If you’re morbidly fascinated by Pauline Hanson and One Nation, looks like tonight’s Four Corners will be one to keep a close eye on.
According to party insiders, bitter power struggles are consuming the hard-right, anti-immigration party, with former candidates and loyalists claiming it is run like a “brutal dictatorship” by Pauline and they were intimidated and financially pressured by the leader.
Former Western Australian One Nation candidate Dane Sorensen showed the ABC a so-called “candidate agreement” form that all candidates had to sign before they could stand for the election. It included a $250,000 penalty payable to One Nation if the candidate quits the party after being elected.
Sorenson claims that it is not intended to recoup “administrative costs” as the party claims. “It doesn’t bear any relationship to the costs of you being elected, it’s a punitive measure designed purely to intimidate and frighten people,” he said. The agreement also reportedly stipulates that candidates pay upfront fees as well as regularly quarterly donations if they are elected.
“If the public knew what went on in the party I don’t think they’d have anything to do with One Nation,” Sorenson said.
One Nation candidate Margaret Dodd, who quit the party just before the WA election, says that insiders believe the party is purely about power for Pauline and not any kind of lofty political ideals.
“It is not what I thought it was. I thought Pauline was this ordinary person, fighting for the battlers,” Dodd said. “She is a populist, she goes on things that will get her the attention that she wants, get her in that power position that she wants.
Sounds juicy. Check out Four Corners tonight on the ABC at 8:30pm.
Source: ABC.
Photo: Getty Images.
