Morrison must follow Howard’s lead on One Nation
On the brink of a federal election, the news that One Nation met with the NRA to seek funding has become a bombshell for all political parties. But the path ahead for the PM is clear, writes Dennis Atkins.
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Queensland Nationals MP Keith Pitt resorted to weasel words when he was quizzed about One Nation preferences earlier today.
Just hours after the extraordinary and sleazy dark money proposal by One Nation’s leadership to seek out millions of dollars from one of the biggest political lobby groups in the world, the American National Rifle Association, Pitt couldn’t bring himself to say he’d put Pauline Hanson’s party below Labor on how-to-vote card he’d issue for the expected May 11 election.
It was all hypothetical, he said. Who knew who was standing, he said. It would be decided by faceless men in LNP headquarters, he said.
RELATED: US gun lobby scandal engulfs One Nation
While he was playing linguistic gymnastics on One Nation, Pitt was happy to declare he’d put the Greens party last because they were “socialists and self-avowed communists” who wanted to wreck the economy.
Anne Jackson is the declared Greens candidate for Pitt’s electorate of Hinkler while One Nation intends to stand Damian Huxham.
We know Pitt will put Jackson last but he can’t bring himself to say Huxham will be second last.
Backing this up a bit, we need to look at what One Nation has been caught out doing. Qatari-based media outlet Al Jazeera ran a sting on Pauline Hanson’s top operatives — her chief of staff James Ashby and Queensland leader Steve Dickson — in the US last September.
The pair was recorded secretly meeting with a series of pro-gun lobbyists including the NRA during which secret donations of millions of dollars were sought with an implied promise One Nation would be in a better position to water down Australia’s signature tough gun laws.
This is extraordinary on many levels. The talks with the NRA and others were being conducted just before the Australian parliament banned foreign donations.
Hypocritically and laughably, One Nation backed that ban.
We move on from that to the role of Al Jazeera, an international broadcaster established in 1996 by the Qatari Government after the closure of the BBC’s Arabic service.
RELATED: Nationals Leader Bridget McKenzie slams One Nation
Al Jazeera trapped Ashby and Dickson in a sting having created a phony pro-gun lobby group Gun Rights Australia. This is a fine media tradition — seen best in the work of “undercover” journalist Mazher Mahmood who entrapped cricket teams and celebrities in wrong doing for his employer the UK’s Sun on Sunday.
One Nation, deeply embarrassed after being caught out trying to import US dark money politics to Australia, has turned reality on its head by accusing Al Jazeera of interfering in our electoral business.
This was after trying to get the NRA to interfere in our democracy. You couldn’t write a comedy club script better than this.
To show just how serious this might have been is seen in comments from Ashby today that if the NRA had handed over millions of dollars they would have taken it.
They’d have grabbed it with both hands — and it was all on the basis of using cash from the biggest gun lobby in the world to leverage One Nation candidates into our parliament.
This can’t be tolerated and if Pauline Hanson has any political common sense, she should show Dickson the door — he’s a Queensland political used-to-be who couldn’t get elected at the last state poll.
Now he’s been shown up as a desperate money grabber who treats voters in Queensland with contempt.
MORE FROM RENDEZVIEW: One Nation’s NRA move could cost Coalition dearly
The Al Jazeera sting is as awkward as it gets for Prime Minister Scott Morrison who put on his brave, “I’m not talking about that bit”, face in Brisbane during a break from Cabinet deliberations.
Morrison’s line was convenient and predictable. He said he wasn’t interested in doing deals on preferences with One Nation, he was about getting the primary votes of those who might be thinking about voting for Hanson and her colleagues.
This is fine as far as it goes but it doesn’t go very far. The fact is some LNP MPs in Queensland want to do deals on preferences with One Nation.
They want to pledge giving Senate preferences to PHON ahead of most other parties and independents in exchange for direct support in individual seats.
Morrison shrugs this question off, saying those decisions will be made after nominations close.
The Prime Minister does have an alternative way of approaching these things using John Howard as his role model. In June, 1998 Howard declared One Nation would be placed last on Liberal tickets, almost five months before the subsequent federal election, well in advance of nominations being called let alone closing in any seat.
Howard maintained that principled stand at the 2001 election when One Nation again presented as a serious electoral presence.
Queensland Nationals grandee, former Senator Ron Boswell, still counsels his colleagues to put One Nation last — or certainly far enough down to deny them any electoral oxygen.
It’s not that hard. It’s putting principle before politics. One Nation has been exposed playing footsie with the NRA to get money while wanting to water down our gun laws.
This makes the question a no-brainer. Put One Nation last or second last, no ifs, no buts.
Dennis Atkins is The Courier-Mail’s national affairs editor.
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