We were ‘on the sauce’ for gun lobby talks: Ashby

Pauline Hanson’s right-hand man claims he was ‘on the sauce’ when he said he wanted up to $20m from the US gun lobby.

One Nation's James Ashby. Picture: Annette Dew

Pauline Hanson’s right-hand man claims he was “on the sauce” when he was caught on tape saying he wanted to obtain up to $20 million in donations from the US gun lobby.

Senator Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby and One Nation’s Queensland state leader Steve Dickson fronted cameras in Brisbane­ yesterday after Scott Morrison accused the minor party of trying to “sell Australia’s gun laws to the highest bidders’’.

But both Mr Ashby and Mr Dickson said they never wanted donations from the National Rifle Association and had been drinking scotches for “three or four hours” when they proclaimed a desire for their donations.

“This was not about sourcing money from the NRA. This was about sourcing technology,” Mr Ashby said today. “Sourcing an understanding of how they operate­, but never was it about seeking $20m from the NRA.

“And the conversations that have been recorded where (there) is a talk of $10-20m, I will be the first to admit, we’d arrived in America, we got on the sauce, we’d had a few drinks and that’s where those discussions took place.”

An Al Jazeera investigation has filmed Mr Ashby and Mr Dickson in both America and Australia plotting to use the NRA to boost their donations and water down gun laws.

Mr Ashby — who today claimed Senator Hanson said she would never have accepted any donation — accused Al Jazeera of being a “spy organisation”.

“This is the very first time Aust­ralia has witnessed political interference from a foreign govern­ment,’’ he said about the news organisation owned by the governme­nt of Qatar.

After the Al Jazeera program was aired overnight, the Prime Minister urged Australians not to vote for One Nation, labelling the party “abhorrent”.

The slap-down from Mr Morrison­ came amid growing fractures within the Coalition over preferences.

Outgoing cabinet minister Kelly O’Dwyer and former foreign­ minister Julie Bishop have said there was no reason why One Nation should be placed ahead of Labor and the Greens on Liberal how-to-vote cards.

Mr Morrison played down the internal divide yesterday, saying a decision on preferences could not be made until nominations had closed.

He said the Coalition was focused­ on winning over One Nation­’s supporters rather than winning its preferences, arguing that it was “not a party of government” capable of delivering a stronger economy.

“I‘m not interested in getting One Nation’s preferences, I’m interested in getting their primary vote,” Mr Morrison said.

“I separate One Nation voters from the One Nation party.”