She is truly hideous in so many respects -- though I think we have worse politicians, perhaps because they have more structural effect. Her main effect is rhetorical -- she's a place and a way for people to voice outrageously prejudiced and oppressive positions.
There's no way she'll go to jail.
Their site is at http://www.onenation.com.au -- she wrote to my son once when he was doing some survey on opinions about Australian unemployment. What struck me most about that letter were her passionate nostalgic fantasies, her belief that Australia was once good. I always thought the racism came first but it's more like at that 'better' time Australia was for her clearly also 'white' and her racism lets her use the whiteness to explain how to get back there. Sad really.
She does influence other major parties' policies, but its a tense thing - they want to 'reach' her constituency, but they would never dare be actually associated with her.
Catherine ----- Original Message ----- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> Date: Friday, July 13, 2001 0:51 am Subject: Fwd: Fraud Charges Against Australia's One Nation Party
> [So, Australians, what's up with her & her party? And how much
> have
> mainstream politicians adopted her message?]
>
> Charges Against One Nation Leader
>
> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
> Filed at 4:58 a.m. ET
>
> CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- The One Nation Party, which has shaken
> Australia with its attacks on immigrants and Aborigines, is
> fighting for its
> life with its firebrand leader facing electoral fraud charges that
> could land
> her behind bars.
>
> Pauline Hanson is to appear July 31 on charges of electoral fraud,
> following a 21-month police investigation into allegations she
> fraudulentlyclaimed One Nation had 500 members in 1997 -- a
> prerequisite for its
> registration as a political party.
>
> If convicted, Hanson faces up to 10 years in jail, which would
> amount to a
> death sentence for the party, said Margo Kingston, author of ``Off The
> Rails,'' a book about the One Nation leader.
>
> ``It would die with her. It's a party based on a cult,'' said
> Kingston.
> A flamboyant 47-year-old mother of four who once owned a fish and chip
> shop, Hanson is seen as a savior by supporters who fear Australia's
> conservative British traditions are being eclipsed by liberal
> social reforms
> and Asian immigrants. Detractors see a racist politician who has
> dividedAustralia and damaged its standing in the region.
>
> Mainstream lawmakers and analysts write off Hanson and her party as
> reactionary with no plausible policies. The media have dubbed the
> party``One Notion.''
>
> The party rose to prominence in 1998 when its anti-establishment
> platformopposing Asian immigration, welfare for Aborigines and
> economicglobalization attracted almost a quarter of the vote to
> win 11 seats in the
> Queensland state legislature.
>
> At a 1998 federal election the party won almost 9 percent of the vote
> nationally.
>
> Hanson held a seat in federal Parliament for one term as an
> independentlawmaker and shocked the nation in 1996 when, in her
> first speech, she
> claimed Australia was ``in danger of being swamped by Asians.''
> She also
> advocates barring foreign investment in Australia and ending
> Canberra'sforeign aid programs.
>
> By 2000, analysts had written the party off after internal
> bickering tore it
> apart, but it made a surprise comeback in Queensland and Western
> Australian state elections early this year.
>
> ``This has been the most chaotic party in Australian history and
> it doesn't
> matter what happens to the party they still seem to poll well,''
> said Antony
> Green, an electoral analyst with the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
>
> Attracting mainly right-leaning voters, its success is spreading
> alarm in
> Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government which is
> seeking a
> third term at elections expected in November or December.
>
> Police have not detailed the charges, but they are believed to
> relate to One
> Nation's establishment in 1997, when Hanson claimed it had 500 members
> in order to register it as a political party. At the time, the
> party
> is believed
> to have had fewer than 500 members.
>
> Hanson told The Associated Press the fraud charges were a
> political ploy
> to torpedo her campaign for a Senate seat.
>
> ``I do believe it's a witch hunt, but I am in a position where I
> cannot make
> comments about it,'' she said.
>
> Authorities have not set a date for trial and it could be months
> beforehearings open. In the meantime, Hanson is free to run for
> the Senate.
>
> Hanson says her party is still growing, recently opening its 250th
> branch,and will field candidates in all 149 House of
> Representatives seats and
> Senate candidates in all states.
>
> Kingston said Hanson could win a Senate seat if she is not
> convicted, but
> the party itself is in decline.
>
> ``In the medium-term One Nation will die, but the forces it
> unleashed have
> produced a flowering of new parties that realize they can
> intervene in the
> two-party structure and make a difference,'' she said.
>
>