Hanson takes the stage as Chalmers' budget woes roll on

When One Nation leader Pauline Hanson addresses the National Press Club on June 17 there'll be landmines everywhere. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)

When One Nation leader Pauline Hanson addresses the National Press Club on June 17, there will be landmines everywhere.

It's her first formal speech to the club in her 30-year (on and off) parliamentary career. How times have changed.

When she spoke at a One Nation meeting there in July 1997, a contemporary report said the gathering was held at the club after permission to use other venues was refused. "The Press Club decided to host the meeting on the basis that it is a forum for 'free speech'.''

For Hanson, this month's address is a big opportunity. It's also a big risk.

Come across well, and it's another step forward for one of the most unlikely major political figures of our time. Stuff it up, and all her flaws will be on national display.

And there are multiple potential pitfalls. Making a thin address that lacks any credibility. Giving incorrect answers to questions or being unable to answer them. Most dangerous of all, a firecracker loss of temper with journalists, for whom she has disdain.

A leader appearing at the NPC faces a higher-than-usual bar. Those who have to prep Hanson, including Barnaby Joyce, have their work cut out.

There'll be a few landmines for the journalists to avoid, too. They'll be detonated if questioners come across as snide or arrogant.

It's the time for the deep dive, not just on Hanson but, importantly, on how her rapidly expanding party is behaving on the ground.

Margo Kingston, who, as a reporter, covered Hanson in the 1990s, attended a One Nation branch meeting in Taree, New South Wales, last month.

Margo is (sort of) retired, but old habits die hard, and she recorded proceedings and took some photos of what had been advertised as a "public event". She was accosted (she hadn't realised she was supposed to register), and a branch official gave her a hard time.

This comes after the ABC was banned from a press conference in Farrer.

Finally, that imploded, but not before it split the Coalition and helped Bob Hawke win his third term in 1987.

While Labor is increasingly concerned about the potential longer-term threat of Hanson, this week its attention was squarely on more immediate problems.

Attacks on the budget have not abated. (In a sort of black joke, former treasurer Joe Hockey was one of those taking pot shots; Hockey knows a thing or two about unpopular budgets, having delivered a doozy in 2014.)

While Labor is increasingly concerned about One Nation, this week