Des Houghton: Why David Crisafulli owes Pauline Hanson a thank you

David Crisafulli has been called out for failing to recognise a telling contribution.

Pauline Hanson says David Crisafulli owes her a thank you.

Pauline Hanson has issued a blunt warning to David Crisafulli not to take her party’s support for granted.

She said One Nation put Crisafulli in power in last year’s election by gifting him 11 seats the LNP would not have won without her party’s preferences.

And she may very well switch allegiances.

Hanson said Crisafulli was rude not to thank her for giving him a red carpet ride to power.

“He didn’t even call,” said.

Australia’s great political survivor spoke to me with a hint of anger in her voice – and with pain while recovering from an agonising abscess under a cracked tooth.

“I tend to clench my jaws together when I am doing heavy work and stuff,” she said.

She revealed other hurts. She still suffers the emotional whiplash from the parodies by Pauline Pantsdown, the drag queen performer who taunted her for a decade.

Hanson said Pantsdown ridiculed her and mimicked her by wearing an identical copy of her favourite yellow-skirt-with-black-top outfit. That hurt.

“He carried on like an absolute galah,” she said.

“He used to mock me and say he had the right to do so because it was freedom of speech,” she said.

“He is still making derogatory comments. In my opinion he is a horrible person.”

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. Picture: Supplied

In a rambling interview she also spoke of her deep sense of achievement in winning two more Senate seats.

She expects big things from her new NSW senator Warwick Stacey, a former troop commander with the SAS in the British Army, and later a hostage negotiator. He is a defence expert, she said.

Her other new senator is Tyron Whitten, a “gentle giant” from Western Australia. He is a former concrete tycoon with a deep knowledge of the resources and renewable energy sectors in which he worked.

They join Hanson, who was re-elected in 2022 and is part-way through her six-year term, and the other One Nation incumbent, Senator Malcolm Roberts, a climate change sceptic.

Her quad squad is a formidable pack. They will come out all guns blazing.

Hanson said she trusted her gut when formulating her policies. Other parties relied on opinion polls.

Should David Crisafulli give thanks to Pauline? Picture, John Gass

She said One Nation led the way on issues like immigration (too much) and housing (too little). Other parties have now followed her lead on Net Zero and the climate change “scam”.

Hanson says federal Labor has no mandate for radical change because it got less than 35 per cent of the vote at the election.

And she has little time for most Coalition MPs: “They’re sitting around like lame ducks, licking their wounds and showing no fight whatsoever”.

Hanson said Coalitionists like David Littleproud and James McGrath suck up to her to get One Nation preferences “even though they hate my guts”.

“They would rather see the back end of me, I can tell you. They are waiting for me to drop off my perch,” she said.

She will see out this term and contest the next election, “so long as I have the passion and the health to carry on”.

“Bob Katter is still there at 79. I don’t want to be around for that bloody long, I can tell you,” she said.

She said her views used to be considered radical; now they are mainstream.

“I’ve copped a lot over the years. People have targeted me because of my comments,” she said.

“Yes, I’m out there, but if you look back at what I’ve said over the years there is nothing I’ve said that is racist.

One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“To be racist is to believe that one race is superior to another, which I have never done.

“What I have done is question the volume of immigration and I have been proved right. I was the only one criticising multiculturalism. Now leaders around the world, and John Howard, have said it hasn’t worked.”

She despises university elites who pretend they attract foreign students for noble learning reasons.

“They are not coming here for an education. That is a load of bunkum. They are only coming here to get a back door into the country,” she said.

Now Hanson is reaching for her chainsaw. The gully at her Scenic Rim property is overgrown. She will cut through.

“I’ve just turned 71, but I’m still up for it,” she said.

IRRITANT OF THE WEEK

Penny Wong. Our Foreign Minister is upsetting out traditional allies by sucking up to Palestine.

Originally published as Des Houghton: Why David Crisafulli owes Pauline Hanson a thank you