The South Australian election proves that One Nation is a far greater threat to the Liberal and National Parties than it is to Labor. We should ask why, and why One Nation poses such a threat to good government in Australia generally.

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One Nation came second in the popular vote on Saturday, with 22 per cent, beating the traditional contestant for government, the Liberal Party, with just 19 per cent, into third place.

The single-member electoral system meant the high vote translated to only one or two seats, but it denied a lot of seats to the Liberals.

One Nation voters said: "We are fed up"; "I have had a gutful"; "I did a protest vote".

The questions for those aspiring to government must surely be: What are they fed up with? What have they had a gutful of? What are they protesting against?

In the past, voters have often said things like this and, other than in Queensland in 1999, there has not been such a high One Nation vote.

This has been different because in the past the voters' solution to being dissatisfied with a government was to put "the other lot" in. That has been the pattern from at least 1975.

But now voters are saying that giving "the other lot" a go is not a solution.

That is because "the other lot" on this occasion was the Liberal Party. And voters are alert to how that party has changed. Moreover, the voters themselves have changed.

From the mid-1980s in Australia, outsourcing, privatisation, downsizing, and deregulation put government in retreat. It was begun under the Hawke-Keating Governments but accelerated under subsequent Coalition Governments.

Prime ministers John Howard, Tony Abbott, and Scott Morrison took the view that government should butt out and let the private sector get on with it. Doing that would make everyone better off.

The voters were onside to some extent with concern about bloated governments and wasteful misspending.

But over time voters changed. Voters now want government to fix things; to do things; to get involved in helping people with health, education, housing and the cost of living; and to stopping big, rich corporations and individuals exploiting people to gain even........

© Canberra Times