Hervey
Bay is about an hours drive north of Gympie. After Barbara Hazelton's most
welcome invitation I was bundled into a car with Vanessa, Heidi and Barbara
(seen here with me on the right).
Hervey
Bay is about an hours drive north of Gympie. After Barbara Hazelton's most
welcome invitation I was bundled into a car with Vanessa, Heidi and Barbara
(seen here with me on the right).
The trip to Hervey Bay was a real eye opener. It became very, very obvious that a strong bond of friendship had developed between these women with the media's image of Barbara Hazelton being a much maligned, conniving individual despised by her work mates being so far off track to not even being in the ball game.
Barbara is anything but what the media have portrayed in the past. She speaks straight down the line and has earned an enormous, sincere respect from Pauline Hanson's staff at the Ipswich office. She is a very close confidant of Pauline's.
We arrived about an hour before the meeting was due to start and settled in to our rooms at the Delfino Apartments (great value for money).
I was to share a three bedroom apartment with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) who accompany Pauline Hanson everywhere. There was Jock and Henry who had accompanied Pauline Hanson and the two Davids when they had come for supper at my house several months before.
Jock was to confide in me the next morning that he "needed to get a break
from time to time as he could not keep up with Pauline Hanson's exhaustive
and ongoing schedule"... one could sense that he was seeing another angle
of the Hanson
phenomenon.
The AFP did a reconnaissance of the venue and reported back that things did not look good - even though there was not one protester the mood of those attending did not look friendly. It appeared as if there was a score to be settled with the two Davids in Hervey Bay tonight.
After Malcolm Taylor (the Hervey Bay president) attempted to register One Nation Queensland in his own name his pre-signed resignation was dated and accepted by the Manly head office. In the week leading up to the meeting that I was about to attend Malcolm Taylor had been unanimously re-elected as President by the membership of the Hervey Bay branch and a vote of no confidence in the Manly office had been passed by the branch .
I went along a few minutes early with David Oldfield. The hall was packed with about 200 One Nation members - mainly from Hervey Bay - but with representatives from as far afield as Bundaberg.
Pauline entered the hall after a short interview with the local newspaper and Channel 7 television station.
David Ettridge addressed the assembly along the same lines that he had at Gympie, not holding any punches and being very forthright about his views on the actions of the Hervey Bay president, Malcolm Taylor, who was present at the meeting.
Ettridge mentioned the fact that when given the opportunity Taylor refused to hand the registration over to Pauline Hanson - offering her the position as "Patron" while One Nation Queensland was registered in his (Taylor's) name.
Pauline Hanson, again off-the-cuff, spoke to the Hervey Bay branch along the lines of her Gympie speech confirming her total confidence in the two Davids and that she had no confidence in Malcolm Taylor after his action in registering One Nation Queensland without consulting her first.
A member of the Hervey branch asked if Malcolm Taylor would be given the right to reply by the One Nation executive and Hanson said yes that that would be fine.
This
is most of what Malcolm Taylor said in response (the balance I could not
transcribe in time):
"I have refused to talk to the media. I have refused to talk to the television stations (who have dogged me).
"I must defend myself.
"I will be the first to admit that I have erred in my decision to register One Nation Queensland.
"When I signed the document I had to spew because I was so upset about what I had done.
"We never had the intention to cause a division.... I sleep in the back of my truck or sometimes on the side of the road while going out (for One Nation) to drum up support.
"I
will be the first to apologise for what I have done."
When Taylor sat down an acquaintance of Pauline Hanson, Alf Dennis (left), after an altercation with David Oldfield over comments that had allegedly been made, walked out of the meeting.
Pauline Hanson, of her own accord, ran after Alf. After about ten minutes talking to him in the foyer returned with him into the hall to the cheers of One Nation members assembled at the meeting. Alf stayed on for the rest of the meeting.
These
were truly emotional moments, moments when dedication, friendships and even
the party itself was potentially at risk..
The moment passed and one could not help feeling that the trauma had, if anything, created new bonds of friendship and understanding and that Pauline Hanson's One Nation had succeeded in weathering the storm of dissension through the two meetings that took place that day.
The motion proposed by Keith Bever of Bundaberg branch that "Members move a motion of support for both the Davids and Pauline Hanson" was unanimously approved to cheers and clapping.
The image on the left, taken after the meeting, is of three self-proclaimed sxxx-stirrers from Bundaberg, namely:
Maree Peterson - Membership Recorder.
Jim Pearce - Vice President.
Brian Griffin - Committee Member.