One Nation has long been a puppet show but the strings are fraying
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One Nation has suffered another salvo of damaging allegations that, given Pauline Hanson’s history, raise serious doubts about her political party’s ability to translate its popularity into anything resembling an outfit ready to govern.
As the party faces a major test in the Victorian election on November 28, a series of investigations by the Herald and 60 Minutes have exposed some of the internal turmoil and tangle-footed behaviour besetting One Nation since its popularity started resurging this year.
Among the latest revelations:
One Nation’s former national campaign director Sean Black was captured on covert recordings warning that billionaire Gina Rinehart was secretly dictating party strategy. “[Top advisor] James [Ashby’s] view on policy is that the policy comes from Gina or Gina’s acolytes,” Black said. “… They don’t have a clue of what democracy is.”
Black, who previously served time for raping a former partner, claimed on covert recordings that he quietly continued doing backroom work for One Nation even after, according to Hanson, she publicly dismissed him under political pressure from the Coalition (her insistence that she dismissed him has been contradicted by a leaked text message, reported by the Herald’s Paul Sakkal, that suggests Black chose to resign).
Former campaign manager Charles Swindon claimed One Nation ignored warning signs regarding problematic candidates, including an allegation that Victorian state secretary Bianca Colecchia managed a Melbourne strip club linked to criminal figures.
The Herald also revealed that One Nation’s leader in NSW, Mike Newman, who is expected to stand for the seat of Cessnock next March, has been inconsistent in his position on a key issue. Newman had embraced the party’s promise to ditch net zero legislation despite spruiking the benefits of renewables in the Hunter region, declaring as recently as last year that “the clean energy journey is ours for the taking” while complaining Australia’s rollout of renewable energy was too slow.
Before our One Nation exposés were published, Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting released a preemptive statement denying she was “secretly dictating” the party policy. She also asserted her company had paid $24.5 billion in tax over the past decade.
Hanson was quick to defend her independence. “I’m not Gina’s puppet. I’m no one’s puppet – they have been trying to pin that on me for years and years and years,” she said. “Is Anthony Albanese [Anthony] Pratt’s puppet? Is he [Andrew] Twiggy Forrest’s puppet? Is he the unions’ puppet?”
Hanson had massive difficulties controlling the 11 One Nation candidates elected to the Queensland parliament in 1989. They all resigned within nine months as Hanson’s top-down leadership style turned her MPs into a herd of Brown’s cows.
One Nation is poised in opinion polls to have an unprecedented role in the Victorian election. Senior politicians in NSW are also worried about the impact One Nation will have on the March state election. Labor has expressed concerns that up to a dozen of its seats could be vulnerable to the populist party, while the NSW Nationals are concerned about its impact on their vote – particularly in the upper house.
However, our revelations expose the inconsistency, hypocrisy and internal strife that still beleaguers the party – the same problems that were on display in Brisbane 37 years ago.
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