Jennifer Game said One Nation failed to repay her $2,000 nomination deposit and more than $14,000 in claimable expenses from last year's election, and a magistrate ordered the party in June to pay her more than $14,000 in electoral expenses. That’s where the machinery shows its teeth: people front the money, the party takes the benefit, and then the bill gets shoved back down the ladder until a court forces the issue.
Game, who was One Nation’s party leader in South Australia and policy adviser to Pauline Hanson for eight years, said: “They use people.” She said: “It’s not a democratic party in the way that other parties are.” She added: “They’ve got no checks and balances on them.” Game said: “It’s not a party, in truth,” and: “It’s more like a small business.”
Who Holds the Levers
Game said she was once a “true believer” in One Nation, but no longer is. She said she was impressed at first by Senator Hanson’s work ethic and direct communication style, but later saw a different side. Game said the growing influence of Senator Hanson’s then-chief of staff, James Ashby, undermined her authority. Game said: “She had become a weak character.” She added: “She was dominated by her [then] chief of staff, James Ashby, and … she was just unable to break free of that.” She said: “She became highly dependent on him. He was running everything.”
When Game ran as a One Nation Senate candidate at last year’s federal election and failed to win a seat, she said she received a text from Ashby criticising her ability to sell One Nation’s “message”, followed by what she described as an angry phone call from Senator Hanson. Game said: “She used a voice that I’ve not heard before.” She said Hanson asked: “What happened to your personal vote?” Game said: “I think she thought I was going to easily get in, and that I’d done something, that it was my fault.” She added: “She demands enormous loyalty from people, but she doesn’t give it.”
The hierarchy inside the party doesn’t stop at personalities. It reaches into the candidate pipeline itself. One Nation said it received 1,200 applications to run for office. Each would-be candidate was charged $150 to apply, and another $5,500 if they were chosen to run. McLindon said candidates were not told they would be hit with the additional $5,500 fee until the end of the interview process. He said: “What we’re seeing here is a bit of an insidious money grab.” He added: “Oh, by the way, we’ve got all your hopes up, but before you sign the dotted line, here’s a $5,500 [fee].”
Who Pays for the Show
Former Liberal National MP Aidan McLindon said: “[It was] very sloppy, ad hoc, probably pre-determined and dishonest.” McLindon defeated Pauline Hanson in the Queensland state seat of Beaudesert in 2009. He said he was approached to be part of One Nation’s leadership team in Victoria. After a disagreement with Warren Pickering, who eventually became state leader, McLindon said his application was rejected. He resigned from the party soon after. McLindon said: “Victoria’s been largely neglected and for One Nation to treat a lot of the candidate applications with the contempt that it did, we don’t deserve that.”
The fees add up to about $700,000 from the preselection process for the lower house alone, something McLindon believes is exploitative during a cost-of-living crisis. While Labor says it does not charge prospective candidates an application fee, the Liberal Party has been known to charge up to $5,000, depending on the seat, to help cover the cost of background checks and to discourage frivolous applications. However, would-be Liberal candidates are aware they will be charged a fee when they apply.
Would-be candidates told Four Corners One Nation’s preselection process in Victoria was not democratic. Instead, about 160 of the 1,200 applicants who made it through the original vetting process participated in 15-minute Zoom interviews with a three-person panel that included Pickering. One would-be candidate, who was passed over for pre-selection and requested anonymity, said it did not feel like a proper interview. The former councillor said: “[Mr Pickering] had a scripted monologue that took up virtually the entire 15 minutes, and then he asked some inane questions.” The former councillor said: “I said ‘You are leaving it late for candidates to campaign’, and he said ‘We are sitting at around 20 per cent for primary vote. If we keep our mouths shut, we will be around 35 per cent in the polls’.” The former councillor said applicants were prevented from applying to run in the upper house, the seats One Nation is more likely to win.
Michael Labrador, a Whittlesea councillor who said he won pre-selection but eventually chose not to run, agreed the process did not reward quality candidates. Labrador said: “One Nation espoused meritocracy, but the process wasn’t meritocratic at all.” He added: “Pretty much anyone with political ambition, or who had merit or experience behind them, or a community profile was shut out of the winnable seats in the upper house.” Labrador, who is a friend of McLindon, said that by early September, with less than 90 days to polling day, the party had only announced a third of its lower house candidates. He said: “They’re trying to build a grassroots campaign on quicksand.” He added: “You don’t have much time to get your troops on the ground. You don’t have time to build volunteers and a donor base.”
What the Party Calls Merit
Adriana Buccianti, a former Trumpet of Patriots candidate, signed up for the One Nation preselection process full of hope in February. She did not make it through to the interview process and said the party did not inform her she was unsuccessful. Buccianti said: “I never heard back. I never got an email, nothing.” She said she was so disillusioned by the preselection process she quit the party soon after.
Michael Piastrino, the One Nation candidate for Berwick, told Four Corners he had no problem with the preselection process. He said: “I was rapt.” He added: “The vetting process was fantastic. I think it was done so professionally.” The former Liberal candidate, who runs an award-winning hairdressing salon in Albert Park, said he didn’t think the party lost anything by announcing its candidates later than expected. He said: “To run a strong campaign, if you’re known in the area, 12 to 14 weeks is plenty of time.” He added: “We’ve got farmers, all sorts of different people with different backgrounds and professions and we’ve all come together … and we’ll get the job done.”
McLindon said he met with One Nation powerbroker James Ashby in the lead-up to the preselection process. McLindon said: “[James Ashby] is somebody who has been in the game of politics for a long time, which unfortunately for him, is probably just that, a game.” He added: “This is serious. This is a country to save. These are people’s livelihoods at stake.” A decade ago, Ashby was caught boasting about how the party could potentially profit from a Queensland state election. In a secret recording of a meeting obtained by the ABC in 2017, Ashby said: “Can I just point out, and I’ve said this once before, there is an opportunity for us to make some money on this if we play it smart.” He added: “Now I know they say you can’t make money out of state elections, but you can.” At the time, Ashby dismissed the recording as part of a “brainstorming session”, and said “we never went through with it.”
McLindon said he was concerned the party was not treating prospective candidates with the dignity they deserved. He said: “There’s a certain level of decency, communication, and respect that’s required that I do not believe James Ashby is giving to people.” He added: “I think it’s well overdue that Pauline Hanson puts the magnifying glass on a couple of those key people around her, otherwise it will be the demise of the party.” Four Corners repeatedly requested interviews with key figures in One Nation, including Senator Hanson and Ashby. None were available. A series of detailed questions sent to One Nation went unanswered.