One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has not created a wave of public resentment so much as ridden one to record highs in the polls.

The go-to right-wing party of the Australian parliament is capitalising on global discontent about cost-of-living issues and anti-immigration sentiment. Hanson is also benefiting from hemorrhaging support for the flailing Liberal and National parties after two disastrous elections. Month after month, the Queensland senator is pulling votes from the Coalition, while doing remarkably little.

So there was no need for Hanson to stride into the Senate wearing a burqa on Monday, recycling a stunt that drew wide condemnation the last time she performed it in 2017.

Now it’s been done – and met with fair fury by Muslim members of parliament – the next rounds of public polling will tell us about Australia’s appetite for Hanson’s brand of race-baiting politics at a time there are signs of fraying social support for migration and multiculturalism.

Before that, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley will be required to respond. Ley has been grappling with how to counter Hanson’s rising influence. As this masthead reported last week, she’s been spooked enough to seek former........

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