Pauline shines in the political gutter, enjoying spoils from wealthy donors

Australians want a leader who has the intelligence to read, understand and cite important information, without getting it wrong, then spreading lies and causing unnecessary angst among Australians, writes assistant editor Belinda Jones.

PAULINE HANSON HAS JUST RETURNED from her “fact-finding” trip to the UK and Europe to, ostensibly, attend the inaugural Far-Right CPAC UK. Her trip also included interviews with Far-Right UK personalities Tommy Robinson, Holly Valance and Rupert Lowe and a luxury holiday with Gina Rinehart in Sicily.

Hanson used the trip to throw shade on Australia at every opportunity. This from the woman who claims to love her country.

In her recent UK CPAC address to an almost empty room, Hanson referred again to “18,000 people” on ASIO’s terror watch list, a claim that has been debunked in Senate Estimates by ASIO director Mike Burgess.

But Hanson proudly claims that she doesn’t attend Senate Estimates (even though it’s part of the job taxpayers are paying her to do) and lies about how much she attends Senate sitting days, so she continues to strut the world stage spreading lies about Australia and refusing to apologise for it. That's not integrity, it's ignorance and it's taking the piss.

Perhaps if Hanson actually turned up for work more often she'd have a greater understanding of the issues Australia is dealing with.

Hanson said she first became aware of “18,000 people” on a terror watch list in early 2026; in March 2026 this lie was categorically denied in Estimates, yet Hanson continues to spread this disinformation.

There are currently fewer than 100 Australians on ASIO’s terror watch list according to its Director.

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Hanson’s confusion with this vital statistic can possibly be explained in either of two ways.

The first possible explanation is that she has confused the total number of people who have been investigated by ASIO over many years for many different reasons with the current watch list.

Or, secondly – and the most likely reason – she has confused Australian statistics for U.S. statistics. Around the same time as Hanson started quoting these false statistics, there was a similar story from the U.S. quoting a figure of 18,000 people on a terror watch list.

It’s very concerning that Hanson either doesn’t understand critical information given out publicly by Australia’s security organisations, or she doesn’t have advisors intelligent enough to explain it to her.

For any politician with aspirations to be prime minister, this is a huge problem. Prime ministers must be able to understand the information given to them about national security by Australia’s security agencies; in Hanson’s case, she has shown she is incapable of this basic level of understanding of critical and highly sensitive information.

In March 2019, Hanson addressed the media in an 18-minute diatribe, taking no questions, just before the airing of Al Jazeera’s How To Sell A Massacre program. The program exposed One Nation’s James Ashby and Steve Dickson trying to secure foreign donations from the U.S. National Rifle Association (NRA) for One Nation.

Hanson claimed the program was a sting operation and that she had been invited but declined to attend because:

“I felt there was no reason to talk with Americans when my voters are here in Australia.”

It now seems that Hanson does see political value in visiting the U.S. or the UK.

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Apart from Hanson’s recent two-week UK and Europe jaunt, she has previously visited the U.S. with mining magnate Gina Rinehart, skipping sitting days in Parliament to attend CPAC at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. That trip meant she had to miss two Parliament sitting weeks. She used the opportunity to trash talk Australia and praise Donald Trump.

To date, Hanson has not yet lodged any updates to the pecuniary interests register to reflect who paid for her recent trip to the UK and Europe but has claimed that taxpayers did not pay for her luxury resort in Sicily, implying that taxpayers would be paying for the UK leg.

Hanson has been negligent in updating her interests register in the past, often submitting information beyond the official time limit or not at all.

And while Hanson was away, another One Nation Senator, Malcolm Roberts, was getting media attention for his Far-Right conspiracy theories, and Barnaby Joyce (the one often at the centre of scandal) attempted to clean up the media fallout from Hanson’s trip.

Joyce's frustration was apparent in his ABC 7.30 interview with Sarah Ferguson when, mid-interview, he bizarrely bellowed at a dog.

Ferguson also questioned him about a $40,000 cheque from Gina Rinehart he received in 2017. Joyce said he “immediately” gave it back after the political backlash. Joyce could not explain why it was unacceptable for him to accept Gina’s cheque but okay for Hanson to receive millions of dollars in luxury holidays and gifts — including a private aeroplane with an estimated value of $1.5 and $2.1 million from Gina Rinehart.

In essence, One Nation’s problems centre around the fact that Hanson has very poor advisors who allow her to strut the world stage talking nonsense and lies. The common denominator here is Hanson’s Chief of Staff, James Ashby.

Ashby has been Hanson’s adviser for many years and has shown, through incidents like the NRA scandal, or more recently, throwing an ABC crew out of a press conference, that he wields incredible power over Hanson.

The pattern seems to be that Hanson acts on Ashby’s advice, things inevitably go pear-shaped, then Hanson has to “clarify” her remarks, her position or the reasons for her latest stunt or media appearance debacle.

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Hanson’s trip to the UK and Europe also proves she doesn’t have the political nous to pivot in her position despite her circumstances changing.

As One Nation has climbed in the polls, the party has not elevated its game; Hanson has doubled down and “refuses to apologise” for anything she says or does, including hanging out with convicted criminal and racist Tommy Robinson.

Australians are asking themselves if Hanson is really fit to lead? Recent polls show that their answer is firmly in the negative.

Australians can see Hanson’s money trail leads directly to Gina Rinehart and they want to know what the quid pro quo is, which Hanson won’t explain.

Australians want a leader who is not constantly poorly-advised or easily led into embarrassing or controversial situations with questionable characters.

Hanson has not built a solid team of measured advisors around her and relies mostly on Ashby, whose advice appears to constantly provide the reason for her being in perpetual damage control.

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Australians want a leader whose focus is Australians, not strutting the world stage to appear at eye-wateringly expensive think-tank conferences just to denigrate Australia.

Australians want a leader who is not beholden to billionaire backers and truthful about their expensive gifts and what those billionaires want in return for those gifts.

Australians want their elected senate representatives to turn up to work and do their bloody job, instead of partying and having luxury holidays with Gina Rinehart and Donald Trump. They don’t want their potential leaders hanging out with five-time convicted criminals and racists who have been twice denied a visa because they failed Australia’s character test.

Australians want a leader who has the intelligence to read, understand and reference important information, like statistics and national security briefings, without getting it wrong, then spreading lies and causing unnecessary angst among Australians.

Australians have given Hanson a window of opportunity in the polls to step up and show the electorate what she’s got to offer. Unfortunately, Hanson is proving that she cannot pivot from her culture wars position in the political gutter. She simply can’t step up.

This is an abridged version of an editorial originally published in the Independent Australia weekly newsletter, which may be read online in the IA members-only area.

Belinda Jones is an IA assistant editor, and a former teacher and federal political candidate. You can follow Belinda Jones on Twitter @belindajones68.