Off the Rails

After Pauline Hanson's doomed 1998 election campaign, and the scandals and deregistration which followed, the media declared Pauline Hanson a spent force and One Nation a dead party. The 2001 Qld election has proved them wrong: Hanson is back. In her new foreword to this book Margo Kingston not only outlines what has happened to One Nation since 1998, but she asks why it is we are so surprised by Hanson's re-emergence: deep dissatisfaction in rural Australia is not a problem that is going to go away.

As well, Kingston takes us on a kaleidoscopic trip through the back country of Australia's political landscape during the 1998 election. This is strange territory, where bad press becomes good news, enemies trade advice and the political-media game is played at its most raw. Beyond the blunders, emotions boil as Hanson's road show slams into confrontations over race and Australia's identity.

'If I'd known she was in there, I'd have blown the place up; she's got a head like a broken arsehole.' Customer leaving shop Hanson enters.

'I call her the red head match you know, and I voted for her to set the country on fire.' Anton Myck, cabinetmaker.

What the critics said:

'Kingston is a writer who brings an unusually raw brand of passion to her work. . . . [the book] is much more than a profile of One nations leader and her supporters; it's an analysis of political campaigning and media coverage in a post-modern world - a sketch of some emerging faultlines in the cosy culture of politics and journalism.' Catharine Lumby, THE BULLETIN