I was fortunate to be invited to a small fund raiser organised by the yet to be formed Mount Gravatt branch of Pauline Hanson's One Nation.
When I arrived I was quite surprised at the large number of vehicles parked up and down the street as I had been told that this was to be a "small" bar-b-que and raffle. Obviously the attendance of Pauline Hanson at the fundraiser had got around the grapevine. A head count showed that over 70 people had come - and over Au$1,000 was raised by a branch yet to be formed.
I paid my entrance fee and bought tickets for the raffle and then just mixed with the people there. Ordinary Australians, everyday people who, like me, had become concerned about the way the major parties were leading Australia and, for that matter, the state of Queensland. We discussed a whole range of issues from the multilateral agreement on investment (MAI) to the unemployment problems facing this country.
Here are some images of the people who attended the fundraiser. The fellows in the picture on the right are, from left to right, Richard Duffel (the host), Rodger Pryor, Peter Yates and John Bubb (hi Internet aware John!)
There were a number of One Nation Queensland State Election candidates attending the fundraiser. Talk was that over 20 state seats had nominations currently being considered by the One Nation executive. Together with the candidates already selected this meant that One Nation was approaching the 33% of state seats mark. Not bad for a party less than twelve months old!
There were a large number of young people at the gathering. The early threads of the youth wing of Pauline Hanson's One Nation - Pauline Hanson's Young Nation.
The historic photo below shows the group who will probably play a major role in the formation of One Nation's Young Nation. Pauline Hanson is seated on the stairs in their midst.
While
we are destroying some of those media-inspired lies that Pauline Hanson only
attracts white middle aged and old men to her party the image on the right
shows Pauline with some of her friends and supporters from other cultural groups.
Left to right: Sam Tornatore (Italian), Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Chee.
Just like all other free-thinking Australians they have realised that Pauline Hanson is not a racist... how can the dream of giving everybody a "fair go" - treating everybody equally be racist?
The host of the night were president elect of the Mount Gravatt branch, Richard Duffell, and his wife Yvonne, seen below with Pauline Hanson.
After a delicious bar-b-que and a couple of glasses of champagne it was time for the raffle and the speeches. Below left close friend and confidante of Pauline Hanson, Barbara Hazelton wins one of the meat packs.
Pauline Hanson thanked those who had attended for coming and reaffirmed her dream of bringing power back to the people.
It was time to go, the party was in full swing, but I had some work to do. It had been a perfect summer's evening - warm, a little bit of cloud in the air and great company.
Good on ya Pauline, good on ya One Nation, good on ya thinking Australians.