Honesty and integrity or a grab for cash?
On Wednesday July 15, 2015, One Nation posted on their website an article titled HANSON TAKES HER MAIDEN FLIGHT IN HER NEW PLANE.
Miss Hanson said, “I am proud to announce, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation will be launching their new plane just finished being built by an Australian company last week. The maiden flight will be at the Caloundra airport at 10am followed by the first official flight to Rockhampton this Friday, to attend the Reclaim Australia Rally on Sunday.”
“I am thankful to now have a plane as this will enable me to visit people around the state, and interstate, including those in small remote communities who have never had their representative take the time to visit them.”
Pauline invited the media and public to attend the plane’s unveiling at the Caloundra Airport the next day.
On July 28, 2015, in an article in the ABC Sunshine Coast, James Ashby said he helped Ms Hanson find an Australian-made plane because, “Pauline’s all about keeping things local”. They travel to a political event at least once a week, he said.
On January 16, 2016, The Australian reported One Nation boss Pauline Hanson boasting about her frugality:
Senator Pauline Hanson says she fills her own plane with petrol and drives herself to the airport, parking in the budget carpark and getting a bus to the terminal.
The Queensland senator says she also always travels economy and if she needs to go to remote places she uses her own plane at One Nation’s expense.
“I’ve still got my plane, well the party’s plane, but all the trips I’ve done in that since the election I’ve filled it up myself,” Senator Hanson told Sky News.
On January 18, 2017, Independent Australia revealed that the plane was, in fact, registered to James Ashby personally and was acquired by Ashby on 5 June 2015.
Fast forward to April 2017 and now James Ashby says that the plane is his and he has nothing to hide.
Ashby has told the Huffington Post Australia that the plane, whose funding and ownership was brought into question by a Four Corners investigation, is owned by his company and he regards it as his.
While Ashby has told HuffPost Australia that the plane is privately owned by him, he did not explicitly say where the money came from to purchase the Jabiru.
Regardless, he said “I have done nothing wrong” and stated that all flying hours in the plane used for political purposes have been declared.
When One Nation Treasurer Ian Nelson started questioning James Ashby’s growing control over the party and some questionable reporting practices for donations, he was promptly removed and replaced by Hanson’s brother-in-law Greg Smith. Keep it in the family.
On March 23, 2017, The Australian reported that the Australian Electoral Commission has launched an audit of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, amid revelations of an internal brawl over sensitive documents.
Apart from a $191,000 loan made to the party by senator Pauline Hanson and donations from Melbourne high-rise developer Bill McNee, One Nation has only disclosed a small number of financial gifts. Mr McNee, through his company Vicland, has been one of One Nation’s largest backers, donating $57,720 in 2014-15, and $10,000 leading up to last year’s election.
Senator Hanson was reimbursed for her loan last August, drawn down from a $1.62 million election refund from the AEC.
According to the One Nation site, “Pauline has never given up her fight for Parliament and to represent the Australian people with honesty, integrity and determination for a fair go for all.”
It seems increasingly apparent that honesty and integrity have very little to do with Hanson and Ashby’s grab for cash.
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24 comments
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bobrafto
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Kaye Lee
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Terry2
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PeterStevenson
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kerri
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Jai Ritter
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1petermcc
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Kaye Lee
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1petermcc
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Graeme Henchel
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helvityni
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Zathras
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Freethinker
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helvityni
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Jaquix
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bobrafto
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Freethinker
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Miriam English
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Freethinker
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Roswell
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Matters Not
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245179
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Geoffrey England
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Freethinker
Return to home pagePauline was on Sunrise’s payroll which she doesn’t deny or confirm and there is no shortage of suckers in Pauline’s adoring fan base, just ask Ashby.
I’ve always maintained our Pauline is in it for her personal gain now she has an accomplice.
The controversial Queenslander was not only afforded a platform for her messages but news.com.au can confirm she was being paid to appear in the living rooms of Australians.
Michael Pell, the executive producer at Sunrise, said “Pauline is one of a number of paid regular commentators on Sunrise.”
Late last year (2015), days after announcing she would run for the Senate, Hanson refused to say whether she was being paid for her public appearances.
“What business is it of yours or the public?” she said, when asked by Buzzfeed.
“And you know what, whether it is or not, I’m not saying whether I am (being paid) or not. I don’t see it is any of your or the public’s business whether I am paid or not. So I’m not answering your question because it’s none of your business and it’s no one’s concern about any arrangements that I may have, I’ll have you know I am possibly not getting paid for it but then again I’ll state, it’s none of your business.”
http://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/sunrise-admits-paying-pauline-hanson-for-regular-appearances-in-lead-up-to-the-election/news-story/3509f5d399f9d49f8b7cddb9db329888
Possibly not getting paid???? So much for Pauline’s honesty and accountability!
This light aircraft is a play thing for James Ashby and if I were Pauline Hanson I would stick to regular passenger airlines. The Jabiru has a very mixed safety and performance record :
“A study by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found engines built by Jabiru, based in Bundaberg in central Queensland, were more than twice as likely to suffer engine failures, malfunctions, or “spluttering” during flight compared to its competitors.
The ATSB report examined all reported cases of engine failures and malfunctions in light aircraft in Australia in the six years to 2014.
In that time, 322 failures or malfunctions were reported to the ATSB, with 130 involving Jabiru engines, around half due to fractured components, in most cases fractures of “engine through bolt”.”
After the Peter Slipper fiasco I believe James Ashby was installed as manager of the PHON party by the Liberals, consequently they vote with the Liberals in the Senate.
Terry2 your first comment gives me hope!
Peter Stevenson seems likely.
If the plane was to crash Terry, we know it will definitely be labor or the greens fault.
I’d be a tad worried about using Pauline as ground crew. Pumping petrol into an engine designed for Av Gas sounds like an accident waiting to happen.
And surely it should be named the Pauline Hanson Jabiru?
1petermcc,
I am even more worried about using her as a politician. Pauline Hanson’s Australia would be a very ugly place.
Pauline has been making a fortune running for almost every election for the last twenty years. You don’t have to win to get paid.
In 2007, for example, when she was really on the nose she got $213,097 from the AEC for her unsuccessful campaign with Pauline’s United Australia Party
Kaye Lee,
come to think of it, that’s a good point.
Pauline,
knock yourself out.
She is just another politician using ignorance and fears
To keep herself in the headlines for a few more years
She’s changed her targets and honed her shtick
Appealing it seems to the angry and thick
Who is to blame for the reconstitution
Of this populist shrew with no real solution
Somehow I think it’s much more complex
Than a simple appeal to some racist rednecks
The fears that she taps are as old as mankind
Held in the darkest recess of the mind
Exploited by shysters for thousands of years
To garner support from gullible ears
Australia had come a very long way
From the days when white racists held the sway
From Menzies to Fraser and Whitlam to Keating
Saw the country progress and the racists retreating
When Howard was facing near certain dismissal
He developed the art of the racist dogwhistle
First there was Tampa and kids overboard
Then 9/11 ensured that he scored
Ever since then the cards been in play
Assylum seekers, Asians, Muslims the prey
An ugly, divisive, inhuman distraction
Fuelled along by the media’s attraction
And while this ugly game has been played
The stupid emboldened the enlightened dismayed
The rich have got richer the poor not a scrap
Laying more fertile ground for her populist crap
She’s in the game for the power and the money
as cunning as a rat in an outside dunny
Perhaps it’s a good thing she’s got enough rope
To show us that hate can’t win over hope
‘She’s in the game for the power and the money
as cunning as a rat in an outside dunny’
Yes GH, Four Corners showed us how ratty she really is…
Hanson must see herself as some sort of celebrity saviour, like Donald Trump and I remember her gracing us with her presence between elections by “Dancing with the Stars”.
As for Ashby, he’s just the new model David Oldfield replacement and it’s just a matter of time before the story shifts to him in a serious way. I wonder how he’s going financially, considering the Liberals dumped him and withdrew their free legal assistance post-Slipper, leaving him with a large debt.
Last time around Hanson was shafted for perceptions of Electoral fraud and it seems she’s learned nothing since.
Some her supporters have been on talk-back radio typically complaining about ABC bias – shooting the messenger as usual while ignoring the real issue.
So far it’s going the way of Palmer United Mk 2 and I for one am enjoying the circus.
When you she her eyes when things are not in her way shows that she is evil.
Funnily enough $inodino$ sees her as a rather sophisticated lady… The mind boggles…
I thought it was a bit odd when Pauline started talking about “my plane, well One Nation’s plane…” now we see James Ashby quick off the mark moving it into his company’s ownership. Pauline caught out telling porkies again, just as she did re being “honoured to get an invitation to Donald Trumps inauguration” turns out Sen. Roberts begged and pleaded to get this “invitation”. What tossers they are. I notice in the Essential poll this week their support was down to 6% this week, down from 9% a month ago. So perhaps the punters are catching onto the fact that Pauline and James are not the Great White Hope they thought they were.
have a peek.
Pauline have to enter in some kind of agreement or negotiations with Malcolm for doing something with ABC and 4 Corners.
Bloody communists they are………
She’s trying to emulate Joh Bjelke-Peterson. He used to visit remote townships all the time, where he managed to convince people that he was a nice guy, so maintaining his astonishingly corrupt grip on QLD.
Miriam I lived many years in Qld Wide Bay Area and people there think that Joh was the best and the only politician that looked after them.
There is no jope with this kind of un educated people and many of them will vote for One Nation in the next state election.
The ALP know that and for that reason are prepared to vandalise the environment with Adani before loosing the election.
The Queensland government representative signed the unlimited water access to Adani the day after Cyclone Debbie tore through the state’s north so no one took notice of that.
Also, Adani’s water licence is not subject to the scrutiny measures brought in with amendments to Queensland’s Water Act last year.
The ALP is as bad as One Nation and the Coalition.!
Miriam, at times I wonder if she’s trying to emulate Donald Trump. I think she admires him. Sad.
All ‘true’. Visiting ‘remote townships’ has a long history in Queensland politics and yes Joh was elevated to iconic status by many voters. Yet for me, he was the great ar#ehole that spurred my political activism. Thanks Joh.
But just to remind the readers, it was Peter Beattie who took Cabinet meetings to the ‘bush’.
But shit they were a pain in the arse if you happened to be involved. Yes one can imagine they were ‘politically’ valuable but almost a complete waste of time if you were in the business of actually achieving outcomes.
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/library/prspub/1865004/upload_binary/1865004.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf
terry 2…….
the reference you use ( ATSB )…..was so flawed it was farcical. Yes there were “some” engine issues, and they were addressed with “upgrades”……..running out of fuel was deemed ” engine malfunctions”, go figure, and there were several other crazy blames. The jabiru in fact has the enviable reputation of being the SAFEST aircraft to actually survive an emergency out landing for the occupants. The same brand contributes to over 30% of recreational aircraft flying in australia.
ATSB used as a comparison engine, another branded engine costing around $30k……jabiru engine around $16k. ( Same as comparing a Range Rover to a mini moke )
During this “saga”, and the outing of flawed data, there were folks within ATSB scrambling for cover, they stuffed up.
It’s James Ashby FFS. No more need be said of that lying parasitical grub with a probably criminal history to his illustrious name. Goes hand in hand with Hanson’s particular brand of politics.
Looks like that Pauline and her team are not happy with ABC and demanding $600 million cuts to the network on next budget.
On Wednesday Burston told Guardian Australia he had contacted Cormann asking for $600m in cuts to the ABC over four years because the station was “overfunded” and “not utilising money effectively”.
“It’s attacking mainstream and right-of-centre political parties instead of being balanced,” he said, adding that the government “doesn’t have the guts” to cut its funding for allegedly barracking for Labor and the Greens.
Burston cited the Four Corners episode about One Nation as evidence of alleged “leftwing bias”, as well as Andrew Probyn, ABC 7.30’s political correspondent, revealing on Insiders on 26 March that Hanson was due to travel with other parliamentarians to Afghanistan.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/12/cormann-stares-down-one-nations-demand-to-cut-600m-from-abc