Pauline Hanson’s right-hand man James Ashby suggested apparent plan to make money off One Nation candidates at state election

AN explosive recording reveals Pauline Hanson’s chief-of-staff suggested ways the party could turn the Queensland election into a profitable exercise. But James Ashby claims he was simply “brainstorming” and vows to contact police over being “recorded illegally”.

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PAULINE Hanson’s right-hand man James Ashby suggested an apparent plan to turn the looming Queensland election into a cash cow for the party by duping candidates and the state’s Electoral Commission, an explosive recording reveals.

The recording, heard by The Courier-Mail, reveals a conversation understood to have taken place late last year during a meeting at which Senator Hanson was also present.

During that conversation Mr Ashby — Senator Hanson’s chief-of-staff — tells the meeting how he thinks they could make money out of the state election including by selling items purchased for the campaign to candidates at inflated prices.

“There is an opportunity for us to make some money on this if we play this smart,” Mr Ashby can be heard telling the meeting.

“I will deny I ever said this but what stops us from getting a middle man or gracing … I am happy to grace in cash, double the price of whatever it is.

“We say to the candidates we will fund 50 per cent of this package. So the package might be $5000. You’re going to pay $2500 and we’ll pay the other $2500 of the $5000.

“The other $2500 is the profit. It’s the fat. And I’ll write it off. I don’t want the cash for it. I will make it as a tax deduction or …”

Mr Ashby is then asked: “where are we making money”.

He responds: “Because when you lodge the receipt at the full price with the Electoral Commission of Queensland you get back the full amount that’s been issued to you as an invoice.”

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and James Ashby. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Mr Ashby yesterday denied any suggestion he was putting forward such a plan when contacted by The Courier-Mail for comment.

“That’s not what the party does and prices are reflective in the invoices paid by the party and candidates. To suggest otherwise is false,” he said.

Senator Hanson can be heard in the tapes asking how much candidates would be expected to outlay.

“They (candidates) are going to get this back. They will get it back anyway,” Senator Hanson says.

“They have got to put something forward. They have got to take a hit for this as well.”

Mr Ashby then chimes in again.

“We should be selling them (the candidates) these packs … because you make money and they make money. “Well, they don’t make any money but you make the money.”

Senator Hanson later says: “Just look at it (sic) what is the best financial outlook for us, all right, at the end of the day.”

Mr Ashby says: “Well, we don’t need a middle man. We can make money out of this. We buy the corflutes for $5. We sell them to them for $11.”

When challenged on whether the party should profit in such a way, Mr Ashby responds.

“Yes we can. That’s what the Liberal Party do.”

At no point during the meeting does anyone agree to enact the plan and The Courier-Mail is not suggesting anyone in the room engaged in wrongdoing.

Knowingly providing misleading or false invoices to the ECQ could constitute an offence under both the state’s Criminal Code and the Electoral Act with the penalties ranging from fines to jail time.

Several weeks after the recorded conversation, obtained by The Courier-Mail, took place, One Nation asked its Queensland candidates to part with $3500 for a printing pack, including corflutes and other items.

The Australian Electoral Commission is currently probing the party’s returns, including its use of a Jabiru plane amid allegations its use was not declared.

Key Federal crossbench senator, Derryn Hinch, the first politician to comment on the James Ashby recording, has labelled as “shocking” claims Pauline Hanson’s chief-of-staff said he could make money out of the Queensland state election.

“This is unconscionable behaviour, you can’t do it,” senator Derryn Hinch told the Seven Network after hearing a recording of the meeting.

The Premier said she believed the claims should be thoroughly investigated.

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad described the revelations contained in the recording as startling and believed any potential breaches of the state’s electoral laws should be probed.

“I think these revelations are very startling and I think that Queenslanders should take notice of them,” Ms Trad said.

“If there are issues there in relation to whether or not electoral laws are being circumvented or that they are being used in a way that they were not intended to be used then absolutely I think that should be looked at.”

James Ashby took to ABC local radio this morning to defend what he had said in the meeting.

He denied trying to rort taxpayers and said the discussion was simply “brainstorming”.

“No at no point have we ever intended to deceive the electoral commission,” he told ABC radio.

“This was simply never implemented.

“It was a poor choice of words. I’ll be the first person to admit that.”

Mr Ashby claimed the recording was illegal.

“We were never aware that these conversations were being recorded,” he said.

“We have had this stench of blackmail hanging over our heads for almost 12 months from a disgruntled employee that didn’t get a job in a Senator’s office.

“The only thing that we were looking at doing was recouping some of the expenses associated with running that campaign.”

“We have never done that. What we have always done is the right thing by our candidates ...”

“The simple reality of it is we have never made money out of candidates. Candidates have never ever been charge any more than the $3500 package.

“There is no way of profiteering off an election.

“These were brainstorming sessions that quite obviously never came to fruition.

Mr Ashby defended Senator Hanson insisting she did not agree to anything during the meeting.

One Nation’s Queensland leader Steve Dickson also defended Mr Ashby, describing the meeting as an “ideas meeting”.

He then described the recording and the story as “fake news”.

“James is a very, very straight forward sort of guy,” he said on ABC radio.

“What I did here is that there was an ideas meeting on.

“I have been at plenty of ideas meetings with lots and lots of different people … you get good ideas and you get stupid ideas.”

Mr Ashby has vowed to contact police over a secret recording in which he appeared to discuss possible ways One Nation could profit from the upcoming Queensland election, Mr Ashby has admitted to a “poor choice of words” during the brainstorming talks, which were recorded some time last year.

“They were quite clearly secret recordings, it captured some off-guard comments, there’s only one thing I regret and that’s a poor choice of words,” he told AAP.

He claimed the conversation had been recorded illegally by a disaffected staff member and said the party would refer the matter to police.

“This almost has a flavour of blackmail, which has been used over the last 12 months,’ he said.

“We’ll refer the matter on to police.”

Shadow Treasurer Scott Emerson said Mr Ashby had serious questions to answer about whether he was planning to defraud the Queensland Electoral Commission.

“What I am concerned about is that it appears as if One Nation is considering ripping off Queenslanders,” he said.

“That tape was very concerning today.

“I firmly back an investigation into these very serious allegations.”

Mr Emerson also strongly criticised state One Nation leader Steve Dickson after he dismissed the recording as “fake news”.

“The fact that he’s trying to dismiss these concerns just shows that he’s not fit for public office,” Mr Emerson said.

Senator Murray Watt will write to state and Federal police to investigate allegations that Pauline Hanson’s chief adviser James Ashby proposed to turn the Queensland election into a cash cow for One Nation.

A recording heard by The Courier-Mail reveals Mr Ashby raised the idea of selling items purchased for the campaign to candidates at inflated prices and claiming the full cost back from the electoral commission.

Senator Watt said he would write to the Electoral Commission of Queensland, Queensland Police and Australian Federal Police to ask them to investigate the allegations.

He said there appeared to be a discussion about “rorting the rules around public funding of election campaigns and election materials”.

“These claims need to be thoroughly investigated,” he said.

“These are very serious allegations which need to be treated that way and need to be properly investigated by police forces.

“All Australian voters and all taxpayers, even people who support Pauline Hanson, want to make sure taxpayer funds are not being abused by political parties.”

He said he was not referring any specific individual to police, just the allegations in general.

“Between the printing contracts, the plane and this apparent attempt to rip off taxpayers what we’re seeing is that Pauline Hanson and James Ashby are in this to benefit themselves,” he said.