One Nation’s James Ashby and the Liberals: Why orange is the new blue

Founder Dave Donovan and managing editor Michelle Pini explore the one consistent thread in the rise of One Nation: the links between Hanson’s right-hand man James Ashby and Liberal Party Far-Right factions.

THERE is a stench about Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON) — the party whose pinup boy is Donald Trump.

Many of its candidates, including its Victorian Leader Warren Pickering, have deeply unsavoury pasts. One of its senior officials, Sean Black, is a convicted rapist. 

Its leader, Pauline Hanson, indeed, spent time in prison for electoral fraud, though the charge was later overturned. 

A PHON MACHIAVELLI

But most unsavoury is the Svengali figure at its very heart: a convicted criminal who gets into brawls at Parliament House, throws phones at his staff, and tells journalists to fuck off, and is now One Nation's national director. James Ashby is the puppet-master pulling the strings of the awkward marionette that is its totemic leader, Pauline Hanson.

It is Ashby, primarily, that Independent Australia has, with limited resources, been deeply focused on investigating and on which we literally wrote the book, Ashbygate: The Plot to Destroy Australia’s Speaker. Bolstered by good-hearted Australians all over the country who helped crowdfund our investigation, IA has exposed Ashby’s deeds to public scrutiny over the last 14 years.

And at the heart of it all is a complex relationship that makes our detailed investigation of Ashby integral to what may be the most important chapter in Australia’s current political history: the connection between One Nation and the Liberal Party, and Australia’s lurch to the Far-Right.

THE PLOT

Ashbygate’s ground-breaking forensic research detailed the Liberal Party plot under then-Leader Tony Abbott to bring down the minority Labor Government by deposing the Independent Speaker, Peter Slipper — a longstanding former Liberal Party MP.

Deeply involved in this affair was Slipper’s chief of staff, James Ashby.

Ashby retained his Liberal Party membership and launched a sexual harassment claim against his boss after meeting with a parade of Liberal Party luminaries, including Cabinet ministers Christopher Pyne, Julie Bishop, Joe Hockey, and Mal Brough, and mining magnate and then-lifetime Liberal Party member, Clive Palmer. Ashby also briefed News Corp publications over Slipper’s alleged expense “rorts”, which resulted in Federal charges against the Speaker.

There is too little time to discuss all the details, which were exhaustively recorded in over 140 articles, but suffice to say that IA's investigations editor Ross Jones showed conclusively in the book that under "mad dog" Opposition Leader Abbott, there had been a Liberal Party plot to subvert the democratic process and bring down the Australian Labor Government. The plot failed and Slipper was eventually exculpated of all the allegations against him, but it destroyed his career.

This secret plan also resulted in irreparable reputational damage for the Labor Government, but not for its Liberal Party instigators or its central protagonist, James Ashby. Once the salacious sexual allegation aspects had been cleared up, the mainstream media Coalition cheer-squad were scarcely interested, but IA continued investigating Ashby, even managing to interview him during his bid for the seat of Keppel in the 2024 Queensland State Election.

With One Nation's recent rise in the polls, thanks largely to the aforementioned media flag-flyers, there has been more public scrutiny of Ashby in the media, but most of this has overlooked the most pertinent detail of all. That is, that One Nation is almost certainly a cat’s paw for the decimated Liberal Party — one that may even deliver them victory in Victoria next month.

OUT OF THE BLUE, INTO THE ORANGE

In 2015, after lying low on the Sunshine Coast and being raided by the AFP, Ashby resurfaced as Pauline Hanson’s right-hand man, chief of staff, pilot and now, One Nation’s national director. Hanson was re-elected to Parliament in 2016 and IA's dogged investigations editor Ross Jones stayed on the case.

In an excellent four-part podcast series on One Nation, The Populist, The Guardian’s Sarah Martin interviewed a wide range of characters about Ashby, including former PM Malcolm Turnbull, former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and IA’s resident Ashby expert Ross Jones.

The podcast presented Ashby as the power behind the throne, if not the power itself. Certainly Ashby, a former radio DJ, is a canny media operator. Since his involvement with this once ascendant but more recently moribund party began, One Nation has attained unexpected heights, with some suggesting it may be heading for power in states such as Queensland and Western Australia.

In The Populist, Sarah Martin asks Ross Jones what Ashby's motivation may have been in executing the Liberal Party plot to bring down the Speaker of the House.

Jones describes Ashby as an "opportunist" and this is an important part of the puzzle:

“Why? What was in it for [Ashby]? What did they [the Liberals] promise him? You asked me before about James' personality; what I didn't say was I think he's definitely a grade-A opportunist — one of the best I've come across.”

And the connections don’t end there. Even a cursory glance at James Ashby’s and, indeed, Pauline Hanson’s political career reveals that behind every One Nation fall and rise is an inextricable link to Australia’s other right-wing party: the Liberal National Coalition.

BUDDIES ON THE HUSTINGS

Not only did both Ashby and Hanson begin their political careers as Liberal Party operatives, but One Nation has most often voted with the Coalition on a host of policy measures. There have been the odd moments where their paths have wavered, but they have almost always been voting buddies on climate change, fiscal policy, law and order, immigration and human rights issues.

Until now, there hasn’t been a formal voting preference deal between the two conservative parties. Nonetheless, at the 2025 Federal Election, One Nation doubled its Senate numbers, courtesy of Coalition preferences.

Certainly, the Coalition has also always enjoyed preference votes from One Nation, as can be seen in the following graph:

The Coalition’s preference votes have often similarly flowed to the orange party, most recently in the South Australian State Election and the Secret Harbour by-election in WA.

There was a time when former Liberal PM John Howard – after initially supporting them – refused to preference One Nation, but then again the Coalition was riding high and possibly knew Hanson would always vote with the Coalition over Labor anyway, so why openly appear to be colluding with lowly far-right factions when you could just reap the rewards regardless?

By outwardly shunning One Nation, the Coalition was able to appear to be the “broad church” he was always harping on about, while simultaneously benefitting from Far-Right vote preferences.

This approach also allowed Howard to tap into the underbelly of racist rumblings exposed by Hanson, while appearing level-headed and comparatively moderate. (Children overboard, anyone?)

More recently, Howard changed his stance once again, arguing that One Nation had somehow evolved and that:

"The idea that people would see the current One Nation party as more extreme than the Greens is ridiculous.”

Say what you will about John Howard (and we’ve said plenty), but there is no diminishing his political acumen.

Today, of course, with the Liberal Party’s once considerable influence but a fading memory, only a few Liberals or Nationals bother denying they will happily enter into preference deals with, come together to form a coalition government, hell, even join One Nation, like one-time National Party Leader and former Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce.

BUDDIES IN THE HOUSE

Then there’s the policy platforms. Let’s just say that while the Liberal Party once had a conservative policy platform that was at least ostensibly less extreme than that of One Nation, there is now no populist benchmark the Libs won’t stoop to emulate or jump to surpass.

Current Federal Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has practically left skid marks in the race to prove the Liberals can be just as populist as the orange party's "policies", including on immigration (of course), climate change denial (unsurprising), workers' rights, such as penalty rates, and even cigarettes (no, really).

BUDDY BACKERS 

PHON and the Coalition also share billionaires and media moguls. It's no secret that Australia's Murdoch-led media has, with a few minor deviations, always backed right-wing parties. It has never backed One Nation with the same vigour, but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures.

And so, today, with the Coalition having little chance of electoral victory without One Nation support, we see the orange wave closer than it's ever been to real political power, catapulted to stardom by consistent and unwavering media attention. After all, it doesn't really matter how far to the right the Fourth Estate takes us, as long as it's always Right.

Finally, we come to the biggest common denominator, the money. And let's face it, money may talk, but it's generally colour blind when it comes to politics, unless the topic du jour is migration. Orange or blue is hardly here or there as long as the interests of big business, such as tobacco and mining, reign supreme.

Enter Gina Rinehart, backer of the Coalition for decades, now also (openly) backing One Nation, even showering Hanson with eye-wateringly expensive gifts, like trips to exclusive European resorts, private planes and $8 million office buildings.  

And at the heart of it all is a complex relationship: the connection between One Nation and the Liberal Party, and Australia’s lurch to the Far-Right. PHON is almost certainly a cat’s paw for the Coalition, now brought to you by Rupert and Gina. 

The question is, will we regress to a fearful, bigoted and racist Australia, towards which the forces on the Right are driving us, or will we reject the politics of hate and division?

There cannot be a more important story.

Listen to an excerpt from The Guardian podcast, 'The Populist: episode 2 - Favourite Son', HERE:

You can purchase 'Ashbygate: The Plot to Destroy Australia's Speaker,' by IA investigations editor Ross Jones, HERE.

Subscribe to Independent Australia to receive articles like this one each week in your inbox here.

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