Senator Pauline Hanson is a person who has always stood apart from the career politicians who are more worried about protecting their carefully sculpted public image and careers than speaking the plain truth. The media love her for the sensational headlines but can’t explain her seemingly evergreen resilience to their collective scorn.
Perhaps it’s precisely their scorn that fuels her perpetual adoration by an electorally significant number of Aussies who crave something simpler than a finely spun “message of the day”. For sure, reporters love anyone actually answering their questions instead of masterfully deflecting them.
Perhaps it’s just that she gives a sense of actually listening. Pauline has strong opinions, but when shaking hands in community halls and away from the spotlight, she’s actually listening to people and not lecturing them. This is obviously more easily admired by the average Aussie than the shallow populism we’ve come to expect from the major parties whose policies shift with the winds of consecutive Newspolls and shrill activists.
But not unlike other celebrity politicians who’ve come to distrust mainstream media for pretty good reasons, it’s not very easy to get an interview with her. While President Donald Trump cuts the media off at the knees 140 characters at a time, the One Nation Party team has masterfully employed Facebook to similarly communicate directly with their base.
So after a seemingly very long time trying to make it happen I was delighted and privileged to actually get to spend some time yesterday with Senator Hanson. In the videos below the One Nation Party leader explains her thoughts on the Family Law Court System, Asian and Muslim Immigration, and the issues that she thinks voters in her home state of Queensland should be concerned about in their election which could be less than two months away.
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Senator Pauline Hanson says the Family Law Court System in Australia is broken. Countless men tell of the heartbreak of being separated from their kids unfairly in a system that is so clogged it can take years for matters to be finalised, destroying the lives of families in the mean time. We need more judges, judges need more assistance and to have their time used wisely. Senator Hanson also says the basic assumption should be for shared access to children.
Senator Pauline Hanson explains her opinion on Asian and Muslim immigration and her concerns for negative impacts on Australian culture.
It’s easy to accuse someone of being racist. In fact it’s so frequently misdiagnosed it’s unfortunately lost much meaning. But if someone is honestly unconcerned about skin colour or geographic origins, and only concerned about ideas, values and behaviours, that isn’t racism. Differentiating between positive and negative cultural influences so we can carefully promote the positives and manage the negatives is a responsible approach to determining immigration priorities.
The next state election likely to happen in Australia will be in Senator Pauline Hanson’s home state of Queensland, and there are heaps of issues her One Party wants voters to be concerned about and elect them to solve.
The taxi industry has been given the rough end of the pineapple by government interference in the free market creating an unlevel playing field. They continue to disadvantage domestic small business owners and help major foreign corporations, and the current Labor government refuses to even make a decision about cameras. Are they a public safety issue or not?
Other issues Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party and state leader Steve Dickson want to address in their campaign include
• encouraging new industries and employment with limited payroll tax exemptions
• creating a government-owned state bank to increase competition and assist rural customers in particular
• repealing the Native Vegetation Act
• addressing coal seam gas mining health issues
• the impact of fracking on waterways and the water table
• not selling state assets without the people’s permission
• cut the number of state politicians
• return the Upper House to Qld Parliament
• increasing efficiency and eliminating waste in infrastructure development, government services and bureaucrat salaries.
