Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON) political party currently only has two members in the Australian Parliament and they sit in the Senate.
PHON wants to hold the balance of power in the Australian Parliament after the May 2019 federal election.
In order to gain the required seats in the House of Representatives, in September 2018 the party was secretly promising to subvert Australia's gun laws in an attempt to gain millions from the powerful US gun lobby to assist its federal election campaign.
Al Jazeera, YouTube, 25 March 2019:
A
three-year Al Jazeera investigation into the U.S. gun lobby has uncovered an
effort by an Australian political party to seek millions of dollars in
political funding while offering to soften strict, anti-gun laws in Australia.
Al
Jazeera’s Investigative Unit used concealed cameras to track ‘Pauline Hanson’s
One Nation’, a right-wing, anti-immigration party, as representatives travelled
to Washington, D.C. to hold meetings with the National Rifle Association and
other lobby groups, as well as the energy giant Koch Industries.
One
Nation’s Chief of Staff James Ashby was accompanied on the U.S. visit by Steve
Dickson, the party’s leader in the Australian state of Queensland and a
candidate in upcoming Australian elections. Ashby and Dickson were recorded
seeking up to $US20 million for their election war chest while promising to
soften laws, put in place following a massacre in Australia in 1996.
The
strict Australian gun laws have often been condemned by the NRA.
Al
Jazeera approached all the groups and individuals featured in this programme.
Despite there being a federal legislated ban on foreign political donations since November 2018 the Al Jazeera video footage clearly shows that just weeks after this ban was put in place Pauline Hanson and One Nation were still considering seeking support from the US gun lobby and the Koch Brothers.
Having been publicly exposed One Nation now denies it had any intention of watering down national gun laws.
However, it is clear from the Al Jazeera video that One Nation was promising to open doors for the National Rifle Association with the aim of assisting that exact purpose, because it believed that any significant increase in One Nation representation in the Australian Parliament after the next federal election meant it would have the government "by the balls".
The video also reveals that it was canvassing the possibility of concealing any funding it might receive from the US gun lobby by arranging for the NRA to create and pay for a social media campaign for One Nation's benefit in the lead up to the May 2019 federal election, as well as using the Koch Brothers' network of companies to hide the source of any donations they might make.
After initially pleading intoxicated bragging while in the US Pauline Hanson's Chief of Staff then had this to say.
"You're best buddies with Al Jazeera, ABC." and "You're a very rude man." James Ashby get aggro with the ABC. #qldpol #auspol pic.twitter.com/3SkB3JfiUk— David Marler (@Qldaah) March 26, 2019
Prior to these revelations Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP Scott Morrison had refused to rule out the Liberal Party preferencing Pauline Hanson's One Nation ahead of The Greens and Labor at the federal election.
He partially walked back from this position and announced that the Coalition will be placing PHON below Labor on how-to-vote cards in all states and territories except Queensland. However he would not commit to putting PHON last.
So it is looking as though One Nation may possibly get a third member into the Senate.
WARNING TO QUEENSLAND VOTERS
Note:
According to The Guardian on 7 March 2018 Australian gun lobby groups spent more than $500,000 helping minor right wing parties, including One Nation, win seats in the Queensland state election in 2017.
According to ABC News on 27 March 2019 the Australian gun lobby has donated $1.7 million to political parties since 2011 and now per capita spends as much on political donations and campaigns as the US National Rifle Association (NRA).
He partially walked back from this position and announced that the Coalition will be placing PHON below Labor on how-to-vote cards in all states and territories except Queensland. However he would not commit to putting PHON last.
So it is looking as though One Nation may possibly get a third member into the Senate.
WARNING TO QUEENSLAND VOTERS
Pauline
Hanson’s One Nation Queensland official and Senate candidate in 2019 Steve Dickson has a dream voters should
be aware of:
“I’m going to be in one
of those drug dealing mansions on the beach. I’ll hire it for a month. The ones
that are 25 rooms and the chef and everything. We’ll drink and shoot the s**t [out]
of everything down the water. Machine guns and everything. That’s my dream….And
we can protect ourselves just in case” [Steve
Dickson in How to Sell a Massacre Part
2, You Tube 27 March 2019]
According to The Guardian on 7 March 2018 Australian gun lobby groups spent more than $500,000 helping minor right wing parties, including One Nation, win seats in the Queensland state election in 2017.
According to ABC News on 27 March 2019 the Australian gun lobby has donated $1.7 million to political parties since 2011 and now per capita spends as much on political donations and campaigns as the US National Rifle Association (NRA).
According to The Sydney Morning Herald on 27 March 2019 the number of firearms in Australia is
dramatically higher than before the Port Arthur massacre that killed 35 people,
raising fears the gun lobby’s efforts to relax national restrictions are
bearing fruit. Pre-Port Arthur in 1996 there were est. 3.2 million firearms in
Australia, the post-Port Arthur gun buyback under theAustralian
National Firearms Agreement saw that number reduced to est, 2.5
million but by 2017 firearms held in the private hands had risen to 3.6 million.
Gun ownership
per capita has fallen reportedly since the Port Arthur massacre, with gun
number increases since 1997 reflecting the fact that multiple guns are now being
held by individuals. The highest numbers of gun owners appear to be in rural/regional northern
and central NSW. Grafton and environs is an area with 7,930 registered guns, spread across the collections of 2,043 owners, with
one individual owning 91 registered firearms according to The Daily Examiner on 12 April 2016.
Despite the
rise in gun possession since 1997 the number
of homicide incidents involving a firearm decreased by 57 percent between
1989-90 and 2013-14. Firearms were used in 13 percent of homicide incidents
(n=32) in 2013-14. In 1989-90 it was 24 percent (n=75) of incidents,
according to Crime
Statistics Australia.
By
2016 the overall number of firearm deaths from all causes in Australia stood at 247 for that year which was
a firearm death rate of 1 in 100,000 down from a rate of 3.4 deaths per 100,000 in
1990.
