IN reviewing the events of our recent and yet undecided Federal election, former 2010 Gillard staffer and news.com.au writer Jamila Rizvi clearly enunciates the obvious. Life goes on. The garbage bins will be pushed onto the kerb, which will be duly emptied and returned to their regular spot for the next week. We’ll still receive our mail. Our phones will work. There won’t be anarchy in the streets and the schoolkids will enjoy their holiday.

For this is Australia. We are not standing on soapboxes berating our politicians for the lopsided, complex election that was based on a double dissolution, but instead emerged as a double disillusion.

And as Rizvi puts it: “Despite our political uncertainty, our country plods along peacefully. There isn’t even a hint of expectation to the contrary. Life goes on as normal.”

Although accurate in her assessment, Rizvi, who is now based in Berlin, Germany, is perhaps understandably removed from the recriminations and finger-pointing that has now become a daily feature of this election; which is heavily focused on Prime Minister and Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull’s weak showing and inability to stare down Bill Shorten’s mediscare campaign.

And with an aftermath that has become ugly and venomous, there is one critic who stands above the others. In using her numerous platforms, former Abbott chief of staff Peta Credlin has labelled Turnbull as “the man who broke the Liberal’s hearts.”

On SkyNews, she launched an excoriating attack on the “hapless set of bedwetters” she says plotted to oust her former boss Tony Abbott as prime minister and squander the “wonderful victory of 2013” by giving Malcolm Turnbull poor advice.

She is not alone. Another leading commentator, Andrew Bolt, said: “Malcolm Turnbull – you are finished,” Bolt wrote on his News Corp blog at 10.07pm on Saturday. It was not long after most election experts predicted that we would be facing a hung parliament.

Bolt claimed Turnbull had “treated the Liberal base like dirt,” “repeatedly [humiliated] Abbott,” turned “almost everything... to ruin” and that his campaign had been a “disaster”, before demanding the PM resign.

The Turnbull bashing won’t end soon. His is a party divided and many want Abbott to return if the former gets to form government, or at least be offered a cabinet position. Both are unlikely. Do we also need another change in Prime Minister?

If we push this aside for now and focus on an individual who has the ability to polarise this country, we need to accept that Pauline Hanson’s dramatic comeback is going to be just that. We know, as Aussies, we’re easy-going, yet there is significant support for Ms Hanson’s views – and that’s a chilling prospect.

And as the Sydney Morning Herald reported, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has warned of “terrorism on our streets” and says Australians fear their suburbs have been “swamped by Asians”, as she claimed her party could snare up to six Senate spots.

“You're standing here having a go at me because I stand up for my culture, my way of life and my country,” she said.

The prospect of Ms Hanson's return to the federal political arena after 18 years, which included a stint in jail, has sharpened focus on the extreme One Nation policy agenda that a future government must contend with.

For those of us – presumably all of us – who went to the polling booths last Saturday full of hope and optimistic expectation, what can we look forward to? At this point, we need to be patient, but irrespective of our political affiliations, we’re in for a bumpy and uncertain ride.

There is one consolation – our election process pales in comparison to that of the United States. There is but one similarity, though, they have Trump and we have Hanson.