Appeasing Pauline Hanson

For a couple of weeks now I've been mulling the words of CSL chairman Brian McNamee that, "One Nation have (sic) earned the right to be recognised as having the potential to assist in the formation of an alternative government" in Victoria. "[That means] having them well-informed on legitimate business issues is appropriate."

This was vintage Patrick Durkin, a longstanding fixture of The Australian Financial Review's Melbourne bureau and a black belt practitioner of rope-a-dope. While The Australian's Damon Kitney expertly lures rich nobodies onto their velvet sofas to externalise their fantasy selves, Durkin rings them straight up and has them commit brutal self-injuries without so much as a moment's pause. It is an extraordinary skill.[[The memory of Patrick convincing Alex Malley to admit he was paid $1.8 million as chief executive of CPA Australia still brings a tear to my eye. There was also the time he convinced Graham Bradley to exclusively reveal the contents of his diary.]] 

Then, last week, Pauline Hanson was named Australia's fourth most powerful person by the AFR, and turned up at the requisite dinner in her Sunday best on the arm of stockbroker Angus Aitken. She's recently hired a couple of turnips from the Australian Banking Association and abracadabra, she's a stateswoman – the thinking man's redhead.

Am I alone in feeling like the occupant of a parallel universe now that Pauline Hanson is being treated by the establishment as a serious person?[[I'm not for a moment suggesting, by the way, that landing high up on an AFR listicle is any endorsement of her by the masthead.]] How did we get to the point where Australian business legends – and for all of his recent foibles, McNamee is still one of those – are offering her legitimacy? How did the prevailing mood become one of weak acceptance that maybe she's not so radical?