One Nation, six farcical explanations and no clearer understanding of its housing policy

‘One Nation is polling like a major party. It must now start being treated like one,’ writes Josh Butler. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP View image in fullscreen ‘One Nation is polling like a major party. It must now start being treated like one,’ writes Josh Butler. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Analysis One Nation, six farcical explanations and no clearer understanding of its housing policy Josh Butler Hanson’s party is leading in the polls, but it has a long way to go before being recognised as a serious political outfit Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast When sent out to do a cleanup job, it usually helps to not make the mess even worse. It took One Nation six separate attempts over nearly 24 hours to clarify the basic details of their policy on foreign ownership of housing. Between Thursday night and Friday afternoon, the story turned from bizarre to farcical, with attempts to clarify the policy just making the situation murkier as Australians watched: a Barnaby Joyce interview; a quick do-over on Sky News on Thursday; a Pauline Hanson social media update on Friday morning; a Sean Bell interview, again on Sky, on Friday; and then a 2GB spot; before a written press release from Bell on Friday afternoon … which finally put some meat on the bones of the one-sentence policy on their website. They weren’t quite Jaymes Diaz levels of wilting under pressure, or Tony Abbott going non-verbal with Seven’s Mark Riley. But Joyce’s misstating of the policy, and Bell’s botched attempts at a cleanup, were a reminder that while Hanson’s party is leading in the polls, it has a long way to go before being recognised as a serious political outfit. One Nation is surging, without doubt. There’s a long way to the next election, but if one were held today, Hanson could all but wipe the Nationals off the electoral map and potentially open the kind of schism which could see our traditionally “two-party system” become a relic of the past. But stumbling at the first hint of basic policy scrutiny gives a whiff of why One Nation has risen and fallen in the past. Are familiar cracks starting to emerge? “Foreigners and temporary visa holders” – crucially, not permanent residents, as Joyce originally erroneously claimed – would be banned from owning any residential dwelling under One Nation’s policy, while existing owners “would be issued a disposal order” to sell the property within two years, according to the statement from Bell’s office. The detail Bell had earlier twice failed to state – leading 2GB host Mark Levy to cut their interview short, calling it a “trainwreck” – was that One Nation would seek to use major fines or imprisonment for non-residents who failed to dispose of their property. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email “Those who fail to comply with a disposal order face serious consequences under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975, including fines equivalent to double the capital gain or 50% of the acquisition price