Al Jazeera TV sting makes chumps of Hanson pair

One Nation Queensland leader Steve Dickson has been caught on tape describing some immigrants as ‘really dangerous’.

Steve Dickson caught on tape for the Al Jazeera sting. Picture: Al Jazeera

One Nation Queensland leader Steve Dickson has been caught on tape describing some immigrants as “really dangerous’’ and lamenting that “we are importing all these Muslims into Australia’’.

The comments were made during a trip to Washington DC where Mr Dickson and Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby, solicited for foreign donations to soften Australia’s gun laws.

Attending a Congressional Sportsman’s Foundation dinner, Mr Dickson was recorded as saying of immigrants to Australia: “They’re just breaking into people­’s homes with baseball bats and killing people.

“Basically stealing everything they own. Gangs.’’

He laments that in Australia “we’re not even allowed to own guns for self-protection for women’’. He also says Australia is in chaos.

Al Jazeera journalist Peter Charley spent three years investig­ating the pro-gun lobby in America with Rodger Muller, the public face of a fake organisation, Gun Rights Australia.

The result aired on ABC TV last night showed Mr Ashby and Mr Dickson trying to solicit millions­ of dollars­ in donations from the US National Rifle Assoc­iation and billionaire conservative powerbrokers the Koch family.

Mr Muller, who secretly recorde­d hundreds of hours of footage, ingratiated himself with Mr Ashby by telling him about contacts he had within the NRA.

At the same function in Washington, Mr Ashby said the party could get the balance of power in the lower house with a donation of $2 million.

With $20m, the party would own both the lower and upper houses, while $10m would produc­e eight Senate seats.

Mr Ashby described the Greens as “f..ktards’’ and “Democrats on steroids”, while Mr Dickson­ said “we are going to kill them’’. Yesterday he clarified that he meant “stop”.

James Ashby talks about how the party would use funds. Picture: Al Jazeera

Both Mr Dickson and Mr Ashby appeared to be concerned about the political impact of their trip to seek funds becoming public­. Mr Dickson said if it got out that One Nation had been talking to the NRA, “it’ll f..king rock the boat’’.

Mr Ashby said: “This shit goes through my head every single minute of the day.’’

On another recording, Mr Dickson advocated for the softening of gun laws in Australia. Mr Ashby then says “you bury (the legislation)” in other laws which people would support.

Mr Muller also runs a dog food business in Shoalhaven Heads, NSW. But three years ago he began to set up the political sting of a lifetime for the Arab news ­network Al Jazeera, ingratiati­ng himself with the American gun lobby and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party.

In the program, Mr Ashby speculates on what the party could do if it got enough money.

“If we get to the point where we can talk about figures, what sort of numbers are you guys thinking?” Mr Muller says at one point, throwing out the bait during a three-hour drinking session with Mr Ashby and Mr Dickson.

“I’m thinking 10,” Mr Dickson ­replies, counting in the millions of dollars as he swallowed the hook along with a pricey Scotch whisky.

“No, I was thinking 20,” Mr Ashby chimes in. The One Nation duo yesterday complained angrily that they had been set up by Mr Muller. They also ­accused the Qatar-based cable service of falsely alleging One Nation had been willing to sabotage Australia’s tight gun laws in return for the American cash.

Mr Ashby said One Nation had made complaints to the Aust­ralian Federal Police and domestic­ security agency ASIO that state-owned Al Jazeera had breached new laws against foreign interference in Australian politics.

Evidently, the hardnosed US gun lobby was fooled as comprehensively as One Nation was by Mr Muller, who marketed cigars ­before opening his dog food business, Man’s Best, on the NSW south coast.

One Nation pair Steve Dickson, left, and James Ashby field questions during a press conference in Brisbane yesterday. Picture: AAP

Writing on the Al Jazeera website yesterday, he said his “double life” as an undercover operative began when he was approached in 2015 by the executive producer of Al Jazeera’s investigative unit in Washington, Mr Charley, who had run across him while working in Australia for the ABC.

As part of his “training”, Mr Muller was flown to London to be taught how to conduct himself undercover and to use hidden cameras; having never handled a gun, he received­ training in shooting and weapon safety.

After attending the 2016 NRA convention in Louisville­, Kentucky, he was welcomed­ into the fabled gun group’s inner sanctum.

Mr Muller made his approach to Mr Ashby on May 5 last year at a function to launch One Nation’s NSW election team in Sydney — by his account, trumpeting his NRA connections through the sham org­anisation, Gun Rights Australia. “At that point, I had no interest in that sort of stuff. I had no idea what the guy was about, I have no interest in guns, I don’t deal in guns,” Mr Ashby recalled yesterday.

Instead, he referred Mr Muller to Mr Dickson in Queensland, who had written the party’s gun policy. They met for lunch in Mr Dickson’s Sunshine Coast hometown and bonded over beers at the Buderim Tavern. “He seemed to be a very reasonable guy, wore the Akubra hat,” the One Nation man said. “I never, ever, ever suspected in my wildest dreams this guy was employe­d by a Middle Eastern country, by Al Jazeera, as an ­Australian spy to interfere in Aust­ralian politics.”

Mr Muller subsequently suggeste­d to Mr Ashby that the pair accompany him to the Congression­al Sportsmen’s Foundation ball in Washington on Septembe­r 11, a red-letter night for the US gun lobby. He also asked that they bring Senator Hanson, promising a speaking slot for her.

Mr Ashby said he replied: “Rodger, that’s nice of you, mate. But Pauline has been out of the country enough, she’s not going to the United States.”

Mr Ashby said One Nation paid his way and that of Mr Dickson to the US capital but they picked up their own expenses, including­ the $US600 cost of their first night “on the sauce” with Mr Muller.

An abashed Mr Dickson admit­ted yesterday he was wrong to repeatedly use the term “kill” — in reference to stopping a deal, not gun use, he insisted. “I don’t apologise too often in my life,” he told The Australian. “But I absolutely, categorically apologise and I mean that sincerely. I don’t talk like that in the public arena.

“Yes, I had a few drinks with Mr Muller … and that’s where that video footage was taken … he must have been mic’d up.”

Mr Ashby said it had been made clear to Mr Muller that One Nation would not back relaxation of the ban on semi-automatic guns in Australia.

Both demanded Al Jazeera release­ the raw footage captured by Mr Muller plus an interview he taped with Senator Hanson in January. But Al Jazeera’s director of investigative journalism Phil Rees said giving up unedited content­ posed issues of legality, source protection and privacy.