10th March 2000
Thank You Terry Sharples.
For one fleeting moment Pauline Hanson allowed her uncontrolled arrogance to get the better of her …for that she will pay a very heavy price.
Terry Sharples never wanted to bring Hanson down, in spite of all the vitriol that spewed from many One Nation supporters. The trouble with those who blindly followed Hanson, they mimicked those who purported to be her advisers. Their agendas, were not those of Hanson, but the politically ignorant Hanson gave them her imprimatur and the sheep followed. Some of us were not sheep and paid a heavy price for supporting her.
I met Terry Sharples before he was induced into One Nation. He is a man with strong beliefs and convictions. He told me that if he was elected to Hanson's team, that he would not be dominated by her. Whilst I expressed strong reservations to him about having anything to do with Paul Trewartha, who at that time was Vice President of PHON (or should that be phon-y), I saw him as an able politician in the making. But it was not to be. I fell out with Sharples a week before the election, but when I heard how he had been disenfranchised on the eve of the election, I fronted up and spent the day helping him. One Nation dumped him like a dirty rag.
It is a great irony that had Trewartha in sacking Sharples at the eleventh hour, refunded the expenses as well, the action that followed would never have eventuated. After the election Sharples came to see me. He wanted justice and a squaring off with Trewartha and Oldfield. Hanson he didn't want to hurt. For those cynics who find that hard to accept, take it from me …that am exactly how it unfolded. Sharples pursued Trewartha, Hill and others …and was treated contemptuously. Finally as a last resort he confronted Hanson at Tweed Heads, but her 'heavies' aided and abetted by her petulance made sure that she never got to hear about his gripe. From that point on I assisted Sharples and gave him material that helped build his court case.
At the time that Sharples was attempting to nail One Nation he attracted brought ridicule from every quarter. Until that moment Hanson, Ettridge and Oldfield were Teflon coated …nobody could lay a glove on them.
I used to shake my head sometimes and regret very much that Hanson did not utilise the marvellous capacity of this man to pursue the policies that she held to. Sharple's singleminded and thorough application to the task of proving that One Nation was fraudulent, should have been talents that Hanson harnessed for good. Instead her bloody-mindedness, her arrogance and her weakness for allowing emotions to over-rule commonsense, contributed to drive Sharples sense of justice. There were times when I felt used and told him so, there were times when his own arrogance worked against him, but I say unequivocally that the sheer admiration I had for this man never waned. Terry Sharples is basically a decent honest bloke, with a deep sense of justice. Many times he was justifiably angered by the duplicity and lack of integrity of those who purport to administer justice. His dumping of legal councils in my view was typical of his whole approach. He wanted the truth, not a contrived version by a circuitous route.
I say this. This victory, if victory is indeed the word, is the sole domain of Terry Sharples. I know from experience that there will be those who will now say that 'they knew Terry would win." There will be others who will take a little bit of reflected credit for seeing One Nation brought to its knees. No, Terry Sharples achieved this result by plain hard, tenacious and persistant work. His focus was at times almost obsessive and for this he and his family have paid too greater price.
There have been many people who have offered Pauline Hanson their loyalty and genuine help. Hanson's response has been to revile and denigrate them when they have been stung into action.
Hanson's loyalty has never been to anyone other than the two David's. Now the court has ruled that they deceived the people.
"David Ettridge, you are nothing but a con-man. Now bugger off back to Sydney and forget all about us." I addressed those words to him, when he visited us at Oldfield's instruction, with Hanson's blind impramater and hijacked our credible movement.
I now publicly thank you Terry Shraples for being the only man in this country, to give validity to those words. I thank him for doing the job of a gutless press.
As for Hanson I think the fear of possible fraud charges will give her many sleepless nights.
Lets hope that Terry Sharples will now be given the opportunity to tell the whole story and not that which is neatly tailored to allow others to escape. The only way this can be achieved is through a Commission of Inquiry.