>Hanson and her One Nation cronies have faced various charges like this and
>they all go back a few years, to the time when the main right parties were
>seriously threatened in some of their rural and semi-urban heartlands, by
>the Hansonites. In the long period in which the cases have been awaiting
>court, One Nation has repeatedly splintered and self-destructed. As the
>article says, the peak of their success was 11 MPs elected to the Queensland
>state parliament in 1998 -- and only two of these MPs remain.
>
>A three year sentence seems high for this kind of offence --- personally, I
>hope it is reduced or even suspended, to prevent martyrdom.
I agree. Such a heavy sentence for a technical infringement of the Electoral Act is really stupid.
There was no intention to defraud electoral funding, Hanson and Etteridge were actually setting out to defraud One Nation supporters. Thousands of people flocked to join One Nation, but Hanson & co were paranoid that these people might want some kind of say in the decisions of the party. Being a fascist at heart, she naturally wanted to be an absolute ruler, with the final say on everything. So the actual One Nation party was set up with only three members, only those three would have a voice in the party. All the rest, who thought they were joining the party were signed up into a "supporters group". They came along to meetings and did all the grunt work, without realising that they would get no say in decisions.
Problem was, One Nation registered the political party using the names of the supporters group, who were not technically members of the party. Hoisted on their own petard, as the saying goes. Its exquisitely ironic that they have been caught out by their own anti-democratic obsessions. But three years jail is stretching it I reckon, such a harsh sentence achieves nothing. After all, its already cost them half a million dollars in public electoral funding, which they had to give back.
Of course our American readers won't be able to understand why it was important to Hanson that she prevent her political party from being democratically controlled by its members. But outside the US the machinery of a political party are important. In the US of course political parties have no influence in elections, but here they actually get to select their own candidates and thus have some influence on policies. In America political parties are all legally forced to be nothing more than "supporters groups", with no say in selecting candidates, thus no influence on their own policy platforms. Hanson would be right at home, but I suppose being a felon she will now be barred even from entry into the US.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas