One Nation against Colin Barnett’s $11bn power sale plan

Pauline Hanson has ruled out negotiating over the partial sale of Western Australia’s electricity poles and wires.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has a picture taken with a member of the public while campaigning in Mandurah, south of Perth.

Pauline Hanson has emphatically ruled out negotiations with a re-elected Barnett government over the part sale of Western Australia’s electricity poles and wires, the Liberal Party’s key election platform, as it seeks to cling to power on Saturday.

The first day of Senator Hanson’s six-day election campaign blitz was dominated by questions about her party’s preference swap with the Liberals, and whether that meant there could be post-election talks with a Liberal-Nationals government on selling 51 per cent of the state-owned ­utility.

The last West Australian Newspoll published by The Australian last month found that One Nation’s primary vote was at 13 per cent, enough to seize the balance of power in the state’s upper house.

Senator Hanson yesterday predicted the party could also hold the balance in the lower house, saying it may win three of the 59 Legislative Assembly seats.

“We are not going to be the (WA) government, we know that,” she said. “I think I’ve shown by my work in the federal parliament that I can work with government.”

While state party leader Colin Tincknell has said One Nation would work with whomever won a mandate, Senator Hanson said a partial sale of Western Power was not ­negotiable for her party.

Labor opposes the sale but the Liberals have pledged to sell 51 per cent to superannuation funds and “mum and dad investors” to raise an estimated $11 billion — $8bn to pay down debt and $3bn for infrastructure spending.

This is crucial to the Liberals’ plan to reduce state debt, which is set to exceed $40bn.

“I cannot agree to the sale of our assets,” said Senator Hanson, who is concentrating in the final week of campaigning on Perth’s fringes and regional centres.

Yesterday she received a hero’s welcome in Mandurah, an hour’s drive south of Perth. The seaside city of 84,000 people has been represented by Labor’s David Templeman since 2001. Federally, much of Mandurah is covered by the seat of Canning, held by Liberal MP Andrew Hastie.

Hanson supporters were a varied bunch yesterday, and included octogenarians Athol and Frances Chester, loyalists since her first maiden speech in 1996. Mr Chester, 88, collected his wife, 87, from her aged-care facility for a brief audience with Senator Hanson in the couple’s Mandurah lounge room. The senator called on them to thank them for their support, which included a series of One Nation posters on their front lawn.

“We’ve always thought she was wonderful,” Mrs Chester said.

Her husband said they became Hanson fans after seeing a 1996 news report that people had thrown rocks at her. “We sent her $100 right away,” he said.

Later in Rockingham, Senator Hanson’s welcoming party included Jason Davies who said he was president of the Australian Patriots Group which he described as anti-Islam and pro-gay ­marriage.