As Sydney’s southern suburbs were beset by mob violence for the second day, the leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Bob Brown, said the Prime Minister had “failed the nation”.
Brown accused John Howard of engaging in “dog-whistle politics”, an allegation first levelled at the Liberal leader over his attitude to Pauline Hanson in 1996 and asylum-seekers in 2001. [Read more…]
The Queensland Crime And Misconduct Commission has found that the prosecution of Pauline Hanson was conducted properly and without evidence of political pressure.
The CMC specifically exonerated federal Liberal minister Tony Abbott, saying his involvement “in events leading up to the institution of proceedings to deregister the party did not produce or constitute a failure of due process”.
Hanson and David Ettridge, co-founders of One Nation with David Oldfield, were convicted and jailed on fraud charges arising out of the registration of the party with the Queensland Electoral Commission in 1997. [Read more…]
The Queensland Court of Appeal has overturned the convictions of Pauline Hanson and David Ettridge.
The One Nation founders were convicted in the District Court of Queensland on August 20, 2003 and sentenced to three years in jail.
The Court of Appeal heard the appeal yesterday and delivered judgment today.
Prime Minister John Howard has had a willing encounter with an ABC interviewer who quizzed him over Tony Abbott’s involvement in the legal action against One Nation.
Howard appeared on the AM program. He was interviewed by Catherine McGrath.
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Transcript of John Howard’s interview with Catherine McGrath on AM.
MCGRATH:
Mr Howard, good morning. Tony Abbott said last night that in 1998 he thought it was very important that the One Nation juggernaut, he called it, be stopped. Did you think that back then? [Read more…]
This is the audio and transcript of Tony Abbott’s interview with Kerry O’Brien on The 7.30 Report on August 27, 2003.
It took place one week after Pauline Hanson and David Ettridge were found guilty of electoral fraud and sentenced to three years in jail.
Hanson and Ettridge were accused of falsely claiming that 500 members of a support movement were members of “Pauline Hanson’s One Nation”, enabling it to be registered as a political party and to claim electoral funding.
In August 2003, Tony Abbott was a cabinet minister in John Howard’s government. He was Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service.
Following the jailing of Hanson and Ettridge, the part played by Tony Abbott attracted attention because of his role in establishing a trust fund called “Australians for Honest Politics” which had helped fund civil court action against One Nation.
Hanson and Ettridge were released from jail on November 6, 2003, after the Queensland Court of Appeal overturned their convictions.
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Transcript of Tony Abbott’s interview with Kerry O’Brien on The 7.30 Report.
O’BRIEN: Welcome to the program.
And again tonight we look at the storm over senior Government minister Tony Abbott, his involvement in trying to bring down Pauline Hanson through the courts back in 1998 and whether or not he lied to the ABC’s ‘Four Corners’ over a promise to fund a civil court action against Ms Hanson by One Nation dissident Terry Sharples. [Read more…]
