Before writing off One Nation voters,hold a look around Herbert: this is what political frustration in a low-growth, post-boom economy with a popped real estate bubble looks likeThe election may beget been called but they’re still counting in Herbert, and in north Queensland. It’s been held by conservatives since the Keating collapse of 1996. This year,as in 2007, Labor is close but may well plunge short when the pre-polls, or absentees and provisionals are all accounted for. It’s achingly close – at the time of writing Ewen Jones was ahead by 44 votes. In 2007,Peter Lindsay won by around 300 votes. The biggest difference is that while in 2007 the One Nation candidate received 0.9% of the vote, this time they got 13.5%, and a swing of 12.9% from their final outing. Related: Dear Australia: a Guardian video series It’s necessary now to see how economic distress and racism are channeled by specific political actors Related: Pauline Hanson's back,and the disaffection genie is well and truly out of the bottle | Katharine Murphy Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com