labor and Liberal, and I include Beasley as well as Howard, and there are no new players on the horizon that seem likely to transcend this impoverished viewpoint. e.g. instead of always hearing that the country needs to be sold off to show that we are sincere "free traders", Hanson is saying "stuff the detailed economic analysis and your fancy arguments, I think different !" The response to Hanson currently consists of supercilious put downs by people who are smarter than she is (which is probably most people !). The response should be a genuine sense of concern that so many Australians are so devoid of hope in the technocracy which we call government, that they will follow any leader regardless of quality, as long as they seem to be going in a different direction ! All we need is a leader of quality to show how shallow Hansons grasp is. The problem is that we DO NOT have such a leader.