Hanson questioned Port Arthur massacre

Pauline Hanson secretly filmed talking about massacre conspiracy theories | WATCH

Pauline Hanson has been secretly filmed talking about conspiracy theories behind the 1996 Port ­Arthur massacre, which led to John Howard introducing tougher gun laws in Australia.

The footage, to be aired in Australia­ tonight as part of the undercover investigation by Al Jazeera­, shows Senator Hanson and adviser James Ashby talking about the mass shooting.

“An MP said it would actually take a massacre in Tasmania to change the gun laws in Australia,” Senator Hanson said at a dinner last year in Queensland with Rodger Muller, who was pretending to be a gun rights advocate while working for the Al Jazeera investigation.

“Haven’t you heard that? Have a look at it. It was said on the floor of parliament. I’ve read a lot and I have read the book on it, Port ­Arthur. A lot of questions there.”

As far back as 2001, Senator Hanson said she did not support any conspiracy theories regarding the Port Arthur massacre or Martin Bryant, who gunned down 35 people at the historic site in April 1996. Mr Ashby, who claimed that Al Jazeera duped One Nation and has called for the release of all footage of their meetings, is filmed saying “that whole Septem­ber 11 thing, too” when the group brought up the senator’s comments about Port Arthur.

The footage was released yesterday as it also emerged that One Nation’s Queensland leader, Steve Dickson, told the Shooters Union of Australia in 2017 that he backed a review of gun laws to allow easier access to semi-automatic weapons.

Mr Dickson, who was secretly filmed by Al Jazeera soliciting for donations from the US National Rifle Association, also told the Australian group that he saw merit in allowing farmers to use silencers when targeting feral pests. The Shooters Union is an affiliate of the NRA and gave donations to One Nation candidates ahead of the November 2017 Queensland state election.

In the May 2017 video interview with Shooters Union president Graham Park, Mr Dickson, a former LNP government minister who only months earlier defected to One Nation, said the minor party would set up a committee to look at gun law changes. In the interview, broadcast on the shooters’ group website, Mr Dickson was asked if One Nation supported the “qualified return of some semi-automatic long arms under appropriate licensing and controls”. While ruling out any changes to the ban on automatic weapons, Mr Dickson said there was scope for changes to access to semi-automatic weapons — now only allowed for rural landholders as a last resort for a pest infestation.

“As far as semi-automatic weapons are concerned, they are for rural landowners and if the need be, as far as competition in the future of some kind where that can be utilized, that’s the sort of stuff we have to look at,’’ he said.

Mr Dickson later also said there could be an argument to allow farmers to use silencers when targeting feral pests.

Senator Hanson yesterday took to Twitter to say Al Jazeera should “not be targeting Australian political parties.”

“I was shocked & disgusted with the Al Jazeera hit piece. A Qatari government organisation should not be targeting Australian political parties.”