Pauline Hanson is back! (in the news…)

This time she is running as an Independent in the NSW state election (Australia). Whether you agree or disagree with Hanson, no one can deny her apparent ability to rise from (political) death occasionally (even if she is shot down almost immediately).

Some of the more memorable events in Hanson’s political career include:

1. her co-founding of possibly Australia’s most controversial Party, One Nation, which was widely labelled as harbouring racist policies (1997),
2. one of the most memorable maiden speeches in Parliament , which was also widely labelled as racist (1996),
3. her recording a video for her supporters in the event of her assassination (1997),
4. her being convicted of electoral fraud (2003, though it was soon overturned).

How is it then that such a controversial figure in politics, whose reappearance in public life has spawned even more accusations of racism, can still capture the imagination of such a decent percentage of the population?* Read the rest of this entry →