WA election: I didn’t sign up for a dictatorship, says Margaret Dodd

One Nation’s preference deal with the WA Liberals for the state election has drawn the ire of its most high-­profile candidate.

West Australian One Nation candidate and victims of crime advocate Margaret Dodd. Picture: Colin Murty

One Nation’s preference deal with the West Australian Liberals for the state election on March 11 has drawn the ire of its most high-­profile candidate, who has likened the party to a dictatorship.

Margaret Dodd is the outspoken advocate for victims of crime who has accused the West Australian Liberal Party of standing in the way of her push for a “no body, no parole” law to compel murderers to reveal the whereabouts of their victims.

The 60-year-old retired businesswoman is appalled by any deal with the Liberals and said she would make her own decision about who gets her preferences in the seat of Scarborough.

Yesterday Ms Dodd blasted One Nation for doing the deal without consulting candidates and revealed texts that she claimed came from a young staffer at One Nation’s Queensland’s headquarters ordering her not to speak to the elderly Perth couple who have been Ms Hanson’s longtime volunteers in Western Australia, Ron and Marye McLean.

The McLeans were Hanson loyalists when One Nation fell apart in Western Australia but they do not have a formal role in running the state’s new-look party, which is poised to seize the balance of power in the upper house next month.

“From this point forward, no candidates under any circumstances are to be in contact with Marye and Ron McLean, (former MP) Anthony Fels or any disendorsed candidate,” the text to Ms Dodd says.

“Ron and Marye have taken an active interest in encouraging ­disendorsed candidates to go to the media either with them or by themselves with the intention of discrediting the party.”

Ms Dodd alleged the texts came from a young staffer in ­Brisbane. “I have got grandkids older than him,” she said. “I don’t like being ordered around and told who I can speak to. I didn’t sign up for a dictatorship.”

Ms Dodd is the mother of ­murdered teenager Hayley Dodd and has previously appeared publicly with the state Labor Party to campaign for a law that would compel a convicted murderer to reveal the location of their victim.

She was in Perth yesterday to attend the brief court appearance of the man accused of murdering Hayley in 1999.

Hayley has never been found.

News of the deal between the West Australian Liberals and One Nation prompted media to revisit the social media posts of candidates who had pledged to put the Liberals last, such as Charles Smith, who wrote: “If you do not like the Liberals as I don’t, mark them last!”

Mr Smith said yesterday this did not conflict with the party’s preference deal with the Liberals, because One Nation encouraged voters to choose their own preferences if they wished.