3rd December 1999

NSW State Executive being cleansed by Manly

This morning I spoke to the regional Vice President of the New South Wales state executive, John Karnau. He represents nine state electorates in a massive area covering northern New South Wales (NSW).

There is a scheduled NSW executive on the 11th December at Dubbo, which Karnau will attend in his official capacity. He will be defending a recommendation by David Ettridge that he be expelled from the state executive.

Karnau's problems began when he spoke out against the administration of the Manly office in a letter dated 10th November which was faxed to members of the Queensland Executive. A week later, on the day Pauline Hanson left for the US (17/11), Ettridge responded with a demand to the State Executive that Karnau be expelled. It is quite clear that Pauline Hanson is not aware of the Ettridge edict. Karnau has been phoned and told that Ettridge "has the numbers". 

In the letter to the Queensland executive, which drew Ettridge's wrath, Karnau put forward several recommendations, which make sense. These are summarised in bullet point form below.

NOTE: According to Karnau items in bold have been discussed by members of NSW state executive privately. Points in this colour have been passed by motion by the NSW State Executive. Points in normal text are his personal recommendations.

• Administration from Manly office is incompetent beyond measure persons responsible are not junior staff recommendation that the office be closed down immediately
• Pauline Hanson's One Nation national administration to be placed in Queensland under direct control of the national president - Pauline Hanson (this motion was actually passed by the Queensland State AGM earlier this year and Pauline Hanson, personally, said that it would happen).
• PHON NSW should be administered independently of the national office
• PHON NSW state president and secretary must have the membership records for NSW. (Manly office refuses to release NSW membership records to the state executive. They have been trying to get this information for the last 18 months)
• The state director's power must not exceed that of the state president and his or her executive in combination - current Manly proposal for state director powers to be above and beyond that of the NSW state executive.
• A fixed annual date for memberships to replace current system
• The next national AGM to be held in Queensland - and possibly Brisbane.

Karnau said to me this morning: "I have allegedly spoken to people and made recommendations to them with respect the administration of the affairs of One Nation from Manly office. This has greatly offended Mr Ettridge to the extent where implications were made by him which resulted in members of the Queensland executive including Pauline Hanson being branded as activists and or having contact with activists who are working with people who have had a detrimental effect on One Nation."

He continued, "I believe One Nation needs to have administration put in place at a senior executive level which is professional in administration and has some basic legal knowledge in the area of running a political party.

"The structure of the party was undemocratic; pressure has now been brought to bear to make it more accountable. Certain members of the national executive have resisted this.

"I believe that the David Ettridge recommendations for my expulsions are unwarranted. I have signed letters of support from all current active branches in my region. they have expressed disgust and dismay in the manner content of the Ettridge recommendation (to the state executive).

"There are a number of people on the NSW state executive who have ambitions to become involved at a higher level within the organisation who would not do or say anything that may jeopardise their ambitions. There are others in the executive who are well aware of the problems and who are doing their very best to overcome them."

Karnau has gone public because he, like many in One Nation, have realised that the official channels are funnelled into three boxes, "mates", "do nothing" or "expel for challenging Manly".

In short official channels only serve the best interests of the Manly office.