The wedge loses its edge

  • George Megalogenis and Rosanne Barrett

20 June 2010Don't bet on asylum-seekers being the hot-button issue in this election, write George Megalogenis and Rosanne Barrett in the Australian

WHATEVER happened to the Hansonites, the one million voters who made John Howard's first re-election a nightmare? The question has been troubling the main parties as they face another 1998-style campaign with the baggage of two leaders lacking widespread approval.

Neither side will say this out loud, but the Hansonites were part of the reason Kevin Rudd won so handsomely in 2007. They joined the rest of the nation in rejecting Work Choices, and in embracing the idea of Rudd as a younger version of Howard.

This year, the Hansonites are Labor's problem, most notably in the Prime Minister's home state of Queensland. But they carry an unexpected hitch for Tony Abbott: the asylum-seeker issue doesn't work in the way it once did and may rebound on...

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Photo: Real estate agent Sandra Palmer, from the Forde electorate. Lyndon Mechielsen/ The Australian

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