1st October 1998
Commentary by Scott Balson, Global Web Builders
Last night an exhausted Pauline Hanson graced my small rural-like suburb of Karana Downs in Ipswich (soon to be Brisbane). Karana Downs' southern boundary snakes along the shores of the Brisbane River and the Eastern boundary of Blair.
In many ways this small suburb symbolises what people can achieve if they put their minds to it. In 1995 the suburb was "given" by the Queensland state bureaucrats to the City of Ipswich following the removal of the shire of West Moreton. An overwhelming number of residents wanted to move to Brisbane (about 80% according to government polls) but their vote was ignored.
The people of Karana Downs rebelled and after
several years of taking on powerful bureaucrats who refused to listen the
people won a historic victory on Tuesday this week when the suburb was formally
relocated to Brisbane - with the realignment taking place in the year 2000.
Leading the tireless revolt against bureaucracy was a Karana Downs woman, Andrea Shearer (left), a One Nation supporter who attended Pauline Hanson's meeting last night at the Mt Crosby Bowls Club.
There was another Karana Downs woman there
as well, Heather Hill, who had
led the Queensland
state election assault at which one Nation won a remarkable eleven
seats.
Heather Hill seen here right with Pauline Hanson lives just up the road from me... and is, of course, One Nation's number one Senate candidate.
There must be something in the water in this little suburb with its small population of about 2,000 residents.
Last night's meeting was quite remarkable in
a couple of ways. Firstly there were no mainstream media invited or present
allowing the meeting to proceed in a functional manner and secondly the large
turn out of over 100 residents reflected something that prevails at most
of Pauline Hanson's meetings.
It is the grape vine.... I only found out about Pauline's meeting through the local news agent who had been asked earlier that morning to make available on his counter a small, simple brochure to let residents know that Pauline would be speaking.
Both he and his staff attended the meeting last night - the first political meeting he had ever been to - he confided.
There was no contrived photo-opportunities that represent snap shots of a carefully planned positive campaign by Laboral faction minders. With One Nation you had an example of the simple, straight forward meetings where the people spoke to Pauline Hanson - instead of being witnesses to Laboral's contrived photo sessions with media-written one liners.
Last night one could feel that Pauline was tired, despite this, she inspired the Karana Downs residents who had come to listen.
This was to be her last public meeting before
the big day.
She was introduced by Peter James (right).
Pauline spoke about the media and their blatant distortions in covering (or not covering her message). She said that she was relieved that they were not there last night.
For someone who had witnessed Tuesday's debacle where "professional" political journalists, photographers and cameramen had gate crashed and then staged a sit in at a private One Nation meeting I could completely concur with her sentiments.
The mood last night was relaxed and friendly none of the stupid, slanted and distorted questioning that spew out of the mouths of Australia's media mogul pawns and bigoted thought police.
For
the record the loudest clapping and applause came when Pauline derided the
media for their bias and bad manners. She spoke of how the media circus simply
pushed old people and supporters who were in their way aside in their mad
rush to cover her every move.
She spoke of how when door-knocking in Blair a few weeks back they had hounded her and when a woman was to sick to see her at the door of her home and another did not want to come out because she felt intimidated by the presence of the media how they had reported that she was facing "increasing knockbacks from people who did not want to speak to her within her electorate of Blair".
Support for Hanson on these issues came from a large, traditionally Liberal voting, audience who had little prior contact with One Nation - it appears that, despite the media's spin doctoring, it is not just One Nation supporters who are sick and tired of their blatant lies, distortions and lack of ethics in reporting in this country.
The comment I enjoyed the most was about Gough Whitlam who Pauline called, "... a total reject who has cost Australian tax payers about Au$400,000 a year for the last 24 years". The context of her statement was the perks and lurks of Prime Ministers - which Pauline has promised to remove.
Finally, there was a small independent television crew
there. They were welcomed by One Nation. The crew seen right (Jennifer
Rutherford, Suzanna Scarpano and Catherine Clarke) are preparing a documentary
on One Nation called "Ordinary People".
I have been advised that much of their documentary will now also look at media bias - an aspect not originally planned. After seeing for themselves how reporting was distorted from the reality the crew decided to make it a focus of the documentary which will largely look at the people of Ipswich and the One Nation party..