I
faced - the highs and lows, the day "them and us" broke bread together, the
night the dream for our nation became temporarily blurred, some would call
it derailed.
October 3rd 1998
It was to be the day the mouse roared and the lion pounced.
When I arrived shortly after 6pm at the Ipswich Showgrounds for the One Nation
party I was blissfully unaware of the traumatic evening that
I
faced - the highs and lows, the day "them and us" broke bread together, the
night the dream for our nation became temporarily blurred, some would call
it derailed.
The television stations had set up their satellite equipment just below the
hall where One Nation
supporters
would gather to watch the election results from around the country come in.
They would provide live broadcasts from the hall to the living rooms of the
nation.
One of the few surviving and extremely rare Pauline Hanson "Blair" signs had been attached to a lone palm tree and draped with blue "One Nation" balloons at the foot of the stairs leading up to the hall . There were only a handful of the signs left after over 200 had been defaced or removed by trophy hunters earlier that week.
Inside the hall, which measured about 25 metres by 12 metres, there was a feeling of expectation... members of the media dominated with very few One Nation supporters present at this time. The bar was still closed. A line of tables ringed by chairs had been placed at right angles to the side of the room overlooking the mobile satellite station below. The ends of the tables pointed at a raised podium centered on the wall opposite. On either side of the podium television sets played the Channel 9 Six o'Clock news.... it was here that a number of the journalists gathered.
Between the bar and the podium a small table had been set up with an Internet connection - from which live coverage of the on-line Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) results were to be relayed. Somehow the screen looked cold and unfeeling - maybe because it was Apple Mac.
The walls of the hall were festooned with One Nation signs and posters of Pauline Hanson draped in the Australian flag. In the floor area between the tables and the podium the naked stands for the commercial television station cameras stood marking their place opposite the place were Pauline would speak later that night.
I chatted idly to a couple of the journalists. We discussed the role of the Internet in future election campaigns and the manner in which I had used it at this time to present One Nation's case to a growing audience.
Heather
Hill was among the first of the One Nation supporters to arrive.
In the picture right she poses with one of the One Nation faithful.
More people started to arrive. It was nearing 7pm and the bar had opened. I bought a carafe of white wine... somehow the subdued mood of those gathering did not inspire me to lash out on a bottle of champagne.
The
early results had started to come in and, for Pauline Hanson, things looked
very good on a count of (just) 400 votes she held 45% of the primaries. Another
early seat was that of Wide Bay where Graeme Wicks in early counting held
63% of the vote after primaries.
Heather Hill sat in front of the screen and watched. There was an element of confusion as the television sets with "live" broadcasts played different figures to those coming through the Internet.
The mood was buoyant and early expectations were that One Nation could, as one of several options, gain the balance of power - an option shared by a number of senior political journalists including The Sydney Morning Herald's Margo Kingston and The Queensland Times' Mark Strong.
My
eight year old son Alex had arrived with mum.
Too young to realise the poignancy of the moment he clung to me wanting to play.
A quick squeeze, photo opportunity and it was time to move on.
Moving
from table to table I chatted to acquaintances who had become friends over
the last couple of years. These were the "hard core" One Nation followers.
The men and women who had been labelled "racist" and "bigoted" by countless
Australian journalists in millions of papers over the last two years. How
wrong they were.
To me they were just concerned Australians (us).. Australians of all ages who had seen globalisation and economic rationalism tear away the fabric of the society that the lucky country was once founded on.
The journalists and cameramen (them) had meanwhile lined up at the front entrance to the hall awaiting the imminent arrival of Pauline Hanson.
When
Pauline
arrived she was immediately mobbed by the cameramen and photographers. One
Nation's State Director Peter James tried to get them to move aside so that
Pauline could meet the supporters seated at the tables. It was like trying
to get a starving dog to leave a bone alone.
This would be the first of many requests for the media to give Pauline some space.
Pauline
was eventually left alone to talk to some old faces. (With Peter Prenzler
- One Nation state MP - left)
At this stage the AEC results were looking extremely positive for Pauline
Hanson and One Nation with the live television coverage briefly showing One
Nation as gaining a lower house seat
in
the Federal Parliament.
Even young Alex got into the action...
Pauline was confident of gaining the seat of Blair, while for One Nation's candidate in Oxley, Colene Hughes, things did not look quite so bright.
It had become quite clear at this early stage that One Nation would only get a few seats at most at this stage - not the 12 to 16 earlier predicted by Pauline.
For
Pauline this event was something of a family occasion with her three sisters,
very rarely seen at political events, joining her for the evening.
From left to right: Carol, Judy and Lorraine. Pauline's father was there too but was sick and would not come into the hall.
At about 8.30pm Pauline was interviewed by a number of commercial television stations. At this stage she was still confident of retaining Blair - although with about 20% of the vote counted her support had slipped from 57% after preferences had been distributed to just 52% and the Mt Crosby polling booth where I had voted had been a disaster for One Nation with only 20% of the 2000+ votes going to One Nation in this strong Liberal area.
First Channel 7 interviewed Pauline:
Then Channel 9:
Back
at the computer things were not looking too good. The Blair results had not
changed for about an hour with the figure of 52.5% after preferences sitting
glaring back at a small group of concerned key One Nation personalities.
Pauline Hanson flanked by her campaign manager Ross McConnell and the party's number one Senate ticket in Queensland, Heather Hill, smiled back bravely at the camera. Graeme Wicks at Wide Bay had fallen well behind and now Pauline, alone, stood as One Nation's only hope of a lower house seat.
When the much awaited Blair update came through at about 9pm you could have cut the air with a knife.
The mood of the room changed as the word spread. One Nation in Blair had dropped to just 47.89% of the vote after preferences had been allocated and this after nearly 80% of the vote was counted. The Liberal's Cameron Thompson, with the help of every other of the eight candidates' preferences, had now nosed ahead of Pauline with just 20% of the primary vote.
Pauline on 37% was dropping behind. A visibly shaken Pauline Hanson watched in awe as the cold computer screen threw up minor updates to the Blair figure - updates which did nothing to increase her chances of gaining the seat.
Back in television land old Blair figures were discussed - the Internet as an information medium had come of age.
I
joined a couple of journalists (who will, at their request, remain nameless)
at the small bar and we talked about a number of issues.
Pauline meanwhile was interviewed, somewhat reluctantly, by another reporter.
At the bar the common theme was that One Nation broke all the rules of engagement with the media - a situation which I could personally fully understand - after the manner in which the party and its supporters had been treated by the editors of the papers..
I expressed the view that the two party machine had resolved, at any cost,
to stamp out the threat
that
had arisen and thus the placement of One Nation last by all on their
"How-to-Vote" cards.
Pauline came across for a brief chat and we posed, brave-faced as the reality dawned on those in the room. Some supporters started to leave, quietly, the jubilance had gone and the talk was now in hushed tones.
The Democrats much-disliked Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja appeared once again on the television sets around the room like an unwanted intruder in the room. This was simply rubbing insult to injury...
Peter
James took Pauline aside suggesting that she give a speech and that the media
be cleared out before she did so.
My new friends from the media beside me at the bar, who I had "broken bread" with made it clear that they would leave the room without hindrance this time. This had, amongst the gloom, been an enjoyable time.
Peter
James went to the podium and asked the media to leave - a move which drew
them like a magnet... until, this time, my new friends led, by example, the
exodus from the room.
I looked around. Perhaps sixty of the hard-core One Nation supporters remained. They looked tired, and lifeless. It had been a long and disappointing night.
Not one federal seat had been won but at least we had gained a Senate seat (Heather Hill). The lion which was the two party system and the preferences allocated in their "how-to-vote" cards had trampled the mouse which had dared to roar.
Pauline Hanson went to the podium and thanked everybody for their support over the last couple of years. Outside the room rows of cameras had lined up against the windows of the hall as the peeping-tom type like actions of cameramen and photographers got the better of them at this private time.
In what must have been an emotionally draining evening Pauline Hanson smiled and laughed as she talked about the events of the last two years.
It
was a time for reflection but, she said, a time for hope as we now had a
Senator in the Parliament and One Nation was not finished by any chance...
even though it had been badly mauled by the major parties.
Heather Hill, the party's new Senator, and Peter Prenzler one of eleven Queensland State MPs watched smiling at some of the incidents that Pauline referred to - incidents that were humorous but sad.
For
Pauline's daughter Lee this was a special day - being her fifteenth birthday.
With a touch of irony we sang "Happy Birthday" to Lee who had joined Pauline and her son Adam on the small stage. The cameras of professional photographers could be heard clicking outside while the television crews, more silently, recorded what should have been a private time.
After her speech Pauline went across to Heather Hill and the emotional wall hit them both.
The irony of the moment was not lost to me
as I remembered the recent party held in a nearby hall in the Ipswich Showgrounds
where it was Heather Hill who had just failed to take the seat of Ipswich
in the
Queensland
State Elections and it was Pauline Hanson who had been comforting
her.
See image right (from that night)... story at the link above.
It was time to go and lick my wounds.
Heather Hill wiped aside a tear reflecting the feelings of those who remained.
In closing let me just say that I have found that politics is a funny things and although the two-party machine in Australia has won this round in defeating a new challenger. The political landscape in this country has forever been changed by Pauline Hanson - the red head from Ipswich.
One Nation is by no means finished - it has just begun.
The party suffered under extreme financial constraints in the lead up to the Federal Election. Now with several million dollars available to it from the good overall percentage of primary votes received across the country (about 9%) the party will be able to establish proper offices, run real campaigns and spend real money on promoting its core values and ideals in a world that has forever changed for the mainstream media as well.
No longer will the print and television media reign supreme. The One Nation web page and related, now historical, on-line articles since its inception has forged the way for a new political tool free of the encumbrances of the media barons and their own vested interests.
Here are the actual One Nation stats for the week of the election:
By the time the next federal election comes around the interest in this new information technology as a political tool will be a tide compared to the ripple that it is today.
Pauline Hanson has in the meantime, however, made history in cyberspace as well becoming the first cyber-politician on the Internet.
The closing AEC results last night, in summary are as follows:
One Nation gained about 9% of the primary lower
house vote nationwide with 80% counted.
| % Counted | 80% | 75% | 76% | 75% |
| State: | QLD | SA | WA | NSW |
| PHON | 14.99% | 9.77% | 10.17% | 9.66% |
| Say No to Hanson (Unity Party) |
0.46% | - | 0.21% | 1.68% |
| Democrats | 8.07% | 12.37% | 6.58% | 7.29% |
| Nationals | 9.42% | 0.46% | 9.3% | ? |