One Nation has long claimed to represent the ‘working class’ – and that makes it a serious threat to Labor

Australian politics has long afforded an almost mythical status to certain categories of voters – usually a large group that feels disenfranchised but in fact wields a lot of electoral clout. Robert Menzies, for example, spoke of the “forgotten people”, John Howard had his “battlers”, and Scott Morrison the “quiet Australians”. Menzies initially referred to a “moral middle class” at risk of being ground between a working-class represented by organised labour and a self-sufficient upper class.…