17th December 1999
The most extraordinary paradox in modern Australian political history has got to be the structure, financial control and management of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Limited - the body which controls Pauline Hanson's One Nation - a party presented as the "people's party".
The people's party, which never was, has only ever had three members. A nice, cosy little clique master minded by a man, David Ettridge, who has had questionable business dealings in the past. All this is on the public record - so there is certainly no attempt at "manufacturing the truth" when I say this.
The management of the "people's party" has been quite simple. The high and popular profile of Pauline Hanson has been effectively used time and time again to drown out any complaints or concerns about the management by Manly during a time of rising discontent. All she has to say is "I completely trust the two Davids" and the members were expected to go back into their corners and tear up their burning questions.
A strategy which was so simple yet so successful.
Many wonderful people have come and gone - lost to the cause... the people's cause - while the flawed and exclusive domain within the boundaries of the company has remained like a fortress against all sensible argument and falling credibility. The remaining five Queensland MPs being the latest to fall on the sword of the unbending Manly autocracy.
I confess, like so many I was completely sucked into the time and motion of the mood that was presented. Maybe it was Pauline Hanson rightfully complaining about the media that acted as such an effective blindfold... I don't know - but all the while the two Davids sat quietly in the background like hit men protecting their prize... the people's voice.
The people's voice which many now believe is captive, for reasons yet unknown, within the secretive world of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Limited. If that is the case, which I now accept it is, Hanson is no longer the voice of the people and, sadly, never was.
Those who have spoken out about the fears and worries that so many party members feel are exterminated like white ants by expulsion and, where required, a letter of ridicule from the pen of David Ettridge to the confidential membership list - a list which is not even provided to certain state executives in Australia.
Behind these secretive walls in Manly lies another more sinister murky world which, to me, symbolises why this people's party never was.
Money.
Millions of dollars have gone through the books at Manly. We know for a fact that Champions Magazine Pty Ltd, David Ettridge's management company, has made a proverbial killing when it comes to money received.
When I joined this people's party the last thing in my mind was the desire to get rich off the back of it. I worked tirelessly for the cause - not because of Hanson but because of what she stood for - the issues.
As one of ten members of the 500 Club launched at the first birthday party in April 1998 - I and nine others freely gave $500. I handed over $5,000, largely in cash, to Ettridge not because we were feeling generous but because we believed so strongly in the cause - I had been told by Ettridge earlier that the event was a financial disaster and that Manly would have problems paying the bills. (I instigated the club on the spur of the moment).
About half of the members of the 500 Club are now "white ants" according to Ettridge. People like Helen Dodd, Barbara Hazelton and Colene Hughes who dug deep, like me, to help the party. I have got to tell you that I could not afford the donation but I gave because I believed.
Just hours later Ettridge asked me to witness a most numbing event. He handed over hundred dollar bills in cash - without getting a receipt from a representative of the band. Some $1,500 in notes originating from the 500 Club. In my naivety I never thought that the process was a trifle irregular - it is only now that I reflect on what took place and think.... here is a man who has questionable business practices - as determined by the Supreme Court - who I had just handed thousands of dollars in cash who now let the money go without first putting it through the books.
Interestingly, one of the ten members of the 500 Club, Jack Struber, complained to me many months later because he was unable to get a receipt from Manly for the money that he had so freely handed over that day. It was only eight or nine months later - after the Federal Election - that I eventually got a receipt.
So while the "white ants" were freely giving Ettridge's Champions was freely taking..... and now the books are a closed shop with members not allowed to know the truth.
For God's sake wake up! How can this be a people's party when you have this sort of management of funds, finances and people going on?
I suggest that the Mackay's, Zarths's and Lebedinsky's of this world recognise that we all sit on the same side of the fence when it comes to issues but when it comes to the dictatorship called One Nation that is a completely different issue.
One Nation never has been a people's party and unless the 2D Factor is removed and the structure changed it never will be.
While the Queensland MPs have a big job ahead of them there is no doubt that most of the people have woken up and will follow this party where true democracy will flourish.