Kate Hawkesby

Right after COVID, more than half a million people arrived in the 12 months after COVID finished.

Now,

You know, by any measure, even if you're a dyed-in-the-wool Labour voter as I am, you have to say, where the hell are they going to go?

There's insufficient homes, the roads aren't big enough, not enough schools, hospitals can't cope already.

So you have to have that argument.

Well, Angus Taylor has come out crystal clear.

Whether he survives is another story.

Hanson's very, very popular.

Look what happened in Farrah.

Look what happened in South Australia.

Can she translate that to the federal stage?

Well, I guess we'll see in a couple of years' time.

But right now she's in the ascendancy, Angus Taylor riding along in her coattails and making a pretty bloody good fist of it.

Yeah, I do know what you're saying, and that's been the popular view.

She appeals to a redneck, uneducated, racist portion of the population, which is very small.

Australia, much more sophisticated, much more urbane, much more modern and 21st century.

I'm not sure that still applies.

I bagged the tribe out of Hanson on your program not so long ago, saying she had as much staying power as a snowflake in the Simpson Desert.

I'm not sure that's correct anymore.

She's got traction across society.