In The Public Interest.
by Bruce Whiteside - 2nd September 2000
Pauline Hanson has lodged an application with the Queensland Electoral Commission for the re-registration of her party One Nation. This application will be gazetted on September 2nd 2000 and written submissions opposing this application close on October 2nd 2000. The reason for this new application is that the One Nation Party was found to be fraudulently registered, by the Supreme Court and this finding was upheld Court of Appeal. This notice is issued in the public interest.
There are many people in the community who believe that Pauline Hanson was the greatest thing to happen in Australian politics. I Bruce Whiteside was one of them. Unlike any other individual in Australia I did something to help her achieve that dream. I built a support base that became known as the highly successful Pauline Hanson Support Movement. That cannot be denied. It is fact! One Nation was built upon it.
Few people realise just how pivotal that movement was to the establishment of the catastrophic and disastrous One Nation Party. Fewer people still have a knowledge of what took place that created the disaster in the making that I tried so hard to prevent. Those who without thought and with pure knee-jerk reaction condemned me for criticising Hanson and those she was drawn to, do not understand that blind hero-worship is no panacea for hard-nosed pragmatism.
Pauline Hanson, I am deeply sad to say is a sham. Not a sham in the context of deliberate deception but a sham born of narrow views, poor judgement, vindictiveness and last of all arrogance. Pauline Hanson is incapable of the task of leading any political party for the reason that she is fundamentally devoid of the skills required to accomplish that.
Hanson's greatest attraction was her ability to speak out stridently in the language that ordinary people understood. I have no doubt that the very early Hanson was wedded to the views she expressed, but few people understand that the speech that crystallised her was a lifetime of one liners brilliantly choreographed and structured by her former advisor and mentor, John Pasquarelli.
Hanson never touched those height again, but those who were swept into the vortex of this political aberration, refused to acknowledge that their hero was fallible.
Those close to Hanson and pragmatic to see the signs of looming weaknesses were quietly concerned. As father of the support movement my concerns went beyond diplomatic whisperings and took on the mantle of trenchant critic. I had a vested interest; I did not want Hanson to self-destruct.
Hanson's path to ignominy commenced when she started to believe in her own invincibility. This was nurtured by background opportunists, who saw Hanson as a gullible and naïve woman. They proved it!
From this point on when she was directed to dispose of John Pasquarelli, her sense of loyalty, judgement and focus deserted her, never to return.
When John Pasquarelli left Hanson was left with no one with real political skills advising her …and this showed. What took his place was a self-seeking, self-evaluated, self-opinionated Liberal drop-out, who like Dr Goebels in the 1930's was seen as a brilliant strategist and very clever speaker. Like the same doctor, an avowed National Socialist.
What transpired was a legacy of autocratic, dogmatic and totally unprincipled ideals that embraced and finally encased Pauline Hanson.
It is this Hanson that has emerged from the murky effluent left by the narrow godhead of Pauline Hanson's One Nation. As a result Hanson, now deserted and disowned by those she implacably embraced, has been left with a legacy of debt and dishonour. Had Hanson kept faith with her grassroots and kept the common-touch, her people and those like myself would have walked on hot coals for her. Never again!
Hanson's ability to draw a crowd counts for little if she has nothing of substance to say or contribute. An empty vessel does not make a political party.
I come now to the essence of this message.
One Nation was found to be fraudulently registered by the Supreme Court of Queensland. There was nothing politically sinister about this. One Nation was brought down by One Nation stalwarts. There is absolutely no point in denigrating these people because in so doing this reveals the inherent weakness of One Nation supporters …the failure to recognise or accept constructive criticism. Terry Sharples would not have succeeded in his pursuit of the maladministration of One Nation had he not obtained my co-operation. I have very little time for Sharples, but the principle that he strove to expose, that of deception, was one that in all honesty I could not walk away from. Sharples will claim that he like St George he slayed the beast single-handedly, just as Hanson's Trewartha claimed he that he was founder of the support movement. Unlike these two I was never a member or part of One Nation.
The criteria for the re-registration of One Nation is 500 members of a political organisation who are on the Queensland State roll. Whilst I have no doubt that these conditions will be met, that a constitution will be forwarded and theoretically all is above board, I must advise all Pauline Hanson supporters to write to the Electoral commission and oppose this application. Why?
Pauline Hanson has had four years to prove herself. She has failed in substance, miserably. Millions of dollars have percolated through the coffers of 'her' One Nation and the end result has been debt and dishonour; the two D's. Hanson has never acknowledged responsibility or blame. She has no remorse. That money has come from the taxpayer at electoral level and from thousands of believing supporters from across the nation. There is such a thing as an article of faith. The people had an expectation born of hope, born of admiration ...both were defiled. Today Pauline Hanson has established that she is both vindictive and selfish. She has constantly lashed out at all who question the integrity of Ettridge, Oldfield or herself. She has in fact defended these men with religious zeal, one that raises very serious questions of propriety. With these qualities and record she arrogantly announces that she will run for the Senate. This of course presupposes that she is able. Hanson's agenda in seeking to re-register her One Nation is shallow in the extreme because it would serve only to validate the appeal to her supporters to raise urgent funds. Hanson by her own admission acknowledges that she must raise a further $400,000 before Christmas. If she does not she could be declared bankrupt. The fundamental truth is that had Pauline Hanson extended the same courtesy to Terry Sharples, as he extended to her by approaching her to avoid the necessity of legal action, the huge legal bills and the consequences of those legal actions would not have precipitated either debt or deregistration at this point in time. Sheer arrogance and the inability to tolerate any questioning of her responsibility or integrity precipitated this problem. The result seriously threatens to negate her running for the Senate. Hence the crocodile tears and tug of the heart strings. Pauline Hanson never coveted that role until all other avenues were exhausted. Hanson needs a Senate position, NOT to represent the people but to fulfil her personal want, created by the void of the collapse of One Nation. Hanson's tilt for the Senate is about personal financial security as Oldfield's was with the Upper House in NSW. For those who will be drawn toward sympathy for Hanson, I say, forget it. Hanson's compassion and understanding of others problems are purely synthetic. This attempt to reinvent a credible One Nation and a changed Pauline Hanson is steeped in the same political cynicism that people depended on her to address in the other political parties. The anti-politician has become just like the rest.
Hanson no longer has anything to offer. Her time was four years ago, when she had the element of surprise, when she had her opponents wrong-footed. Today much of her one-line policies have either been negated or partially addressed. She no longer captivates her audience or responds to the real political issues of the day. The truth is that she has been politically barren since she disposed of her old mentor and astute adviser John Pasquarelli. Since then she has attracted people with no political nous. Had she done so the man she touted as the 'best political brain in the business' would not have dealt such a losing hand. The hard facts are that under John Pasquarelli Hanson was at her most potent.
Hanson fell on her own sword. She had a very simple solution that could have avoided all this trouble. She could have renounced One Nation and all its associates and gone back to her grassroots. She not only ignored that gold-plated advise but poured contempt on those who warned her. She is beyond redemption, beyond learning from her mistakes. Given the chance she will do it all again.
Unless the unsuspecting public are imbued with the same incapacity to learn then they are bound to revisit a lost cause and pour good money after bad.
If Pauline Hanson is genuine in her desire to serve the people, then she might just bury her pride, recognise her limitations and ponder throwing her lot in with those she was more than happy to endorse at the last state elections. There are ten politicians in the Queensland parliament who if we are to believe the rhetoric, speak the language of Hanson. If stewardship and political acumen are as inherent in Hanson as she would have us believe then here is her challenge. Mending bridges and saying sorry however are not in the Hanson psyche.
The Sherman tank has lost its tracks.
Saturday, 2 September 2000 - Copyrite Bruce Whiteside