Is Pauline Hanson marching Australia towards a Brexit-style hostility to reason?

At the height of the Brexit campaign, Michael Gove, a prominent leave campaigner made what might be one of the defining statements of the era in global politics.

Rebutting questions about the possible economic damage to Britain from leaving the European Union, Gove said voters were sick of being told what was in their own interest, including by organisations who often got it wrong anyway. “I think the people of this country have had enough of experts,” Gove said.

A decade later, Pauline Hanson is channelling the same energy as she continues her angry march to the frontline of politics in Australia.

Releasing One Nation’s policies on early access to superannuation a week ago, and on major cuts to immigration on Monday, Hanson and her colleague, Barnaby Joyce, dismissed questions about the economic effect of the plans. Asked if the releasing billions of dollars from super would add to inflation or hurt account holders in retirement, Hanson and Joyce dissembled.

On Tuesday, when she was challenged over whether One Nation’s plans to cut 750,000 overseas arrivals over three years would push Australia into recession, Hanson said she didn’t really care.

“Do you trust these economists, what they come out and say? Because I don’t,” she said. “I don’t believe they always get it right as well.” Soon she conceded the policy could reverse economic growth for a couple of months but argued it was worth it to stop traffic jams and ease housing shortages.

Hanson was silent on the warnings of universities, the agriculture sector and aged care providers. They said a carefully calibrated immigration system would allow in the skilled workers Australia needs, a preferred approach to arbitrary cuts based only on big numbers.

Despite the limited logic of Hanson’s vibes-based politics, it’s not hard to see why dismissing experts might be a winning political position.

Many voters – especially those who are attracted to One Nation’s scorched earth style – don’t care what experts or economists say. They are seriously angry at the political establishment for the country’s problems today and want dramatic change, often to revert back to a previous decade. On proposals like cutting immigration or easing cost-of-living pain, they trust Hanson to follow through, much like Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters don’t care about the chaos he creates.

But, longer term, the approach is badly misguided.

If Hanson maintains her lead in opinion polls and actually ends up in government, or with enough seats to influence policy, One Nation would pay the price for vibes-based policy. Some of the same voters who hate experts would be on track to lose blue collar jobs in a recession, or struggle to find an aged care place for an elderly parent.

Joyce should know better than dismissing expertise. Before he defected from the Nationals, when serving as agriculture minister, he smashed the country’s pesticides regulator by moving the agency to his own electorate of New England. Joyce ignored warnings about the loss of experienced staff and a higher cost to taxpayers for the agency’s operations. So poor was Joyce’s planning, bureaucrats worked from a local McDonald’s, the only place they could find with reliable internet.

Hanson’s efforts to undermine trust in expertise and institutions hurts the entire political system and breeds cynicism in voters. A One Nation government would not be immune some time in the future, and would struggle to run the country without the help of experts in the Australian public service.

A decade on, Brexit has done long-term damage, hurt the UK economy and the British people, even if assessing the true cost requires listening to the experts Gove so infamously dismissed