It was on a visit to the One Nation offices
in the Queensland Parliament in the first half of this year that I bumped
into Jeff Knuth. Knuth is a friendly, down to earth sort - personally I like
him for his openness and warmth.
5th December 1999
Image right: Jeff Knuth (right) with Ken Turner (also now an Independent MP) at their first meeting in June 1998.
It was on a visit to the One Nation offices
in the Queensland Parliament in the first half of this year that I bumped
into Jeff Knuth. Knuth is a friendly, down to earth sort - personally I like
him for his openness and warmth.
But first a bit of background.
Knuth had been a One Nation MP until the now infamous shouting match with David Oldfield in January this year during which the MPs were told "they were on drugs" because they rejected the flawed Pauline Hanson's One Nation constitution designed by the two Davids at an estimated cost to the party of $80,000.
The fallout of Oldfield's childish taunts was the resignation of half of Feldman's team (five MPs) in February this year. A tragedy for the cause which we have all fought so hard for. One of the last to make the final decision to leave was Jeff Knuth. He told the national executive that he first wanted to consult with his branch membership on whether he should stay part of One Nation or not.
While addressing one of the branches, before he resigned, Knuth was alleged to have made a comment which defamed David Ettridge. I still don't know what the comment was or why Ettridge treated the statement with such veracity, but he did.
Getting back to my inadvertent meeting with Knuth... I was walking down the corridor of the ninth floor to meet with Ipswich West MLA Jack Paff when I saw him in his office.
I knocked on his door and he welcomed me in. We chatted for a few minutes and were soon on the subject of his status as an Independent. Knuth told me a most remarkable story. He said that he was outraged that David Ettridge had taken out a defamation action against him and that that was the major reason why he could not be part of One Nation.
A few months later Knuth established his own party, Country Australia Party, which has gobbled up much of One Nation's membership in his area.
Over the last month I have been making many well-founded allegations against what I call the 2D Factor. For a man who was so quick to slap a defamation action on Knuth, forcing his hand, his silence over the allegations raised on the @notd speaks for itself. The now infamous Ettridge response to the deregistration of One Nation in Queensland which totally overlooks the role of the flawed constitution in the Judge's decision is now followed up with a dubious letter to the membership proclaiming me an enemy of the party. This letter makes the following statement:
Since that day, Scott has maintained a relentless attack on One Nation, (which is an attack on its members and elected leaders), by allowing dozens of spiteful and bizarre letters and allegations to be posted on his website. Scott has not bothered to check the accuracy of any of the claims and lies made by the few people whose confusion and vitriol he publishes.
Of course my attack has NOT been on One Nation but on what I call the 2D Factor.
In the face of Ettridge's action against Knuth I find it quite extraordinary that, if the above statement was true, he has not taken legal action against me - seeing that my investigation into Manly has uncovered some serious issues regarding the ability of this man to perform the role of National Director for this party with a degree of acceptable competence.
The silence is deafening.