The stakes are high: why people jumping ship to One Nation are on a suicide mission

Episode three was an absolute corker. It had the benefit of Crabb's humour and what journalists call currency. What's happening right now.

On screen? Yes. Barnaby Joyce. How does Crabb describe him?

"He's an Australian standard bearer for party disunity." I would have gone for the definite article there but she's a much better writer than me so I'll bow to her choices.

He tells us how people were mean to him in the party room when he crossed the floor. Apparently every seat in the joint party room was already taken. "I literally had to go next door, grab a seat and bring it in. I sat by myself for dinner and tea for years, there's a real tribalism that doesn't exist elsewhere."

He goes on to say that in "people's hearts they feel a sense of, 'I'm letting myself down, I'm not true to my personal values because I haven't been given the liberty on certain issues to move."

Obviously, this is not a person who understands the power of collective action, of sticking together to bring about change.

Today Barnyard's announcing his resignation from the Nationals, maybe to join One Nation. They can have him if he has the guts to tell us what he's really thinking. One Nation. Which has never, not once, not ever, done a single damn thing to contribute to our nation.

Just this week, that buffoon who leads the party, Pauline Hanson, now 71, decided to wear a burqa into the Senate. She and her insufferable con-patriots (yes, because they are con artists not patriots) want to ban the clothing worn by observant Muslim women. It's their way of saying, look at moi, look at moi (sorry Kath and Kim, I know you would never behave like this), I hate anyone who's different.

Good news is that she's been banned from the Senate for days (not quite long enough). The bad news is that she seems not to understand that the reason no one wants her stupid bill is because it is horrible. Are we banning crosses and Stars of David now? Are we banning turbans? What about the habits of Catholic nuns? What about the tattoos of Maori?

We don't do that in this country because most of us want peace, kindness and prosperity, not hateful posturing.

I despise One Nation from the bottom of my extremely multicultural little heart. Racist. Bigoted. Once home to losers such as Mark Latham (when I say losers, he's the bloke who lost a defamation suit against him by NSW independent Alex Greenwich). Perhaps Hanson thought Latham would bring in the young ones. Where's my laughing emoji when I need it?

Guessing very much that the party which is One Person needs some generational change. Love that for them. Joyce, 58, is considerably younger than Pauline. She must want some young blood - and someone with political experience. Maybe Hanson doesn't mind a series of embarrassing blunders and missteps. After all, she got Mark Latham on board. He's now an independent and long may no one want anything to do with him.

Here's my tip about generational change. Boy is it coming at you fast. News this week from the Australian Election study is so bad for conservatives you think they'd just curl up and dry. Although they are already pretty dried-up. These are the people who cut ties with saving the climate in any meaningful way (and good on the Greens for getting the changes they wanted for the benefit of all of us). It's a shame conservatives aren't just bringing freak storms and baking heat just on themselves instead of the rest of us.

I asked Ian McAllister, pioneer of the AES and a distinguished professor of political science at ANU, what he thought about the whole Barnaby shenanigans, if indeed Joyce lines up with Hanson. After that cosy poorly cooked steak with Pauline, they deserve each other.

First thing, yes, Joyce's personal following may bring an extra Senate seat to One Nation.

Second thing, the generations are not on the side of conservative politics.

"One Nation is running high in the polls. The problem [for them] is that it is led by one person. They don't have anyone else prominent. Bringing in Joyce could shore up their votes and consolidate votes at the next election."

But McAllister is honest about the state of conservatism in this country.

"The Libs are in dire straits and are being squeezed by short-term factors - unpopular leaders, no policy brand. They've lost the mantle of the best party to run the economy."

What now? Yep, Australians think Labor is better on taxation, economic management and cost of living.

But worse, conservative parties have run straight into what McAllister calls The Big Three. Education. Gender. Generational Change.

Yep. Yep. Yep. Millennials are the first generation to veer left as they age. Good on them. The gap between men and women grows ever wider. Men veer right and women turn left. And as for anyone with an education, well those voters know full well that conservative politics leads to hatefulness and divisiveness. McAllister would never ever speak in such furious terms and that's why he's a professor and I'm not.

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Tony Windsor, a man actually interested in the future of rural Australia, and a longtime political adversary of Joyce, says he would advise against voting One Nation.

"Rural Australians are the first victims of climate change - but it's not just climate change," says the veteran independent. He also thinks their position on immigration is "bollocks".

"We need somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 migrant workers every year," he says. Why?

"Regional Australia has great difficulty getting itinerant workers in peak labour demand times," he says. "Everybody who has travelled regional Australia will see the people in the orchards and behind the counters are backpackers from any number of overseas countries - and great people too."

"Following Joyce and Hanson would be lemming-like suicide," he says frankly.

Sure. And the Australian electorate is already turning away from lunatics.