Thirty years on, the Coalition has no idea what to do about One Nation

And it buttresses Labor’s campaign to peel centrist voters away from the Liberals by portraying the only possible alternative government as a chaotic and dysfunctional arrangement propped up by One Nation.

If people accept that argument they will hold their noses and vote Labor because they almost always prefer stability to risk.

Third, accept that preferences are now perceived as a judgement on another party’s legitimacy, and embrace it. This cuts both ways.

Labor cannot fully implement its program without an alliance with the Greens. There might not be a hung House of Representatives, but there most certainly will be a hung Senate. This is a Labor weak point.

Malcolm Roberts may hold some unconventional views, but at least he knows what a woman is, and he has always been on the right side of Net Zero. The list of lunatic propositions embraced by Labor and the Greens dwarfs his eccentricities. And he is only one person.

Call them out, not him.

The choice at the next election isn’t between Labor and a Coalition-One Nation alliance. It is a choice between a Labor-Greens alliance and common sense.

So here’s the strategy.

Resist volunteering an opinion on relations with One Nation, or answering questions framed by opponents and journalists.

If that begins to look evasive in an interview situation, respond that the only people obsessed with the issue are in the Labor Party, because they don’t want Australians looking at the housing crisis they have created or the wealth and aspiration they have destroyed.

If pushed further, point out that Labor can govern effectively only through an alliance with the Greens in the Senate. Then point out that Greens policy at one election has a habit of becoming Labor policy at the next, as with capital gains tax and negative gearing.

Whatever question you are asked, steer it back to Labor.