Pauline Hanson backs controversial adviser for the Senate
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson opens up on being cast into the cold in Canberra and the future of her controversial chief of staff, James Ashby.
Pauline Hanson has given the strongest signal yet that her controversial adviser, James Ashby, will succeed her if she retires early from the Senate.
In comments that will kick along speculation she is eyeing an exit, the 69-year-old One Nation leader told The Weekend Australian she was disillusioned and “fed up” after being cast into the political cold by the Labor government.
She had cut a dejected figure in the upper house, with other senators describing her as being uninterested and disengaged, until Thursday’s dramatic spat with Lidia Thorpe while the Greens defector detailed under parliamentary privilege allegations of being sexually harassed by expelled Liberal David Van.
But that won’t change the “dynamic” for Senator Hanson of being sidelined by Labor.
She complained in the interview that the government ignored One Nation – despite the logjam-breaking value of the two Senate votes she commands with colleague Malcolm Roberts – in favour of dealing with independent David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie. To pass legislation opposed by the Coalition, the government needs the Greens’ 11 votes plus two more from the crossbench.
Voicing her frustration, Senator Hanson said: “Why should I enjoy the dynamic when you’re not involved in it. Your vote means nothing … and they say I’m just not interested. Well, I’m frustrated, I’m fed up and they are a bunch of bloody hypocrites. They have no respect for the fact that I’m an elected member of that parliament. So, yes, I’m disgusted with the Labor Party in the way that they’re handling the Senate.”
Formerly influential One Nation figures such as party co-founder David Ettridge, who has joined a long line of one-time friends and colleagues to fall out with the fiery Queenslander, are convinced she intends to hand over to Mr Ashby during her current term. She will be 74 when this expires in 2028.
Despite avowing “I’m not going anywhere”, Senator Hanson would not commit to serving out the remaining five years.
“I will say this: I think James will make a fantastic senator,” she said. “I think he has got the people at heart, as I do, and I would never, ever hand over, particularly as a senator, to anyone unless I knew that they would carry on the work I have tried to do for the people of Queensland.”
Her 44-year-old chief of staff played down the endorsement, saying he was happy in his existing role and hadn’t discussed the possibility of entering parliament with either his partner or family.
Whether that would be possible when he is facing unmet legal bills of more than $4.5m from the sexual harassment action more than a decade ago against his then boss, House Speaker Peter Slipper, is open to question. Bankruptcy would disqualify him from taking up the casual Senate vacancy created by Senator Hanson’s departure. But Mr Ashby insisted: “There are no financial impedances should I ever choose to go down that path.”
Mr Ettridge, 78, was instrumental in setting up the first iteration of One Nation after Senator Hanson was elected to the House of Representatives in 1996, having been stripped of Liberal Party endorsement ahead of polling day over racially charged comments on Indigenous welfare.
When she lost her bid to be returned in 1998, the writing was on the wall. Mr Ettridge was jailed for electoral fraud alongside her, but the quashing of their convictions on appeal was not enough to save either One Nation or their friendship.
He said on Friday: “Pauline has been out of her depth since the party was formed and although she has always intended to do her best, she has in my opinion been overwhelmed by the pressures placed upon her … My guess is that Pauline has now grown tired and would rather be on Magnetic Island knitting jumpers for auction to recover lost party funds.”
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