Want to know more about One Nation? Follow the money and 'sexy' planes

One Nation supporters consistently say Pauline Hanson is an “average” Australian who speaks her mind and “says what the average person is thinking all the time”.

At least, this is what a few One Nation followers told ABC’s Four Corners recently. One Nation devotees who troll IA on social media also frequently post similar comments, usually calling us “woke lefties”, before being blocked for actually insulting us with more colourful language.

One Nation Victorian State Election candidate Michael Piastrino opined:

“Everyone is sick and tired of the lefty woke crap. Everyone wants One Nation now. And there's some people that will disagree with me, but guess what? Bad luck. We're coming.”

“Bad luck,” indeed. (More about Piastrino below.)

Another common refrain among this cohort is that Hanson will “fight for Australia”. However, given they don’t hang around long enough to provide one, the foundation on which this latter claim relies seems to crumble even before any scrutiny can be applied.

GIFTS GALORE

Unlike Piastrino, we can’t presume to speak for "everyone", but most “average” Australians with whom we interact do not routinely attend $10,000-per-head dinners hosted in sprawling mansions. They don’t go on all-expenses-paid holidays to exclusive resorts with mining billionaires. And they don’t get gifted "sexy" private planes.

Yet Hanson and co enjoy all of these decidedly non-average perks, courtesy of her billionaire backer, Gina Rinehart.

Hanson’s connection with Australia’s richest person is not news, yet astonishingly, it does not appear to deter her supporters, which is interesting given the majority seem to have a huge gripe with Australia’s economy and their share of it.

Hanson’s latest high-profile recruit, king of the planter-boxes Barnaby Joyce’s connection with Gina and her money goes back even further than Hanson’s, and is also well known.

Nonetheless, it should be noted that as Nationals Leader, Barnaby made it to the role of Deputy PM, anyway, so it’s not like Australians haven’t turned a blind eye to such connections before.

Perhaps PHONies supporters think all that money is somehow going to trickle down upon them.

IT'S RAINING MONEY

As well, most average Australians we know don’t hand out hundreds of thousands in donations and loans, as Hanson has done to her own party. She has both donated funds and is listed as a creditor for a loan claimed by the party to have been made on “commercial terms", but for which there are no available details.

Then there are the private business interests, like a "master distillery", which is purported to be bringing in $400-500K per annum, but which is privately owned by Hanson, party director James Ashby and former national executive treasurer Alex Jones. (More about both Ashby and Jones below.)

Certainly Pauline is not average in comparison to other politicians, either. While One Nation general manager Kelvin Morton compared this business venture to 'the Labor Party’s interests in licensed clubs and the Liberal Party’s software company Parakeelia', unlike these examples, the distillery is not owned by One Nation.

Also unlike other political parties, One Nation's constitution has installed Pauline Hanson as president for life, with unlimited power to dictate the party's direction.

And, as Four Corners' Steve Cannane revealed:

"And the national executive — led by Hanson herself — controls the party's bank accounts."

FRIENDS AND CONNECTIONS

Nor are Hanson's staff or political candidates “average”, unless the sample used to quantify this benchmark is based on CVs from prison inmates.

A cursory glance included the following — this is in no way an exhaustive summary.

Victorian One Nation Leader Warren Pickering has admitted to a history of drug use and drink driving.

There's former adviser and convicted rapist Sean Black, who was sentenced to five years in gaol for raping his former wife. Black also threw her down the stairs and crushed her hand in a door before reportedly commenting that she “should change her diet because she bruised easily”.

Victorian One Nation Leader Wayne Pickering recently admitted to a history of drug use and drink driving.

One Nation's Victorian candidate for BerwickMichael Piastrino, a hairdresser, was previously a candidate for the Liberals at the 2022 Victorian State Election. He appeared with anti-lockdown advocates during the campaign and declared Former Premier Dan Andrews would be “brought to justice for the murder of 800 people”. He was later forced to apologise.

Apart from anti-lockdown proponents, Piastrino's personal connections also appear to include Mick Mantzaris, who 'pleaded guilty in 2012 to possessing testosterone, disclosing restricted information and misleading the office of police integrity... The following year he was targeted in a drive-by shooting'.

Paistrino is also friendly with Malaki Salesui, convicted in 2021 for his role in an organised car-theft ring and Anthony Younan, who was found guilty of attacking a Craigeburn family in a drugged-up rampage while acting as a debt collector.

Alex Jones – partner in the lucrative distillery mentioned above – pleaded guilty in 2023 to charges of attempted electoral fraud while working as One Nation's executive treasurer.

And then there's national director James Ashby, who tells reporters to "fuck off" and about whom we published the book, Ashbygate: The Plot to Destroy Australia's Speaker, by investigations editor Ross Jones, back in 2015. (You can read more about Ashby's colourful past here. You can also listen to Ross Jones' podcast with The Guardian's Sarah Martin here.)

LITERALLY NO ANSWERS

Then there are the promises Pauline makes. Pauline and co provide no plan of how such promises will be executed, no informed idea of what is required to deliver them and usually, not even the courtesy of attempting to answer media questions.

The list of journos banned from One Nation media conferences currently includes the ABC, The Guardian and The Age.

Surprisingly, “woke leftie” Independent Australia did manage to interview James Ashby some time back, though, admittedly, it appears he thought we were the UK Independent.

In general, One Nation “policies” extend to disinformation and general idiocy on a wide variety of subjects, such as climate denial, blind support of Trump, and a penchant for drilling and digging every natural resource (just as Gina commands).

Its policy platform is really a set of grievances as opposed to an actual plan offering any solutions.

One Nation is pro the war in Gaza and wars in general, guns in general, and "second chances" for violent rapists. On the other hand, the PHONies are definitely against immigration or support for the migrant community, or abortions or general rights for women, or the gay community, or Muslims or, of course, First Nations people.

Announcements of said policies are sprinkled with regular doses of unfiltered bigotry, racism, misogyny and all the Far-Right hatred that can possibly be mustered, such as:

"How can you tell me that there are any good Muslims?"

~ Pauline Hanson

There are probably many more such grievances, but it’s impossible to list all the hate and anger in just one article — it’s exhausting.

It’s all exhausting, really.

If the above anger and hatred represent what “average” Australians are actually thinking, perhaps they need their heads examined, or perhaps they deserve a Coalition/One Nation government.

But it’s not what the average Australian is actually thinking, of course. This is just another fabrication, created with the money and "sexy planes" of billionaires and spread with the complicity of most of the media. The challenge is to ensure people are informed of the whole picture.

This is an abridged version of an editorial sent to subscribers in the weekly newsletter. Read the full story by subscribing to Independent Australia HERE.

Follow managing editor Michelle Pini on Twitter/X @vmp9 and Bluesky @michellepini.bsky.social, and Independent Australia on Twitter/X at @independentaus, Facebook HERE and Instagram HERE.