Indigenous One Nation candidate Jason Quick disagrees with Pauline on cashless welfare

QUEENSLAND tradie Jason Quick is a One Nation candidate in the State Election. But there’s one thing he and Pauline Hanson don’t see eye-to-eye on.

One Nation, different policies.

PAULINE Hanson’s complicated relationship with Indigenous Australia has not dissuaded Jason Quick from joining her party.

The Queensland tradie, who is a Kabi Kabi Aboriginal man, has been unveiled as One Nation’s candidate for Redlands in the upcoming state election.

But it appears he does not see eye-to-eye with the party’s leader on a major issue affecting remote indigenous communities: cashless welfare cards.

A father-of-three who runs his own concreting business, Mr Quick grew up in Beaudesert “where he was raised to respect both land and community”, his One Nation profile says.

“Jason appreciates that many One Nation candidates are not career politicians,” it continues.

“They are real people who have varied backgrounds and diversity but share the same passion for this great country.”

One Nation candidate Jason Quick disagrees with Pauline Hanson on a major issue. Picture: Facebook

His campaign platform includes agitating on a diverse range of issues, from modern slavery to tradies not getting paid on time, opposition to the Safe Schools program and saving koalas from extinction.

Perhaps most controversial for the indigenous One Nation candidate, though, are his views on welfare quarantining.

Mr Quick has spoken out against the Coalition’s cashless welfare card, which quarantines 80 per cent of Centrelink payments for food and other essentials in order to limit spending on alcohol, gambling and drugs.

“Were [sic] Not Kids anymore- You know this is your money,” he wrote in a Facebook post on the topic. “The person you voted into government on behalf of you, the local Turnbul [sic] LNP ... member has it spent for you. Is it ‘Time to change’ and get control back into your hands.”

Mr Quick has also posted in favour of a treaty with indigenous people.

Senator Pauline Hanson has long called for a crackdown on Aboriginal welfare. Picture: Gary Ramage

These views are in stark contrast to those of Ms Hanson, who has long railed against what she calls the “Aboriginal industry”.

The outspoken Senator has called for a crackdown on indigenous welfare and supports income quarantining, which the Turnbull Government is expanding after trials in East Kimberley in Western Australia and Ceduna in South Australia.

She has called for cashless welfare to be rolled out across the country.

“It is actually working. Kids are going to school. They are eating decent meals, they’re buying good food for the table,” Ms Hanson told the Seven Network, slamming the “bleeding hearts” who opposed the approach.

While some community leaders have welcomed the cashless welfare card, saying it has helped curb problem drinking and other addictive behaviour, critics have labelled it a “white card” that symbolises the colonial power of the state and its “punitive intervention over someone’s life”.

Ms Hanson’s hard line attitude to indigenous welfare can be traced back to her maiden speech to the House of Representatives in 1996, when she accused the government of “encouraging separatism” by granting special benefits to Aboriginal people.

“The majority of Aboriginals do not want handouts because they realise that welfare is killing them,” she said at the time.

A PARTY DIVIDED

Only time will tell whether Ms Hanson and Mr Quick will be able to see past their differences on indigenous welfare.

One Nation’s Queensland team has already lost five candidates for the Queensland poll, the latest being former policeman Mark Ellis, who quit after receiving death threats over his controversial past.

Ms Hanson fell out with several Western Australian One Nation candidates in the lead-up to that state’s election in March, with one disgruntled former party member dubbing the senator a “Liberal puppet”.

“I am of the opinion that this party is more adherent to a dictatorship than an democratic organisation and lacks principles,” former One Nation candidate Margaret Dodd said at the time.

Mr Quick is running against former Liberal National Party MP Peter Dowling, best known for a 2013 incident in which he photographed his penis in a glass of red wine and sent it to his mistress.

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