‘Is it heartening for you to see someone like anti-immigration Pauline doing well in Australia?’ asked the Channel Nine journalist. He was chatting, as you do, to a character called Thomas Robb, who happens to be the leader, or Grand Wizard or whatever ridiculous title it is, of the vile racist organisation the Ku Klux Klan.

This is what passes for insightful political commentary by the mainstream Australian media these days – attempting to smear politicians not through association but through third-party endorsement. By the same token, if, say, Erin Patterson were handed a recipe printed in The Spectator Australia and she commented favourably on it, all Speccie readers and journalists are now by association mushroom poisoners.

‘This is disgusting and a new low…’ exploded One Nation leader Senator Hanson. ‘The Ku Klux Klan is a white supremacist organisation with a long history of racial hatred, terror and violence. Yet Channel Nine sent an Australian journalist to the United States to seek them out, interview them and broadcast their views to Australians.

She went on: ‘Any suggestion that One Nation or its supporters endorse the KKK or share its ideology is absurd and offensive. There is something seriously wrong with a media organisation that believes Australians need to hear what the Ku Klux Klan thinks about Australian politics and chooses to promote those views. Channel Nine should be ashamed of itself.’

One Nation’s deputy leader Barnaby Joyce went further, accusing Channel Nine of ‘pulling the story out of their backside’.

Perhaps. But there is a more sinister explanation, which was alluded to by Senator Hanson, who also pointed out that Channel Nine are the recipients of more than $16 million in federal funding from the Albanese Labor government. This fact only came to light recently when it was discovered that this socialist government has been busy handing out over $70 million to an assortment of over 180 media companies to supposedly ‘support journalism’. Needless to say, this magazine didn’t see a brass razoo (and would not accept a penny of government money even if we were offered it).

But it does raise the obvious question: to what extent does this money colour the commentary from those media outlets that do rely on it? The question answers itself.

This magazine prides itself on the outstanding quality of its journalists and columnists both in the magazine and on our digital platform Flat White, which is edited by Alexandra Marshall.

We rely entirely on subscriptions from readers who believe that what we write – the insights, the opinions and the humour – is worth paying for.

Currently, the right side of politics is fighting a critical battle to rid this nation of its socialist governments, and the opinions of this magazine and its writers are pivotal to debating how that can best be achieved. The most obvious question is how the Coalition and One Nation avoid handing government to Labor by cannibalising each other’s votes. We welcome that debate within our pages and encourage others to join that discussion. Some of our writers are openly supportive of One Nation, others of the Coalition, some believe there needs to be an accommodation of sorts.

What is important is that politicians, commentators and interested parties have a genuine discussion about the most effective way to defeat Labor. The need now is so great, with the damage that this government is wilfully inflicting upon this country, that it cannot simply be a case of ‘business as usual’.

Ultimately, the voters will decide. It is without a shadow of doubt that the natural conservative majority of this nation – as was seen in the Voice referendum – is around 60 per cent. Yet translating that into seats and government is no mean feat, especially with the distortions caused by our compulsory preferential voting system.

It was intriguing to learn this week that the aforementioned Mr Joyce claims to have been in discussions with Liberal leaders about some form of accommodation, including guaranteeing to support each other should either the Coalition or One Nation be in a position to form government. That is to be applauded.

Similarly, the idiotic nonsense of the past few weeks, with aggrieved members on the right side of politics launching blistering attacks on each other, needs to stop.