Pauline Hanson

Pauline Lee Hanson,

Pauline Lee Hanson (nee Seccombe; born 27 May 1954) is an Australian politician and former leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, a political party with a populist and anti-immigration platform. In 2006, she was named by The Bulletin as one of the 100 most influential Australians of all time,.

Pauline Hanson
Member of the Australian Parliament for Oxley
In office 2 March 1996 – 3 October 1998
Preceded by	Les Scott
Succeeded by	Bernie Ripoll
Born	27 May 1954 (age 56) Brisbane, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Liberal (1994-96) Independent (1996-97, 2003-07) One Nation (1997-2003) Pauline's United Australia Party (2007-2010)
Profession	Businesswoman, politician

Pauline Hanson Early life,

Hanson was raised in Woolloongabba, an inner city suburb of Brisbane. Her grandfather was an immigrant from England in 1908. Her father owned a take-away fish and chip shop. Hanson left school at the age of fifteen after completing Year 10 and worked in a variety of unskilled clerical and service jobs. She accumulated several rental properties, becoming independently wealthy. She married twice and has four children. In her early political career, she was famous for having owned a fish and chips shop in Ipswich, a city near Brisbane,.

Pauline Hanson Political background,

Hanson was an independent local councillor in the City of Ipswich from 1994 until an early election due to administrative changes in 1995. Narrowly losing her seat, she joined the Liberal Party of Australia and was endorsed as the Liberal Party's candidate for the House of Representatives electorate of Oxley (based in Ipswich) for the March 1996 Federal election. At the time, Oxley was the safest Labor seat in Queensland.

Just prior to the election, Hanson made comments to The Queensland Times - a daily newspaper in Ipswich - advocating the abolition of special government assistance for Aborigines above what was available for other Australians. These comments led to her disendorsement by the Liberal Party during the campaign. However, ballot papers had already been printed listing Hanson as the Liberal candidate, and the Australian Electoral Commission had closed nominations for the seat. As a result, Hanson was still listed as the Liberal candidate when votes were cast.

Hanson subsequently won the election easily, with 54 percent of preferences going to the coalition. Due to her disendorsement, she was not allowed to sit with the Liberals, instead sitting as an independent,.

Pauline Hanson Maiden speech,

On 10 September 1996 Hanson gave her first speech to the House of Representatives, which was widely reported in the media Australia-wide. In her opening lines, Hanson positioned herself "not as a polished politician but as a woman who has had her fair share of life's knocks", and with views based on "commonsense, and my experience as a mother of four children, as a sole parent, and as a businesswoman running a fish and chip shop. I won the seat of Oxley largely on an issue that has resulted in me being called a racist. That issue related to my comment that Aboriginals received more benefits than non-Aboriginals." Hanson then asserted that "mainstream Australians" were subject to "a type of reverse racism ... by those who promote political correctness and those who control the various taxpayer funded 'industries' that flourish in our society servicing Aboriginals, multiculturalists and a host of other minority groups". This theme continued with the assertion that "present governments are encouraging separatism in Australia by providing opportunities, land, moneys and facilities available only to Aboriginals". Among a series of criticisms of Aboriginal land rights, access to welfare and reconciliation, Hanson criticised the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, saying "Anyone with a criminal record can, and does, hold a position with ATSIC". There then followed a short series of statements on family breakdown, youth unemployment, international debt, the Family Law Act, child support, and the privatisation of Qantas and other national enterprises.

The major issue in her speech was an attack on immigration and the Federal Government policy of multiculturalism:

“ Immigration and multiculturalism are issues that this government is trying to address, but for far too long ordinary Australians have been kept out of any debate by the major parties. I and most Australians want our immigration policy radically reviewed and that of multiculturalism abolished. I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians. Between 1984 and 1995, 40 per cent of all migrants coming into this country were of Asian origin. They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate. Of course, I will be called racist but, if I can invite whom I want into my home, then I should have the right to have a say in who comes into my country. A truly multicultural country can never be strong or united. The world is full of failed and tragic examples, ranging from Ireland to Bosnia to Africa and, closer to home, Papua New Guinea. America and Great Britain are currently paying the price. Arthur Calwell was a great Australian and Labor leader, and it is a pity that there are not men of his stature sitting on the opposition benches today. Arthur Calwell said: Japan, India, Burma, Ceylon and every new African nation are fiercely anti-white and anti one another. Do we want or need any of these people here? I am one red-blooded Australian who says no and who speaks for 90% of Australians. I have no hesitation in echoing the words of Arthur Calwell. ”

Additionally, Hanson advocated the return of high-tariff protectionism and decried many aspects of economic rationalism.

As a result of her controversial maiden speech, Hanson was briefly catapulted to the forefront of Australian politics, with the Australian population divided on whether Hanson was honest and plain-spoken, a far-right nativist, or misinformed, uneducated and a racist. Some of Hanson's critics also derided what they saw as her inarticulate style—the very trait that her supporters took to be evidence of her credentials as a speaker 'for the people'. On 13 October 1996, asked by Tracey Curro on 60 Minutes if she was xenophobic, she replied "Please explain?", which has since become an oft-parodied catch phrase within Australian culture.

The reaction of the mainstream political parties was overwhelmingly negative, with parliament passing a resolution (supported by all members except Graeme Campbell) condemning her views on immigration and multiculturalism. However, the Prime Minister at the time, John Howard refused to censure Hanson or speak critically about her, acknowledging that her views were shared by many Australians, commenting that he saw the expression of such views as evidence that the 'pall of political correctness' had been lifted in Australia,.

Pauline Hanson Allegations of racism,

Despite repeated denials of the racism charge by Hanson, the public discussion of whether or not Hanson's views were racist quickly became the topic of academic interest in Australia. For example, at the 1997 annual conference of the Australian and New Zealand Communications Association (ANZCA) at La Trobe University, a paper was presented with the title 'Phenomena and Epiphenomena: is Pauline Hanson racist?'.In 1998, Keith Suter argued that Hanson's views were better understood as an angry response to globalisation.By August 1998 perceptions in Asia of Hanson's popularity being related to racism were affecting international relations and prompted Alexander Downer, Minister for Foreign Affairs under John Howard to issue a media release calling on Pauline Hanson, David Oldfield and David Ettridge to "disassociate themselves from the racist slurs being promoted in the Asian media by people claiming to be their closest supporters". In 2000, the University of NSW Press published the book Race, Colour and Identity in Australia and New Zealand, which identified Hanson as a central figure in the 'racism debate' in Australia of the 1990s, noting that senior Australian academics such as Jon Stratton, Ghassan Hage and Andrew Jakubowicz had explored Hanson's significance in an international as well as national context.

In 2004, Hanson appeared on the nationally televised ABC interview show Enough Rope. Archival footage from a 60 Minutes program shot on the streets of Ipswich was used to introduce claims about racism and bigotry in Hanson's views. Hanson challenged interviewer Andrew Denton to show her things that she'd said that were racist. Denton instead responded with an example of an abusive letter sent to an Asian girl after Hanson's speeches. Hanson was then challenged with derogatory comments about Aboriginals made by her "fellow travellers". Hanson distanced herself from the comments,.

Pauline Hanson One Nation,

On the back of her relatively small but loyal supporter base, in April 1997 she founded Pauline Hanson's One Nation with her senior advisor David Oldfield and professional fundraiser David Ettridge. Many of her branch formation meetings and political rallies across Australia in the next two years would attract protests, occasionally spilling over to violence between Hanson supporters and protestors.

The peak of Hanson's success occurred in June 1998, when One Nation attracted nearly one-quarter of the vote in that month's State elections in Queensland, and One Nation won 11 out of 89 seats in the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

During this period, a host of new right-wing parties emerged in virtually every state in the country, running on platforms which were equally anti-elitist but not entirely as populist as One Nation. Australia First, led by Graeme Campbell, began building considerable support in Newcastle and the southern suburbs of Sydney. The United Australia Party, led by Ellis Wayland, fielded candidates in the 1997 state election in South Australia; the Australian Reform Party, led by the gun lobbyist Ted Drane, was active in rural Victoria and New South Wales; The Australians, led by Tony Pitt, formed out of the defunct Confederate Action Party in Queensland; and Tasmania First fielded candidates in the 1998 state election.

"Death" video

In November 1997 Hanson, under suggestion from Oldfield, recorded a video which was to be screened to One Nation members and supporters in the event of her assassination, following claims that she and her daughter had received anonymous death threats. The 12-minute tape started off with the following message:

“ Fellow Australians, if you are seeing me now, it means I have been murdered. Do not let my passing distract you for even a moment ”

and then urged that

“ For the sake of our children and our children's children, you must fight on. Do not let my passing distract you for one moment. We must go forward together as Australians. 

Our country is at stake ”

Pauline Hanson Declining popularity,

In 1999, The Australian reported that support for One Nation had fallen from 22 to 5 percent. One Nation Senate candidate Lenny Spencer blamed the press together with party director David Oldfield for the October 1998 election defeat,while the media reported the redirecting of preferences away from One Nation as the primary reason, with a lack of party unity, poor policy choices and an "inability to work with the media" also responsible.

Hanson lost her seat in Parliament after an electoral redistribution split Oxley before the 1998 election. She contested the neighbouring Division of Blair and won 36% of the primary vote, slightly over 10% more than her nearest rival. However, preferences were enough to elect the Liberal Party candidate, Cameron Thompson. Nationally, One Nation gained 8.99% of the Senate vot, and 8.4% of the Representatives vote, but only one MP was elected - Len Harris as a Senator for Queensland. Heather Hill had originally been elected to this position, but the High Court of Australia ruled that, although she was an Australian citizen, she was ineligible for election to sit as a Senator since she had not renounced her British citizenship, which the Court assumed she possessed because she had been born in Britain. Hanson alleged in her 2007 autobiography Pauline Hanson: Untamed & Unashamed that a number of other politicians had dual citizenship yet this did not prevent them from holding positions in Parliament.

At the next Federal election on 10 November 2001, Hanson ran for a Queensland Senate seat but narrowly failed. She has accounted for her declining popularity by blaming Prime Minister John Howard for stealing her policies.

"It has been widely recognised by all, including the media, that John Howard sailed home on One Nation policies. In short, if we were not around, John Howard would not have made the decisions he did."

Other interrelated factors that have contributed to her downfall include her connection with a series of advisors (John Pasquarelli, David Ettridge and David Oldfield), all of whom she has fallen out with; disputes amongst her supporters and a lawsuit over the organisational structure of One Nation.

Hanson claimed in 2003 to have been vilified over campaign funding.

In 2003 she left Queensland, moved to Sylvania Waters, Sydney in New South Wales (NSW) and stood for the NSW Upper House in the 22 March State election. She lost narrowly to Shooters Party candidate John Tingle.

Hanson had also assisted Australian country musician Brian Letton in making a record with Tommy Tecko. In 2006, she commenced a new career selling real estate in Queensland.

She has been parodied and impersonated by drag queen Pauline Pantsdown, who sampled snippets from Hanson's speeches to create a song called "I'm a Backdoor Man". After Hanson successfully pursued legal action against Pantsdown, Pantsdown used the same technique to create the track "I Don't Like It", a 1998 Top 10 single in Australia.

After a civil suit in 1999 that reached the Queensland Court of Appeal in 2000, involving disgruntled former One Nation member Tony Sharples and a finding of fraud when registering One Nation as a political party,Hanson was facing bankruptcy. She made an appeal to supporters to give money to help her through her hard times. Shaun Nelson, formerly a One Nation member of the Queensland parliament, attacked Hanson: "She can afford to live on a $700,000 mansion just outside of Rosewood. The people up here that she's asking to give money to are pensioners and farmers that are doing it tough." Hanson, however, claimed she considered selling her home,.

Pauline Hanson Action against One Nation Party,

In 1998, Tony Abbott established a trust fund called "Australians for Honest Politics Trust" to help bankroll civil court cases against the One Nation Party and its leader Pauline Hanson. Prime Minister John Howard denied any knowledge of existence of such a fund. Abbott was also accused of offering funds to One Nation dissident Terry Sharples to support his court battle against the party. However, Prime Minister Howard defended the honesty of Abbott in this matter.

On 10 July 1998, a writ to block a $500,000 electorial commission payment to Mrs Hanson was filed in the Supreme Court of Queensland against the One Nation Party by Mr. David Summers and Mr. Terry Sharples. Both men were former candidates in the Queensland election. Summers also promoted the Easy Tax and Truth in Sentencing policies and held the party portfolio for Tourism. Tony Abbott, a Federal Government Member of Parliament, immediately offered financial assistance to Summers and Sharples. According to an affidavit filed in the action, Abbott offered funds to One Nation's candidate for the seat of Noosa, David Summers, via Sharples to support the court battle against the party. According to Summers, he informed Abbott and Sharples via telephone that while he appreciated the offer, he declined the "financial" assistance as "I did not believe that I had anything to do with the action" as filed by Abbott's Liberal Party connection, Brisbane Barrister and former president of the Queensland Liberal Party, Paul Everingham. After contact with Sydney's Barrister-at-Law, Mark Robertson, Summers was represented by Supreme Court Barrister, Rebecca Treston and a Queen's Counsel from Nicol Robinson Halletts who had him removed from the action.

During the deregistration action in the Queensland Supreme Court, it was alleged that Abbott also offered funds to David Summers. Summers' official statement to the court addressed his withdrawal from the action which was based upon the lawfirm organized by Abbott who filed the action, had never obtained his permission to represent him as a Plaintiff. Summers initially was to be a witness for prosecuting the action. During a round-table at the offices of Minter Ellison solicitors, Summers would not accept any deal with the Abbott / Everingham team to finance the court action, but would remain as a witness about his One Nation investigations. While at that meeting in Brisbane, One Nation locals paid Summers' family a visit at his rural property north of Noosa and the media reported that Summers was "expected to withdraw from the court action after claiming his family had been "threatened". According to radio and television reports Summers wrote to his solicitor saying, "Acts of intimidation have occurred towards my family from a One Nation member today, and I don’t want things to blow up out of proportion".

According to the Crime and Misconduct Commission Report of 2004 on the prosecution of Pauline Hanson, between July 1998 until early 1999 Mr Abbott had "considerable involvement with the civil litigation" by ongoing communications with Sharples. Sharples believed Abbott had made a promise to pay his legal costs. This assertion was not contested by Mr Abbott. Tony Abbott did help finance, and in many ways promoted, the bringing of litigation to challenge the legality of the registration of the One Nation Party. One Nation's Queensland State Director Peter James proffered an official court statement by David Summers, which addressed that the Liberal Party, through Tony Abbott, had assisted and supported the action initiated by him and Terry Sharples.

In the deregistration litigation, David Summers did not testify to Tony Abbott's communications with him and during his campaign for the Seat of Noosa, Summers delegated his preferential votes to Abbott's Liberal Party over the ALP. According to Liberal Party insiders, their State Noosa electorate council argued strongly that Summers "should not receive preference ahead of Labor", but was overruled from the top. Furthermore, the Queensland Premier, Rob Borbidge, stated that he is prepared to work with and "head a minority coalition government with the support of One Nation MPs" if One Nation is elected and held "the balance of power after the election", which they did.

The trio asserted the $500,000 was not going to go to all of the Queensland One Nation candidates, and would be diverted to fill the coffers of the One Nation leadership. Abbott, Summers and Sharples alleged that Hanson's political party was not legally registered, not properly constituted and not run by its members. The writ alleged that the party was owned and operated by Mrs Pauline Hanson, Mr Oldfield and Mr David Etteridge under an umbrella company Pauline Hanson's One Nation Incorporated.

Prior to the 13 June 1998 election, One Nation's campaign director, David Oldfield was aware of Tony Abbott's communications with David Summers regarding Oldfield's "excessive" expenses when he worked for Abbott years earlier. As Summers' investigation of Oldfield intensified, Oldfield disendorsed Summers a week before the election via telephone and facsimile with no party vote or endorsement of the decision. Oldfield's wrath came during an interview with Summers by a Brisbane-based television network. Summers had been investigating allegations of "missing" One Nation funds allegedly being funneled to Vanuatu, a known tax haven in the South Pacific. Summers was also in discussions with Sharples regarding the legal legitimacy of the party's membership list which Summers refused to discuss publicly due to a Supreme Court confidentiality order.The "official" party line given by Oldfield for the disendorsement was due to an alleged "antipapal" statement and other political comments attributed to Summers by Sydney Morning Herald journalist, Greg Roberts. The political mudslinging continued by Oldfield who unilaterally disendorsed more than a dozen candidates nationwide.

David Summers, an investigative journalist and publisher of Exposure Magazine, publicly rebuked Roberts and his article multiple times as false and challenged Roberts to produce evidence of the statements and that an interview was even conducted. Roberts never produced. Summers went public that he was not behind the action with Tony Abbott to "freeze any party funds"; was never interviewed by Roberts, never "issued any such anti-papal statements", and "does not even believe" the statements that Robert's attributed to him. In the Supreme Court, Summers won his bid, maintaining that the Everingham lawyers never had his permission to represent him and that his name was used illegally to bring the action against the party. In 2005 and 2007, complaints were successfully filed by authors such as Scott Balsom and Dr. Jim Saleam against Greg Roberts for wrongful allegations of "anti-Semitism" with the National Press Council for his unwarranted "smear campaigns".

It was Sharples' legal action that laid the basis for the prosecution of the One Nation founders, Pauline Hanson and David Ettridge, which ultimately resulted in Hanson & Ettridge being imprisoned. On August 20, 2003, Hanson & Ettridge started their three year sentence behind bars for electoral fraud. Opposition MP Craig Emerson demanded to know where the money for the trust, reportedly $100,000, had come from, saying that taxpayers had a right to know. Treasurer Peter Costello said of Abbott's actions, "I don't think that the way to resolve political disputes is through the courts. I think the way to resolve it is at the ballot box." The conviction against Hanson was ultimately overturned, leading to criticism of a range of politicians for political interference by the adjudicating justice.

Abbott conceded that the political threat One Nation posed to the Howard Government was "a very big factor" in his decision to pursue the legal attack, but he also claimed to be acting "in Australia's national interest". Mr Howard also defended Abbott's actions saying "It's the job of the Liberal Party to politically attack other parties - there's nothing wrong with that,."

Pauline Hanson  Fraud conviction and acquittal,

On 20 August 2003, in a separate and this time criminal case, a jury in the District Court of Queensland convicted Hanson and Ettridge of electoral fraud. Both of them were sentenced to three years imprisonment for falsely claiming that 500 members of the 'Pauline Hanson Support Movement' were members of the political organisation 'Pauline Hanson's One Nation', in order to register that organisation in Queensland as a political party and apply for electoral funding. Because the registration was found to be unlawful, Hanson's receipt of electoral funding worth AUD$498,637 resulted in two further convictions for dishonestly obtaining property - each with three-year sentences, to run concurrently with the first. Hanson's initial reaction to the verdict was - "Rubbish, I'm not guilty. It's a joke."

Prime Minister John Howard said it was "a very long, unconditional sentence" and Bronwyn Bishop MHR said Hanson was a political prisoner, comparing her conviction with Robert Mugabe's treatment of Zimbabwean opponents.

On 6 November 2003 (delivering judgment the day after hearing the appeal), the Queensland Court of Appeal quashed all of Hanson's and Ettridge's convictions. Hanson and Ettridge were immediately released from jail. The Court's unanimous decision was that the evidence did not support a conclusion beyond reasonable doubt that the people on the list were not members of the 'Pauline Hanson's One Nation' party and that Hanson and Ettridge knew this when the application to register the party was submitted. Accordingly, the convictions regarding registration were quashed. The convictions regarding funding, which depended on the same facts, were also quashed. However, in order to reach this decision the court had to suppose that the three founding members of One Nation - Hanson, Ettridge and Oldfield - had misinterpreted the party's constitution when they had claimed, in earlier public statements, to be the only members of the party. Chief Justice Paul de Jersey, with whom the other two judges agreed overall, suggested that, if Hanson, Ettridge and especially the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions had used better lawyers from the start, the whole matter might not have taken so long, up to the appeal hearing, or even have been avoided altogether. Court of Appeal President Margaret McMurdo rebuked many politicians, including Prime Minister John Howard and Bronwyn Bishop MHR. Their observations, she said, demonstrated at least "a lack of understanding of the Rule of Law" and "an attempt to influence the judicial appellate process and to interfere with the independence of the judiciary for cynical political motives". Although she praised other leading Coalition politicians for accepting the District Court's decision.

At this time, media criticism was directed at political interference by leading federal Liberal politician Tony Abbott, who had arranged for the lawyers who instituted the earlier, Sharples action to act on a largely pro bono basis. Investigations by the ABC's Four Corners programme showed that Abbott had financed this action in an effort to derail the One Nation party,.

Pauline Hanson Return to politics,

In January 2004, Hanson announced that she did not intend to return to politics.

However, on 15 September 2004, Hanson announced that she would be standing as an independent candidate for one of Queensland's seats in the Commonwealth Senate in the 9 October election. She declared, "I don't want all the hangers on. I don't want the advisers and everyone else. I want it to be this time Pauline Hanson." She was ultimately unsuccessful, receiving only 31.77% of the required quota of primary votes, and did not pick up enough additional support through preferences. However, she attracted more votes than the One Nation party (4.54% compared to 3.14%) and, unlike her former party, recovered her deposit from the Australian Electoral Commission and secured $150,000 of public electoral funding.

On 24 May 2007 Hanson launched Pauline's United Australia Party. Under that banner, Hanson again contested one of Queensland's seats in the Senate in the 2007 Federal elections, when she received over 4% of total votes. The party invokes the partial namesake of the historic United Australia Party. Speaking on her return to politics, she stated: "I have had all the major political parties attack me, been kicked out of my own party and ended up in prison, but I don't give up." In October 2007, Hanson launched her campaign song, entitled "Australian Way of Life.", which included the line: "Welcome everyone, no matter where you come from."

Hanson contested the electoral district of Beaudesert as an independent at the 2009 Queensland state election. After an election campaign dominated by discussion over hoax photographs, she was placed third behind the Liberal National Party's Aidan McLindon and Labor's Brett McCreadie. There were conflicting media reports as to whether she had said she would not consider running again.

On 15 February 2010, Hanson announced that she planned to deregister Pauline's United Australia Party, sell her Queensland house and move to the United Kingdom. The announcement was warmly welcomed by Nick Griffin, leader of the far-right British National Party (BNP).

On 23 July 2010, while at a event promoting her new career as a motivational speaker, Hanson expressed interest in returning to the political stage as a Liberal candidate if an invitation is offered by the leader Tony Abbott in the 2010 election,.

Dancing with the Stars,

In late 2004 during her election campaign, Hanson competed in the Australian Reality TV show Dancing with the Stars on the Seven Network. In the show a number of Australian celebrities compete against one another in ballroom dancing. Hanson and her partner Salvatore Vecchio made it to the final, advancing due to audience support in SMS voting, but lost to former Home and Away star Bec Cartwright.

Autobiography and books published

Not long after her election to Parliament, Pauline Hanson published and launched a book called The Truth. In this book there were claims of Aboriginal cannibalism. There was mention of Aboriginal women eating their babies and tribes cannibalising their members. Hanson had stated to the media that the reason for these claims of cannibalism was to "demonstrate the savagery of Aboriginal society". David Ettridge, the One Nation party director, explained that the book's claims were intended to correct 'misconceptions' about Aboriginal history. These 'misconceptions' were said to be relevant to Aboriginal welfare funds. He also said that "the suggestion that we should be feeling some concern for modern day Aborigines for suffering in the past is balanced a bit by the alternative view of whether you can feel sympathy for people who eat their babies". There were also claims that by 2050 Australia will have a president of Chinese-Indian background called Poona Li Hung and she would be part machine.

In 1998 John Pasquarelli had his The Pauline Hanson Story ...by the man who knows published.

In March 2007, Hanson published her autobiography Untamed and Unashamed.

(source:wikipedia)