Category Archives: Pauline Hanson

Defamation trial hears ‘malicious’ text message Pauline Hanson sent former senator’s wife

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Brian Burston, who represented One Nation from 2016 to 2018, is suing his former leader for what he says were accusations of sexual harassment against him

Pauline Hanson sent a “spiteful” and “malicious” text message to the wife of former One Nation senator Brian Burston claiming that he considered her to be an “old bag” and was “infatuated” with one of his staff members, a court has heard.

A defamation trial brought by Burston against Hanson began in the federal court on Monday over a series of what he argues are allegations of sexual harassment made against him on social media, in interviews and in a text to his wife, Rosalyn.

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Clive Palmer’s massive advertising spend fails to translate into election success for United Australia party

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UAP vote increases slightly to around 4.7% but was exceeded by the One Nation vote

Clive Palmer’s mammoth campaign spend of close to $100m has failed to deliver his party results, with its primary vote failing to reach 5% across the country.

In both regional and metropolitan areas, the United Australia vote increased slightly to about 4.7%, and was strongest in Queensland where it polled close to 6%.

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Emails reveal One Nation’s last-minute scramble to find candidates

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When Rob Sinclair tried to nominate for One Nation in his local electorate they pleaded for him to run in other states

One Nation was still scrambling to find people to run for this month’s federal election just hours before the close of nominations, telling one prospective candidate to leave the electorate he was running in “blank” on his form while the party desperately tried to fill seats.

The Guardian can also reveal that several of the candidates chosen to run for the party live in other states from the seat they’re standing in, including a husband and wife couple selected to run in separate seats in New South Wales and Victoria.

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One Nation directs preferences to Labor in five seats targeting ‘left-leaning Liberals’

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Pauline Hanson says move is in retaliation for Liberals’ decision to preference Jacqui Lambie Network in Tasmania

One Nation has divided its support between the major parties on how-to-vote cards, directing supporters to preference Labor in at least five seats while helping the Coalition in the north Queensland seat of Leichhardt and Braddon in Tasmania.

The One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, revealed the plan on Thursday, confirming retaliation against select moderate MPs for the Liberals’ decision to preference the minor party behind the Jacqui Lambie Network in Tasmania.

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George Christensen changes the dynamic for an already intense Senate race in Queensland

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Analysis: Plenty of high-profile candidates are chasing rightwing votes, but only one will likely get a Senate seat

Campbell Newman’s face is hard to miss. The most conspicuous figure in Queensland politics in a generation – the Liberal National party’s only state premier in more than 25 years – is, as the billboards say, back.

The message to commuters who recognise his mug is simple: “New party, same man.”

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George Christensen says he will stand as One Nation candidate at federal election

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Former LNP MP backtracks on retirement plans, saying he should have made the move to Pauline Hanson’s party ‘a long time ago’

The former federal Liberal National party MP George Christensen has defected to One Nation and will run for the rightwing party in the Senate, in what appears to be an attempt to boost Pauline Hanson’s re-election bid.

Christensen, who was the MP for the Queensland seat of Dawson, announced last year he was leaving politics to spend more time with his family.

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Scott Morrison says he ‘understands’ Canberra antivax protesters amid skirmishes with police

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Prime minister says Australia ‘a free country’ and blames states for Covid vaccine mandates

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, says he understands the concerns of anti-vaccination mandate protesters, with thousands of people again marching in Canberra.

The protesters marched on Parliament House on Saturday, chanting and waving flags, and shutting down streets around the capital. About 100 people leapt barricades and faced off against police, who were also monitoring the crowd with drones and helicopters.

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One Nation anti-vaccine mandate bill rejected despite support from five Coalition senators

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Scott Morrison plays down government division, saying Liberal and National parties are ‘not run as an autocracy’

One Nation’s anti-Covid vaccination mandate bill has been rejected in the Senate, despite five government senators crossing the floor to support it.

On Monday morning Liberals Gerard Rennick and Alex Antic, who have threatened to withhold support from government legislation, voted for the bill contradicting the Morrison government’s aged care vaccine mandate and state government public health orders.

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Today show dumps Pauline Hanson for ‘divisive’ remarks about Melbourne public housing residents

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Channel Nine initially promoted One Nation leader’s comments describing people locked down due to coronavirus as ‘drug addicts’ who ‘cannot speak English’

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Channel Nine’s Today show has dropped One Nation leader Pauline Hanson as a “regular contributor”, after she described residents of public housing in Melbourne who are locked down due to Covid-19 as “drug addicts” who “cannot speak English”.

In a statement, the channel described her comments as “ill-informed and divisive”, and said “she will no longer be appearing on our program as a regular contributor”.

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‘Potentially dangerous’: One Nation’s tactics at family law inquiry concern women’s advocates

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Discredited themes, including that men’s aggression is caused by partners who seek to deny access to their kids, have drawn most of the attention this week

l The only authorised video stream of this week’s federal parliamentary hearings into Australia’s family law system was broadcast on Pauline Hanson’s Facebook page. The camera was operated by Hanson’s aide James Ashby, the stream captioned like an official broadcast but published with hundreds of unfiltered live comments from apparently aggrieved fathers, who called witnesses and MPs “man-hater” and “dirty snake”.

In the shadow of the murders of Hannah Clarke and her three children, expert witnesses have told the inquiry that reform to family law is increasingly urgent to better protect mostly women and children, primarily from men who perpetrate acts of coercive control and domestic violence.

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Scott Morrison grilled on Coalition funding for new dam – politics live

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Anthony Albanese asks PM why he’s raising hopes on dam support. Plus Jacqui Lambie raises concerns over Turkish invasion. All the day’s events, live

Because it is only “radicals” who care about the climate, apparently.

#owningtheleft

Labor's declaration of a climate emergency is just a sop to the superglue protestors and radical greens. Labor remains desperate to receive the support of the radical activists despite what they've said since the election. Labor can't be trusted to fight for jobs.

Tony Burke jumps up to congratulate Tony Smith on the integrity award he received today (have a look a few posts down and check out Kenneth Hayne’s speech) and thanks him for some of the difficult decisions he took during the medevac debate (you may remember that Smith stuck to the parliament rules, and ensured the parliament had a vote, and also ordered the solicitor general advice Christian Porter was relying on to shut down the debate, be tabled – which revealed the advice was not iron-clad).

Scott Morrison then gets up to add his congratulations, and a few in Labor respond with “now you think about it” to which Morrison gets very upset and accuses Labor of politicising the moment.

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Federal election 2019: Liberals ‘riddled with rightwing extremists’, Shorten says – politics live

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Opposition leader stresses Labor unity as Victorian Libs dump candidate over anti-Islam comments. All the day’s events, live

Not politics, but because we all need some light relief from time to time – Chris Kenny has quit twitter for about the third time.

It really, really is just the day for it.

The Sydney Morning Herald has a breaking story on another Victorian Liberal candidate facing the sack – this time for comments he made about his would-be party room colleague Tim Wilson because he had the temerity to be born gay.

The candidate’s comments came in response to a post by another commentator, Michael Taouk, who said he was not in the Liberal party, calling for the “Liberal grassroots” to “remove preselection from that notorious homosexual Tim Wilson”.

Mr Taouk wrote: “No true Christian can fight on the same side of that man.”

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One Nation’s Steve Dickson resigns over strip club footage

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Pauline Hanson calls Senate candidate’s behaviour in leaked al-Jazeera footage broadcast on Nine’s A Current Affair ‘unacceptable’

The One Nation Australian senate candidate Steve Dickson has resigned after footage emerged of him groping dancers and making disparaging comments about a woman in a Washington DC strip club.

Dickson said he was “deeply remorseful for my disrespectful comments towards women” and his wife was standing by him. “I found the footage difficult to watch as my words and actions under intoxication and in that environment, are not a true reflection of myself,” he said in a statement.

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One Nation and Port Arthur conspiracies: a long and dishonourable history

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Pauline Hanson publicly denies the 1996 massacre was a set-up, but the believers have consistently found a home in her party

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has been connected to supporters of the Port Arthur conspiracy theory since before the party was formed in 1997, despite repeated assurances from the Queensland senator that she had never believed the theory.

According to a Queensland political historian, it would take “a lot of good faith” to assume that Hanson has not been aware that those supporting the conspiracy theory had found safe harbour in One Nation over the past 20 years.

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Penny Wong warns racism and hate speech in parliament threaten democracy

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Labor senator says those who ‘see political or commercial advantage in heightening cynicism’ are diminishing civic life

Penny Wong will say that “racism is a threat to our democracy” in a speech taking aim at those who see “political or commercial advantage” in increased cynicism towards public institutions.

The Labor senator is set to warn that hate speech and extremist views in parliament and a “lack of unity in response to these” have harmed democracy, pointing the finger in part at the Coalition for its tardy response to condemn One Nation in the 45th parliament.

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Pauline Hanson suggests Port Arthur massacre was a government conspiracy

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One Nation leader tells al-Jazeera reporter there are ‘a lot of questions’ about 1996 attack

Pauline Hanson has implied that the 1996 Port Arthur massacre was a government conspiracy, in comments recorded secretly by al-Jazeera.

Hidden camera footage, released by al-Jazeera as part of the undercover operation that revealed One Nation had sought a US$20m (A$28m) donation from the US gun lobby, showed the party’s leader saying she had “a lot of questions” about Port Arthur.

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One Nation’s James Ashby filmed seeking $20m from NRA to weaken Australia’s gun laws

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Al-Jazeera journalist posing as gun campaigner films senior party figures in Washington DC soliciting financial support to help One Nation seize the balance of power

Senior One Nation figures James Ashby and Steve Dickson have been caught seeking millions of dollars of political donations from US gun rights group the National Rifle Association in a bid to seize the balance of power and weaken Australia’s gun laws.

The revelations are contained in an al-Jazeera investigation which used hidden cameras and a journalist posing as a grassroots gun campaigner to expose the far-right party’s extraordinary efforts to secure funding in Washington DC in September.

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Citizenship report puts national security reform on back burner – politics live

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Joint committee calls for further review of bill stripping terrorists of citizenship, as PM hands down Closing the Gap report and Coalition keeps up medical transfers scare campaign. All the day’s events, live

The attorney-general’s office released the transcript of his interview with Kieran Gilbert on Sky News this morning.

It includes this exchange between Christian Porter, as the first law officer and Gilbert:

Chris Bowen and Mark Butler have held a press conference to blast the government for dumping the big stick.

Labor doesn’t support this policy but the Bowen/Butler argument is the government did, and this is yet another energy policy that has now bitten the dust. The government says it will take the policy to the coming election, and seek a mandate.

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