Any relationship expert will tell you that certain things are vital to keep a partnership strong. Respect. Communication. Not involving One Nation. Stuff like that.Â
However, the Liberals have announced that they're giving their upper house preferences to One Nation in regional areas, rather than the Nationals, in the upcoming WA election in March.
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Preferences for Pauline angers Joyce
Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce isn't happy the WA Liberal Party is preferencing One Nation over the Nationals but Pauline Hanson says her party is a force that can't be ignored.
It's fair to ask why the Liberals would carry this abandonment of the party that's allowing them to govern while knowing that it only takes one disgruntled Nats-aligned MP to cross the floor and the government no longer has a majority.
However, the answer – blind terror of being ousted in WA – means that survival takes precedence over trivial matters like "legislating anything at all after giving One Nation the balance of power". That, after all, is a problem for after the election.Â
![Dignity. Quiet dignity.](/web/20170215200750im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/8/a/g/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gubckf.png/1487069121401.jpg)
Now, let's keep this in perspective: "preference deal"Â means the order on those how to vote cards handed out at polling stations. And the Liberal-National Coalition has been characterised of late by both sides making clear how much contempt they have for each other.
There was the gleeful extortion the Nationals made in their deal with the new PM when Turnbull rolled Tony Abbott, locking the government into unpopular policies like no action on climate change and no movement on marriage equality.
And the Libs returned the respect in November when Attorney-General George Brandis showed just how much the Liberals valued their colleagues by describing the Queensland Liberal National Party as "not very good" and "very very mediocre", before adding that "I think there might be a revisiting of things" regarding the merger of the two parties in Queensland.Â
Still, preferencing the party currently outpolling the Nationals on their home turf is a new level of naked aggression from the Libs, and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has made clear how hurt he is by the decision. "When you step away from [the Liberal-National deal], there's one thing you can absolutely be assured of is that we are going to be in opposition," he snarled to reporters.
However, federal government figures are talking about how great an idea it is, because that wound isn't going to salt itself.Â
"The One Nation of today is a very different beast to what it was 20 years ago," federal Industry Minister Arthur Sinodinos told the ABC on Sunday with a straight face. "They're a lot more sophisticated … Our job is to treat them as any other party."
Trade Minister Steve Ciobo was also determined to pretend aligning with conspiracy theorists and "sovereign citizens"Â made perfect sense on Monday morning.
"If you look at, for example, how Pauline Hanson's gone about putting her support in the Senate, you'll see that she's often voting in favour of government legislation," he hedged. "There's a certain amount of economic rationalism, a certain amount of approach that's reflective of what it is we are trying to do to govern Australia in a fiscally responsible way."Â
Now, it's reassuring that Arthur Sinodinos can remember what One Nation were like 20 years ago, given his forgetfulness in his testimony before the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
But Sinodinos is right about them being more sophisticated. Why, Pauline Hanson used to manipulate bigots by pretending that we're at risk of being "swamped by Asians" - now she manipulates bigots by pretending we're at risk of being "swamped by Muslims".Â
So yeah, Artie: they're a totally different beast. Well observed, buddy!Â
What other things would the Liberals now be tacitly supporting in a preference deal?Â
One Nation want to abolish the Family Court. They demand that Australia "cancel all agreements obliging Australia to pay for foreign Climate Action" - because climate change isn't just false, it's also suspiciously foreign.
And as Trade Minister, no doubt Ciobo is delighted with their assertion that "One Nation opposes Globalism and will withdraw from international treaties that harm our manufacturing industry."Â
And just in case you're worried that barking mad conspiracy theories aren't still underpinning the party's policies, note that they're convinced that Halal certification is "financially supporting the Islamisation of Australia, including Sharia Law" and that the government has been secretly running the economy for "the United Nations and unaccountable foreign bodies that have interfered and have choked our economy since the federal government handed power to the International Monetary Fund in 1944".
The risk that the Liberals are taking is scrambling to appeal to conservatives risks Labor having the sensible centre of politics to themselves, and that's where Australian elections are won. After all, there are a lot fewer votes at the extreme right, a lot more competition to get those votes, and – as the Q Society proudly demonstrated last week – the hard right seems to contain a whole lot of furious cretins.Â
However, WA is clearly a test for the Liberals: if One Nation help Colin Barnett's government squeak back into power, you can guarantee that this will be the national strategy at the next federal election.Â
But you know what they say about marriages entered into in haste for transparently self-interested reasons: they always work out pretty well, right?
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