The Age (Melbourne) - August 21, 2003
Hanson behind bars By Geoff Strong
In the end it was over in the shutting of a door. Pauline Hanson the red-haired rocket who shot across Australia's political landscape in the 1990s was led away to jail late yesterday.
Alternating between tears and anger, she finally adopted a defiant swagger as court officers took her and fellow One Nation founder David Ettridge to the basement lock-up of the Brisbane District Court after they had been found guilty of electoral fraud.
Hanson, who had been the voice of those Australians who felt marginalised by globalisation, Asian migration and Aboriginal activism, was led away handcuffed and facing strip searches as she and Ettridge prepared for their first night in custody at the Brisbane watchhouse before being processed for prison.
Lawyer Chris Nyst said he would lodge an appeal first thing today.
Defiant to the end, Hanson at one stage called out "Rubbish!" and was advised by one of her lawyers to be quiet.
District Court chief judge Patsy Wolfe told the pair their actions in fraudulently registering One Nation in Queensland in late 1997 had corrupted and undermined public confidence in the political and electoral process.
After less than one day of deliberations the jury of five women and seven men announced the verdict at 2.30pm.
The Crown's case was based on claims made by the pair in registration with the Queensland Electoral Commission that members of the party's supporters group were genuine members of the party. The court found that in reality the only party members were Hanson, Ettridge and campaign director David Oldfield. Under Queensland law a party can register only if it has 500 members eligible to vote in that state.
Hanson and Ettridge founded One Nation in 1997 after she had been elected the year before as an independent for the Queensland federal seat of Oxley.
She made headlines in her maiden speech attacking Asian immigration and Aboriginal activism.
The jury found Ettridge, 58, guilty on one count of fraudulently registering the party. Hanson, 49, was found guilty on an identical charge and two charges of fraudulently obtaining two cheques from the Queensland electoral commissioner totalling $498,637 after the 1998 election.
When the jury had been discharged, Hanson told the court: "I am still very innocent of the charges. I believe the prosecution has not proven the charges against myself or David Ettridge."
After Crown prosecutor Brendon Campbell called for a significant custodial sentence, Ettridge, who represented himself, said: "I am still coming to grips with the decision of the jury. I have been treated to a considerable amount of perjury in the trial." He said the trial was dishonest and asked the judge "not to give credit to witnesses who lied to the court". He said the trial was a "disgrace and a sham".
Mr Nyst said the action of Hanson and Ettridge was a technical breach of the registration process and was not an attack on democracy. This, he argued, was because although the party had only three members, it had tens of thousands of supporters.
But Judge Wolfe said the 1998 Queensland poll, in which 11 One Nation members won seats, the former coalition government was defeated and a minority Labor Government came to power, might have had a different outcome had One Nation not been registered as an official party. She said it gave them a legitimacy in the eye of voters, the right to have the party name next to the name of candidates on ballot papers and the right to electoral funding if they scored more than 4 per cent of the vote.
In sentencing Hanson, who is now unemployed, Judge Wolfe acknowledged publicity surrounding the case had severely damaged any chances of resurrecting her political career.