A poor result for the Liberals and a surge for One Nation signal voter anger and fragmentation – but history suggests the insurgency may not last.

By no measure could it have been anything other than a disaster for the traditional conservative party that was already going into South Australia’s elections with a meagre record. Over two decades, the Liberals have been in power for a solitary term. Before ballots were cast for the May 21 poll, there were even psephologists and pundits willing to bet that no seats would be won. The party would cease to exist in the legislative chamber.

The extinction event did not materialise, though the return of five, possibly six seats, was a catastrophic result. This was ably assisted by hefty inroads made by the populist, right wing One Nation Party, which offered a more severe tonic of conservatism drawing strength from economic woes, the general cost of living, and anti-immigration. Votes that might have found themselves going to the centre-right Liberals were redirected in rumbling protest to One Nation, a party short on coherent policies but brimming with channels of grievance.

This led to two curious twists. The first was that the leader of the Liberals, Ashton Hurn, who often resembled a sharp Human Resources manager in search of fires to dampen, could advertise herself as having prevented the extinguishing of her party. She had, in effect, won something in not losing everything. The mantra........

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