Organisations such as One Nation will always attract bigots and xenophobes from the Liberals, the Nationals and even the Labor party. But there is real danger for any mainstream party toying with the idea of doing a a deal with One Nation.

John Howard, who joined forces with Kim Beazley to warn about the dangers to Australian national security and political stability implicit in many of Ms Hanson's policy positions earlier this week, was aware of this from the start.

While he always took care to avoid vilifying her supporters, and successfully went on to woo many back by mirroring some of One Nation's policies on refugees, immigration and the like, the then PM was just as careful not to endorse One Nation through one-off preference deals.

Mr Howard knew such arrangements would have ultimately been very costly indeed.

In Queensland's case, a power sharing arrangement with One Nation in the event of a hung parliament would brand the LNP as One Nation Lite for years, if not decades, to come.

The ongoing tug-of-war between Hansonism, and more recently, Cory Bernardi's Australian Conservatives, and the major parties for the hearts and minds of the most conservative section of the electorate is of particular interest given the outcome of the marriage equality survey.

The survey delivered an electorate-by-electorate snapshot of just how socially progressive Australians are at this point in time, at least on that particular issue.

It has given Malcolm Turnbull the ammunition he needed to tell the Abbott-led faction attempting a hostile takeover of the Liberal Party that they are far more conservative than the people they purport to represent.

Labor's sensitivity to the fact many of its voters are more socially conservative than Liberal voters was highlighted earlier this week when a Qld Labor backbencher, Jo-Ann Miller, exchanged baby booties and a hug with Pauline Hanson in Ipswich.

Qld premier, Annastacia Palasczuk, rushed to distance herself from the incident after initially telling journalists "I'm not very happy about that". She has made her refusal to consider any sort of deal with One Nation a major point of difference between the ALP and the LNP.

While One Nation has gone to some lengths to wind back its racist and religiously intolerant rhetoric during the Qld campaign, its policies remain unchanged. They are also, according to Mr Howard, the soft underbelly through which Hansonism should be targeted.

"Australians don't like extremists, they really don't," he said. "But I think the way to handle any political party is through the battle of ideas. In my time One Nation got into trouble when it had to debate mainstream economic issues."

The best way to put the One Nation genie back in the bottle is to tell people what it really stands for.