Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Kerry-Anne Walsh, Allen & Unwin, $29.99.
“Very few public figures can claim the level of fame, or infamy, that Pauline does. So much so, her surname isn’t needed. Everyone knows her, or knows of her, and nearly everyone has a passionate viewpoint about her; she doesn’t engender indifference.”
Kerry-Anne Walsh, who was a highly regarded member of the Canberra press gallery for 25 years, is the best-selling author of The Stakling of Julia Gillard. This time, she takes a critical look at Pauline Hanson, the woman and politician.
Hanson claims to represent the average Australian, but Walsh discovers a different reality. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Perceptive, surprising and revealing, Hoodwinked takes you on one untamed ride. It pulls no punches, and has a finely developed sense of the illogical.
Through all the ups, the downs, the downs and the ups, Kerry-Anne probes and prods the evidence to uncover the many faces of Pauline Hanson. From her time as an accidental local councillor, her emergence as a surprising national figure in 1996 and her resurrection in 2016 to her careful profile-building through the media during the intervening years, the friends she’s used and discarded, the men who control her, the money trail of her party and her personal finances.
‘Then there’s the rise and rise of the disaffected voters who now control political destinies, and the collapse of trust in the system that has allowed chancers such as Hanson to flourish.’
So, has Pauline Hanson duped her loyal supporters, who have kept her in the public eye and propelled her back into parliament because she ‘speaks for them’?
