Australians' preference for passive politics is a wide-spread problem

We hear about the esoteric rhetoric that the Labor party has just launched in its wish list called "knowledge nation". A document replete with cadastres and flow charts that resemble the scratchings of a drunken maze designer. And we shrug and say well so what? Wouldn’t it be nice – but it will never happen and if it did – it won’t affect me.

The point is we should care. We need to care because Australia deserves better.

If Pauline Hanson has one redeeming feature it is that she got involved in politics and she got people talking about political issues.

Hanson asked questions about the issues so many of us instinctively know are important. That is why she struck a chord with so many people. She seemed to reach out to the disempowered. She didn’t have any answers but she asked the questions.

Hanson was prepared to state her opinions and cop the flack. She had the guts to stand by her opinions.

But, perversely, she allowed more people to become disengaged – because she so polarised the electorate that the opportunity for sensible debate was lost. One was either for her or against her. There was no middle ground.

Eventually Hanson became a parody of herself and fodder for sub-editors. She is no longer relevant to the debate about how Australia should be managed because her party lost the plot (if it ever had one) and became a haven for the looney far right.

Hanson still has the capacity to command headlines – but these days it is in the context of the personality cult that has arisen about her. Even Hanson has disengaged from the political debate.

The media is now more interested in what she wears than what she says. But she commands attention because of the initial impetus that was created around her.

She is the archetypical example of a non-mainstream politician with the power to stimulate debate and change the way we think about how our society is managed. Imagine that power and determination coupled with reasoned argument and achievable outcomes.

There is a valid place and an important role for the minor parties and the alternative parties and the independents.

Don Chipp called it "keeping the bastards honest". While that ideal in the context Chipp articulated it has lost some resonance the need for that sort of counterbalance in national management is stronger than ever.