The political pile-on that could be Pauline Hanson's best weapon

In both Liberal and Labor research on how to meet the growing electoral threat from One Nation, one piece of advice does not change.

Not because these parties don’t want to. They do. But after hours of focus groups, one finding is remarkably consistent: a significant group of voters see Hanson as the victim of a political pile-on.

For her supporters, any attack on her risks reinforcing that perception — particularly because Hanson has positioned herself as the outsider exposing Canberra’s cosy political club

So the strategy has been simple — demolish the argument, not the woman.

You can hear it in Angus Taylor's reluctance to take Hanson on directly. He is trying to win back voters drifting to One Nation without sounding like he is judging them. Or worse, looking down on them.

Taylor's caution can look awkward and passive. But there is a reason for it.

Kos Samaras, director of Redbridge and a former Victorian Labor strategist, says the polling explains much of why.

"That applies to about half her base. So about 15 per cent of Australians who report to us they plan to vote for One Nation have a para-social relationship with her and her party," he says.

"The other half is parked on her because they are sick of the two-party system, but they harbour some reservations about her views."

Samaras says about half of Hanson's vote is rusted on to her. The rest is softer. They are fed up with the major parties, but they still have reservations about the One Nation leader.

That makes One Nation's decision to go after Andrew Hastie particularly risky.

One Nation thrives on anti-establishment grievance. But branding a former SAS officer a traitor for evidence he gave under subpoena moves well past this terrain and into something much darker.

Samaras puts it simply: "This second half will mark her down for calling Hastie a traitor."

He is referring to One Nation's "Please Explain" cartoon, which was pinned to Hanson's X account. It called Hastie a "traitor" eight times and a "gutless maggot", seemingly in response to the deputy Liberal leader giving evidence under subpoena in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case.