Derryn Hinch and Pauline Hanson set for seats in Senate
CONTROVERSIAL media broadcaster Derryn Hinch and anti-immigration campaigner Pauline Hanson are hot tips to pick up a Senate spots when parliament returns next month.
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CONTROVERSIAL media broadcaster Derryn Hinch and anti-immigration campaigner Pauline Hanson are hot tips to pick up a Senate spots when parliament returns next month.
Mr Hinch, who has twice been jailed for contempt of court and three times convicted of breaching suppression orders, took his “Justice Bus” to booths in Collingwood, Richmond and Albert Park yesterday as he lobbied for votes.
Bolstered by his No.1 position on the ballot paper, Hinch was quietly confident last night.
Hinch tweeted at just after 10pm last time: “We’ve called it we are in.”
The 72-year-old booked a suite at the Sofitel last where he planned to watch the coverage with campaign staff before a string of media commitments this morning.
“When I get in, the first thing I want to do is get a Senate inquiry into the Family Court and child welfare agencies,” Mr Hinch said.
Hinch has campaigned on a populist tough-on-crime platform including sentencing, bail and parole reforms and a public register of sex offenders.
He said he would also lobby the government to introduce a national public register for convicted sex offenders, voluntary euthanasia and animal cruelty legislation, particularly against live animal exports.
Ms Hanson will return to Canberra two decades after first exploding on to the national scene.
She is set to claim a Senate spot in Queensland as her One Nation cleaned up almost 20 per cent of the primary vote in some lower house seats in the state. One Nation could win a second Queensland Senate seat, with little-known engineer Malcolm Roberts a chance to sit alongside Ms Hanson in the upper house.
Ms Hanson, who became a household name with her fierce anti-Asian and now anti-Muslim rhetoric, was first elected to federal parliament in 1996 and was defeated in 1998.
She said she had received a very good reaction nationally from voters who were fed up with the major parties.
“Having travelled around the country quite extensively, especially Queensland in the last month, there has been very strong on-ground support,” she said.
“I’m feeling very confident to pick up the seat.
“There’s a huge swing against the major political parties. People are fed up. They feel they’re not listened to.”
One Nation is also in the running for Senate seats in NSW, Western Australia and Victoria.
Jacqui Lambie, a former Palmer United Party senator, will hold her Tasmanian seat and could bring another candidate with her.
Mr Hinch will likely take the spot held by Motoring Enthusiast senator Ricky Muir, who is unlikely to be re-elected. The Victorian senator, who was only elected in 2013 with just over half of 1 per cent of the primary vote, conceded he would struggle to hold his seat.
He told the Sunday Herald Sun that he was he was proud of the work he had done over the past four years, but struggled to deal with “spin” in parliament.
“There is so much fear which is spread by certain lobby groups who have vested interest in removing firearms completely from the community,” he said.
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