There might not be a better symbol of the tectonic shifts happening in Australian politics than Pauline Hanson giving a landmark address to the National Press Club this week.

Amid an exodus away from the major parties, the One Nation leader arrived on Wednesday armed with a speech she knew would make headlines for days. A huge crowd of journalists, lobbyists and diehard supporters illustrated perfectly the surge of interest in Hansonism, driven by swelling public support.

But, rather than going mainstream as the party claims, it was quickly clear the firebrand Queensland senator remains stubbornly on the fringes of the policy debate, offering a bleak and at times strange policy prescription for modern Australia.

Openly discussing her plans for power, Hanson’s speech might prove a well-timed reality check on the hype around the party and just how many Australians would be losers from a One Nation government.

Consider just a few of the takeaways from the hour-long address and a fiery exchange with members of the Canberra press gallery.

Prepared to tolerate a multiracial society, Hanson said she could not accept Australia being multicultural, insisting that the more than 51% of residents born overseas or who have at least one migrant parent were contributing to the country “losing its identity, along with its values”.

Hanson is concerned too that about 23% of Australians say they speak a language other than English at home, mistakenly assuming everyone fluent in Mandarin or Arabic does not also speak English and therefore cannot contribute to social cohesion.

She........

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