He is in his late fifties and lives outside a capital city. He owns his home — most often outright — and he still gets up and goes to work. He did a trade or a TAFE diploma rather than a degree, speaks only English at home, and calls his background Australian. This is not a portrait of the fringe. It is a portrait of the part of Australia that used to be called the mainstream.

He is in his late fifties and lives outside a capital city. He owns his home — most often outright — and he still gets up and goes to work. He did a trade or a TAFE diploma rather than a degree, speaks only English at home, and calls his background Australian.

This is not a portrait of the fringe. It is a portrait of the part of Australia that used to be called the mainstream.

This was once a depiction of the “Howard battlers”, later “Tony’s tradies”. Now it’s Pauline Hanson who has a grip on many of these people, with who they are and what they think documented in an in-depth survey of more than 1000 One Nation voters.

For the major parties, especially the Liberals and Nationals but increasingly Labor too, these One Nation supporters are the wolves in the woods, dangerous and potentially lethal in coming contests for seats.

In the wake of last weekend’s Western Australian state byelection (lost by Labor to One Nation) and the May federal Farrer byelection (a One Nation rout of the Liberals), and with the Victorian and New South Wales elections looming, the “parties of government” know they must find ways to counter this insurgency of electoral disillusionment. That’s assuming it can be countered.

Key to the struggle ahead is understanding the identity of these rebels against the “system”.

The research is from former Labor pollster John Utting and former Labor adviser Bruce Hawker. Done in August, it gives a comprehensive........

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