The Coalition appears to have abandoned their followers who sweated blood for them over the past 30 years. Further, the minor conservative parties brought about their own demise by trying to play off against one another. Rising from the ashes of the socialist’s recent election victory is One Nation. Soon to approach its thirtieth year, One Nation is now the only real chance for conservatives to hold the Uniparty to account.

What can conservatives do to help One Nation?

Aside from the traditional ways of supporting a political party, One Nation is on the cusp of something grand – becoming an official party again. One Nation has returned to the dizzying heights it achieved briefly after the double dissolution election of 2016.

However, back then One Nation’s senators were not elected for full terms after the two major parties agreed to have the first six senators in each state elected for six years, while the subsequently elected senators would serve only for three years.

In effect, the election of Tyron Whitten in WA and Warwick Stacey in NSW are the first full-term One Nation senators elected outside of Queensland.

This is a significant development, as even the ABC’s Antony Green pointed out:

‘…neither victory was from a ridiculously low vote. Both the elected One Nation Senators polled more than two-thirds of the vote for their Labor opponent at the start of the count… One Nation’s victory is a vindication of the 2016 Senate reforms in ensuring that Senate elections were decided by the votes and preferences of voters, not the opaque deals of preference traders.’

One Nation is not a one-hit wonder, or a party run by a candidate who lost party preselection. Indeed, Pauline Hanson was disendorsed as a federal candidate for the Liberal Party of Australia in 1996, about a month before the election. She didn’t resign and start her own party; she was removed by the party.

In 2003, Pauline Hanson spent 11 weeks in jail for electoral fraud, a controversial conviction that was later overturned on appeal.

To me, Pauline Hanson is an Australian political heroine. She has never wavered from her convictions and yet, unlike our hubristic Prime Minister, she has never referred to herself as a conviction politician. Now’s the time for her party to reap the rewards of her tenacity.

Ideally, one of the independent or minor party senate cross-benchers would defect to One Nation, allowing the party to obtain official party status and all the trappings that ‘unlocks’. The ‘five seats’ convention for becoming an official party in Australia doesn’t stem from a specific law or constitutional provision.

It’s a convention, an unwritten rule, that has evolved over time within the political system. Conventions are often broken, but having five senators would allow One Nation to put pressure on the government to obtain more resources.

The other cross-bench senators are David Pocock from the ACT, Jacqui Lambie and Tammy Tyrrell from Tasmania, Ralph Babet and Lidia Thorpe from Victoria, and Fatima Payman from WA.

Even better would be for one of the Greens or Labor to defect to One Nation, which would end the socialist’s domination of the Upper House. While one can dream about the former ever having a damascene moment, it wouldn’t be the first time that a Labor politician defected to One Nation.

Although Mark Latham and Tania Mihailuk were members of One Nation after leaving Labor, it is impossible to imagine a Labor senator defecting when the Coalition basically handed them the next two terms in government, especially with the way the Coalition is going.

A more realistic opportunity for One Nation is for either a National Party ‘Dark Nat’ senator to defect (or indeed a dejected Country Liberal senator).

Regardless, something must change and soon. The Coalition gave conservatives the bird, and conservatives sent it right back at them at the recent election. Everyone knows that Labor-lite won’t win elections. Oppositions must oppose, not pander, but Menzies’ wonderful child has become a Woke brat and in my opinion, they will get all the nothing they deserve.

Whether One Nation can make the change from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party to a disciplined and member driven One Nation party remains to be seen. One Nation certainly has the street cred, but it has also taken three steps back for every two steps forward as elected members have invariably turned on the party, demonstrated most recently in South Australia.

In the absence of a voice for conservatives, this may be a real opportunity for One Nation to take the lead. However, this will require a level of discipline that seems to remain elusive in practice.

Key to keeping One Nation politicians in line will be obtaining the resources and trappings of official party status. While this may seem like a forlorn hope, three years is a long time, and with a limp opposition and a government that only knows how to send Australians broke, one can but dream.

Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is The Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. All opinions in this article are the author’s own.