The protesters who appear at every occasion One Nation leader Pauline Hanson speaks in public are entitled to put their view. They are entitled to demonstrate peacefully. But they do their cause no good if the allow these demonstrations to degenerate to violence. The blood-stained face of a One Nation supporting man in his 60s is not a good advertisement for people who are condemning One Nation for a lack of tolerance. Indeed, the opposite is true. The incident gives rise to sympathy for One Nation.
It is difficult to imagine that the violent few among these protesters do indeed stand for tolerance of diversity or are genuine opponents of One Nation’s political aims. Perhaps they are only there for the stir.
If there were no protests Ms Hanson would be speaking to a few dozen people and media coverage would soon wane because there would be little new and little to report after a time. After all, there are only so many ways of stating the party’s view on immigration and Aboriginal affairs.
The violent protesters imagine they are persuading people not to attend One Nation meetings; that they are blocking Ms Hanson’s views from being aired; that they are dissuading people from associating themselves with One Nation. No so. To the contrary the protests are creating greater attention to One Nation.
The violent protesters should realise that there are better ways to defeat the more unsavoury elements of the Hanson platform. Ridicule and informed rejection are far more potent than misguided attempts at suppression.
The folly of the money-printing proposal and the absurdity of opposing free trade upon which so many Australian jobs depend will telling against One Nation.
More poignantly, One Nation’s insular, selfish and shameful view of foreign aid has been rightly rejected by the thousands of Australians who have given support to our neighbour Papua New Guinea in its time of tragedy in the past week.