Please Explain: The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Pauline Hanson, by Anna Broinowski

Staff review by Chris Saliba

Anna Broinowski's up close portrait of Pauline Hanson is compelling and original.

Documentary maker Anna Broinowski followed Pauline Hanson at close quarters for her 2015 election campaign, called the Fed Up Tour. Hanson, a serial candidate of some 20 years, had not won a contest since the 1996 federal election. No one took her chances of success seriously. Then came the 2016 double dissolution election and Hanson stormed the senate, her party winning a swag of seats. The resulting documentary, Pauline Hanson: Please Explain! was broadcast on SBS after Hanson's senate win. Not content with producing a documentary, Anna Broinowski has now written a rip-roaring, tell-all book on her experiences with Hanson.

This is the second Hanson book of its type. Fairfax journalist Margo Kingston was there first with Off the Rails: The Pauline Hanson Trip, her hair raising diary of Hanson's 1998 federal campaign. Broinowski's book is perhaps even more gobsmacking and surreal, often descending into absurdity and camp farce. It's as though Nancy Mitford was sent out to cover Australian politics.

Please Explain covers much ground that Australians will already be famililar with. Hanson's school of hard knocks personal story, her sudden rise, the infamous maiden speech, the self serving advisors (John Pasquarelli, David Oldfield and David Ettridge), the utter chaos and disorganisation of One Nation as a Party and finally, Hanson's decline and fall. Only one chapter is devoted to Hanson's resurgence.

So, why bother reading this new account? Hasn't it been all done before? Broinowski has a hawke-like eye that she brings to bear on this often intimate portrait. Nothing escapes her gaze; the level of detail is dizzying. Hanson is approached almost as if she were an old Hollywood movie star – a Dietrich or a Garbo. Broinowksi gives sumptous accounts of Hanson's frocks, their fabrics, colours, cuts and decorative patterns (the iconic gowns made famous during various political battles are archived in sealed plastic bags), her make-up and lush home furnishings. For example, “Generously stuffed cream couches and a luxurious kilim set off a heavy glass coffee table, on which a white porcelain Lladro sculpture of galloping horses has been set on a delicate lace doily”.

A rich picture is built up of Hanson's personal style, her cooking skills, a can do attitude to household repairs, her shrewd business acumen and a fastidious attention to personal presentation. Hanson has the steeliness of a Joan Crawford.

While Broinowski has painstakingly captured the surface of her subject, she also does a meticulous job of interviewing all the main players and contrasting their various versions of the truth. Pasquarelli, Oldfield and Ettridge all have different opinions on Hanson and what went on. It's Hanson's choices in advisors that fascinates as much as her own character. Interestingly, they all agree Hanson was not intellectually curious. (Her first successful campaign for Ipswich council involved protesting the building of a new public library.) Pasquarelli calls her intellectually indolent, Ettridge says she has the “attention span of a flea.” Hanson disliked reading generally and wouldn't even read her own press releases. When her book Pauline Hanson: The Truth was published, she cheerfully signed copies and spruiked the book, but didn't bother to read it. It contained such extraodinary nonsense as the prediction that by 2050 Australia would be governed by a lesbian cyborg of Indian and Chinese descent.

Perhaps this is the biggest take-away from Please Explain: Pauline Hanson has locked herself into a fortress of confirmation bias. When Broinowski tries to get Hanson to meet highly respected moderate muslims, to have a discussion, she flatly refuses. Of course Pauline Hanson is not stupid – she's shown herself to be business savvy, energetic and practical. She rolls up her sleeves and gets things done. But her disinterest in reading creates a brick wall, protecting her from different opinions and other voices.

Please Explain is a must read for anyone interested in Australian politics. It's a compelling portrait, brilliantly written, and sure to become a classic of its kind.

Please Explain: The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Pauline Hanson, by Anna Broinowski. Published by Viking. ISBN: 9780143784678 RRP: $34.99

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