Pauline Hanson uses dead policeman to deflect queries about dodgy donations to One Nation
PAULINE Hanson has urged the electoral watchdog to hurry up with its investigation and says she plans to take civil action over leaked telephone recordings.
NSW
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PAULINE Hanson has urged the electoral watchdog to hurry up with its investigation into allegations One Nation failed to properly disclose an aircraft.
That call has earned a rebuke from Labor, accusing her of “outrageous interference” in an independent investigation.
Senator Hanson insists the Jabiru aircraft - which bears One Nation signage and has been serviced at least once using party funds - had “nothing to do with the party”.
“I rang up the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission) today and said ‘Will you please come down with your findings so that this can be settled?” she told radio 2GB.
Victorian businessman Bill McNee, who also donated funds to rent the party’s Brisbane office, “got the plane for (her chief of staff) James Ashby”.
“The donation never came through the party - it’s not a donation,” Senator Hanson said, adding Mr Ashby paid the insurance and “everything on that”.
Senator Hanson said she planned to take civil court action in regard to the leaking of telephone conversations in which she laments the public outing of Mr McNee as a donor.
She also lashed out the the ABC for being “too far to the left” and the Ten Network, which she said did not like her opposing media reforms.
Labor senator Murray Watt, who has pursued the One Nation leader over electoral law irregularities, said Senator Hanson was trying to shut down a proper investigation by the AEC.
“After this week’s leaked recordings, Senator Hanson’s attempt to rush the AEC is more proof that she has something to hide,” he said.
“She should spend more time fighting for the battlers she says she represents and less time trying to look after herself.”
This comes as One Nation today threatened to vote against key budget measures unless the federal government slashes funding for the ABC.
One Nation’s Party whip Brian Burston says the party wants the public broadcaster’s allocation reduced by $600 million over four years.
“It’s about time we took a stand against the ABC because if it’s us and they destroy us, what is it next, the government?” Senator Burston said.
The ultimatum comes after the ABC broadcast a leaked recording in which One Nation leader Pauline Hanson appears to acknowledge a $106,000 Jabiru plane was donated by Victorian property developer Bill McNee.
The minor party would only consider supporting a planned hike in the Medicare levy designed to fully fund the national disability insurance scheme, because it didn’t want disabled Australians to be “held to ransom”.
When asked whether the government would be blackmailed by One Nation, Communications Minister told ABC radio, “We have a range of legislative measures before the parliament and we put them forward and ask our colleagues to consider those on their merits.”
Three-year funding for the ABC was established in the 2016 budget.
Labor senator Murray Watt, who has been pursuing One Nation over alleged electoral infringements, was scathing of the threat and demanded Senator Hanson make a full public statement.
“She can’t keep hiding from these questions forever,” he said.
An increasingly desperate Pauline Hanson today referenced the slaying of a Queensland policeman less than 24 hours after his fatal shooting.
The furious Queensland Senator refused to answer reporters’ questions yesterday about secret recordings that could create problems for her and other former senior One Nation officials.
Senator Hanson even referred to slain Queensland cop Brett Forte and the cold weather as she would not be drawn on increasingly serious claims over the origins of a light plane she used.
“I can’t believe that you would ask me some stupid question like that when I have had a gentleman shot dead in his electorate,” she said in Canberra yesterday.
“We have people homeless in the cold weather and you’re worried about that from some disgruntled people.”
The Australian Electoral Commission is investigating whether the Jabiru aircraft was donated by Victorian developer Bill McNee. Ms Hanson and her chief of staff James Ashby insist the plane is owned by Mr Ashby.
But in a taped conversation from November 20 last year Ms Hanson indicates to former party treasurer Ian Nelson that the aircraft was donated by Mr McNee.
“Who knows Bill’s name. No one. We always kept it very, very quiet,” Ms Hanson tells Mr Nelson in a secret recording handed to the AEC. In it she also appears to speculate that former party secretary Saraya Beric was responsible for leaks about the plane.
“Who knows that he paid the money upfront for the office ... It was the four of us that knew. It was tight-knit. I have to see what else she had said to them.
“I get pissed off, Ian, because people get the shits with me and then they go to the media and this turns to shit.”
Ms Beric has denied being the source of the leak.
That revelation has only added to Senator Hanson’s headaches, with the AFP, Queensland Police and the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission making inquiries into an earlier recording in which Mr Ashby raised a plan to cash in on the state elections at the expense of candidates. Mr Ashby says the plan was never enacted, and Ms Hanson has insisted the party has disclosed all required donations.
Mr Ashby maintains the Jabiru, which was used by Senator Hanson during the 2016 federal election, was his and wasn’t donated to the party by Mr McNee.
Trade Minister Steve Ciobo said the latest tape would likely be added to the donation laws investigation.
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