There were very few people about when I arrived with the publicity for the
launch being very low key - because Helen Dodd, the author and organiser,
had been concerned about protesters.
The day before the launch I had sent about 1,000 email to people on the One Nation mailing list. The email read as follows:
Dear Pauline Hanson One Nation Supporters,
The 250 page authorised biography of Pauline Hanson (with pictures), "Pauline, the Hanson Phenomenon" by Helen Dodd will be launched this Friday. The book will make an excellent Christmas present.
The background on the book can be seen (together with a printable order form) at:
http://www.gwb.com.au/gwb/news/onenation/book.html
If you order the book by fax by midnight Thursday night (20th November) you will get a copy in the mail signed by Pauline Hanson at Friday's launch.
Fax your order to: (07) 3201 0961
Alternatively, if you wish, you may send your credit card and other details (as per the on-line form) to the author by email at:
camint@geocities.com
(signing timeline as per fax)
If you are paying by cheque, please make your cheques payable to:
CYBER ADVERTISING AND MARKETING.
------------
Book costs:
The soft covered book sells for Au$24.95 (including postage).
The limited edition numbered hard copy edition (only 150) sells for Au$70.00. (Please note nearly half of these hard copy editions have been sold already).
Any orders received after midnight Thursday night WILL NOT BE SIGNED AT THE LAUNCH because of administrative restrictions..... so get your order in now!
GWB
Scott Balson
I was advised by the author, Helen Dodd, that within 24 hours nearly 100 orders had been placed as a direct response to this email - take this link for more info and ordering the book.
It was a fine spring day. I drove into Ipswich just before 12.30pm to be at the launch of the book which was scheduled to take place at 1pm at the Angus and Robertson Bookworld in the shopping centre on the corner of Brisbane and Bell streets in the heart of the city.
There were very few people about when I arrived with the publicity for the
launch being very low key - because Helen Dodd, the author and organiser,
had been concerned about protesters.
The media had been tipped off by a One Nation media release sent to them at about 11am that morning - ensuring that they did not have time to "organising filmable action".
The
elderly gent on the left was the first person to buy the book through a book
store. He had lined up well before the 1pm launch to keep his position
and to ensure that Pauline Hanson and Helen Dodd signed his book.
Because of the low key publicity a very strange situation arose... with the media outnumbering those who had stumbled on the book launch by accident by about two to one!
In fact the media were like a pack of wolves with the cameramen fighting over who should get what position and where...
Quick facts from the book: Page 243 (Appendix 8) Extracted figures from Grants, payments and loans for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSIC) advancement, from the 1995-96 ATSIC Annual Report:
| Funding area | ACT | NSW | Vic | Qld | SA | WA | TAS | NT | Total: |
| Land acquisition and maintenance | 32,849 | 6,770,221 | 856,186 | 8,606,527 | 1,573,176 | 4,246,590 | 978,597 | 10,461,961 | 33,526,106 |
| Economic and Regional Development Support | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80,000 | 58,500 | 94,076 | 0 | 0 | 232,576 |
| Land Rights operating | 818,766 | 274,367 | 56,083 | 2,416,542 | 953,990 | 1,492,000 | 250,000 | 0 | 5,188,930 |
| Native Title Claims | 38,517 | 872,676 | 730,000 | 4,328,506 | 421,978 | 4,983,555 | 50,000 | 645,000 | 12,070,323 |
| Native Title Operating | 759,137 | 568,973 | 38,651 | 3,856,059 | 879,400 | 5,951,513 | 0 | 907,984 | 13,306,717 |
| Environment | 15,000 | 0 | 0 | 108,700 | 150,933 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 274,633 |
| Law and Justice | 517,415 | 7,700,020 | 2,001,345 | 9,178,404 | 3,542,187 | 4,988,788 | 941,071 | 5,268,398 | 34,137,727 |
| Strategic Planning and Policy | 96,120 | 7,511 | 0 | 0 | 50,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 153,631 |
| Indigenous Women's Issues | 34,676 | 490,048 | 82,257 | 1,197,948 | 230,719 | 1,073,160 | 0 | 295,036 | 3,403,844 |
The annual budget spent that financial year was: $830,315,887 with neither health nor education featuring at all!
In the picture on the right Pauline Hanson can be seen talking to the book's author Helen Dodd with the publisher, Russell Levine of Boolarong Press, and Hanson's political adviser, David Oldfield, in the background.
Pauline
was as gorgeous and as calm as always...
For the first few minutes of the launch everybody gathered around while the media sorted out their scrum in front of the table where Pauline and Helen Dodd were to sign the book.
I was lucky enough to get the images below before the media pack had totally taken over the whole event. Like others who had come to watch the launch the hustle and bustle of journalists all eager to make a name for themselves and cameramen as eager to be the ones to record it the public who had bought books to be signed had to wait while the pack had their chance.
Pauline was the first to talk about the book, confessing that she had only read the first 44 pages before the launch but was happy to endorse the book as she had known Helen Dodd for some years and knew that Mrs Dodd would be objective and fair in her comments.
Pauline spoke about the figures carried in the closing chapters of the book and made it clear that they were based on Mrs Dodd's own research. The table that I found most interesting is on page 129 in the chapter "Immigration and Multiculturalism". The source is the Year Book Australia 1996:
| Population area | 1974 | 1984 | 1994 |
| *Asian population | 187,170 | 351,170 | 826,100 |
| Australian population | 13,722,571 | 15,579,400 | 17,843,300 |
| % Asian in population | 1.36% | 2.25% | 4.63% |
When Pauline had finished the book's author, Helen Dodd, gave a short speech.
Helen Dodd then handed Pauline Hanson one of the limited edition hard copy books "Pauline, The Hanson Phenomenon".
Pauline's
book is numbered 3/150 - the writer lucky enough to secure 1/150 and 2/150
from the author through a bit of sweat and tears... a small price to pay
under the conditions!
As you will have gathered there are only 150 of the hard copy editions - which sell for $70 each, I believe that these copies are already sold out.
The
media pack was getting hungry... they were looking for a story and it showed....
The public wanting to get a copy signed were asked to wait a few minutes while Pauline Hanson and Helen Dodd gave the media hounds their chance.
The media had received their editions of the book just 24 hours earlier - but the dog tagged, post-stick marked remains revealed some studious work leading up to the launch and it appeared that the media felt they had found a weak spot in the book. One that they could hang a story on.
The TV stations Channel 9, Channel 10, Channel 7 and the ABC ran a similar piece based on what they saw as "controversial" in their coverage of the entire book... it's almost as if one person wrote the script for all of the media!
But, there again we are used to that.
The
line up of cameras as seen in this picture on the left demonstrates the
extraordinary attention that the book launch had created with the media.
It was time to get back to signing books at last... even though those who had been waiting patiently had to have their books passed over the heads of the media pack who stood steadfastly to their key positions in front of the table behind which Pauline Hanson and Helen Dodd now sat.
All
of a sudden the media pack disappeared... or most of them. And I was able
to entice Pauline Hanson and Helen Dodd to giving me a big smile for the
little old digital camera.
In the picture on the right Jeff Summerfeld from The Courier Mail and Mark Strong (in the blue shirt) from the Queensland Times take some notes in a quick interview. This is a particularly interesting photograph because News Limited's Courier Mail, despite being there to cover the story, never ran it in Saturday's paper. Instead an article featuring the launch of a book by writer Bryce Coutenay in Sydney was prominently covered.
Now I know that Summerfeld compiled a story - after all he spoke at length to Dodd and Hanson and The Courier Mail photographer took a large number of photographs of the pair signing books. Guess the Chiefs-of-Staff had their instructions from on high... no publicity for One Nation - and to publicise a book launch would be like handing in your resignation.
There was an article in Saturday's Queensland Times, under the heading Hanson launches 'honest' biography on page 5:
"Aboriginal Australians need "re-education" if there is to be any unity between them and the general community, a new biography of Pauline Hanson claims.
Federal Member for Oxley, Pauline Hanson, who yesterday launched "Pauline - The Hanson Phenomenon", by Ipswich author Dr Helen Dodd, said she agreed with Dr Dodd's assessment that Aboriginal Australians needed to apologise to other Australians. Ms Hanson, in Ipswich for the launch, added that she did not expect a personal apology.
"Moderate Aboriginal leaders will be able to move reconciliation ahead rapidly if they aim to re-educate Aboriginal people," Dr Dodd says in the book. "So much has been done to re-educate the "white-fella" towards Aboriginal culture and the acceptance of the disadvantaged nature of the Aboriginal people."
Dr Dodd said yesterday that she had written the book after being unable to find unbiased information on Ms Hanson in the mainstream media. It had been 12 months in the making, and included interviews with Ms Hanson's parents and current advisers.
It is a fair and honest book," Dr Dodd said.
"I was concerned that the media was giving (Ms Hanson) a hard time and that the truth was not being written about her as a person. (She is) a mother, businesswoman and politician, and a woman as well."
Dr Dodd did not call it a "warts and all" book, asking one questioner "What's a wart?"
"I did not want to talk about the garbage... the dirty laundry... I didn't want to be controversial. I wanted to be honest and factual."
Ms Hanson said yesterday she endorsed the book, despite having read only 44 pages.
She said the book had been written because people around Australia had wanted to know about this "redhead from Ipswich".
"I've only read up to the first 44 pages on it and it's been interesting," Ms Hanson said.
The book, which will have a 10,000 copy first print run, sells for $19.95"
It
was now my opportunity to be pictured with Pauline and Helen (left) while
David Oldfield (Pauline's political adviser) followed a short while later
(right).
I left at just after 2pm feeling well-nourished after seeing Pauline again.
That night the commercial channels ran a story on the book launch. The stories were identical - showing as much originality as sliced bread... yes, they were all centered around.....
Aaahh well any publicity is good publicity I guess!!