Source : the age
A substantial police presence greeted protesters seeking to express their dissatisfaction with Pauline Hanson at a One Nation party fundraiser, just hours after the party unveiled its upper house candidates for the upcoming Victorian election.
Hanson delivered a speech at Hawthorn East’s Tower Hotel on Monday night. A reporter from this masthead was unable to gain entry to the fundraiser.
Police in riot gear were on hand as a large crowd, chanting and holding signs, demonstrated outside the venue. The hundreds of demonstrators chanted “Nazi scum off our streets” towards the One Nation contingent inside, as well as anger towards Hanson’s billionaire friend Gina Rinehart.
One banner held by protesters said, “Unite to fight the right” and “Campaign against racism and fascism”.
The protesters became particularly animated when it appeared Hanson left via the adjoining bottle shop’s drive-through just before 8pm.
Dozens of police stared at them in silence from over road barriers, after closing parts of Burwood and Camberwell roads to manage the contingent.
“Victoria Police respects the right to protest lawfully, however we ask people to do so peacefully without impacting the broader community,” officers said in a statement.
Before the event, Hanson addressed the protest action on Channel Nine.
“I’m not interested in what they have to say, have your say at the ballot box, I really don’t care,” she said, adding she planned to return to Victoria “a few other times” before election day.
“You might have Ben Carroll as your premier,” Hanson told the meeting: “But he doesn’t instil confidence in me when he speaks…”
“He’s not my Premier!” roared an attendee in reply.
Protesters also made themselves known the last time One Nation fundraised in Victoria, demonstrating out the front of a Sicilian restaurant in Moonee Ponds in June even after One Nation relocated the event.
Speaking on 3AW, pub owner Joe Ramoro said he did not hesitate to host One Nation despite this recent history.
“I’m not worried at all to be honest. Some of my customers can’t get in to play the pokies. Senator Hanson attracts these protests seemingly everywhere she goes,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Warren Pickering was announced as the One Nation leader in the lower house, defending the party’s decision to keep under wraps for another month its policies and full list of candidates it will take into the November election.
The decision means voters will have just three months before the election to scrutinise an organisation which has never been a serious player in Victorian politics but on Monday declared its ambition to govern the state.
Pickering, who unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in the 2025 federal election and as a candidate in the 2022 state election and who joined Pauline Hanson’s anti-immigration movement after retiring from the Australian Defence Force, said the decision not to divulge policies and candidates was taken to maximise the party’s “strategic advantage”.
He on Monday indicated that part of this strategy was to preserve campaign funds until closer to the November 28 poll.
“We have got to play our cards close to our chest,” he said. “The major parties are out there spending valuable energy, effort and resources to go backwards in the polls.
“We’ll continue to roll out our candidates as we see fit.”
Pickering, who also serves as One Nation’s state president in Victoria, will contest the semi-urban lower house seat of Pakenham, which was held by Labor at the 2022 election by just a few hundred votes.
“We are officially putting the major parties on notice,” Pickering said. “We intend for this to be a November to remember and we are contesting to govern.”
The unorthodox approach to campaigning – which normally involves parties maximising the opportunity for voters to get to know a party’s policies and candidates – extended to Hanson’s decision to block several major media outlets from attending Monday’s press conference called to announce Pickering’s leadership.
The ABC, The Age and The Guardian were all refused entry to the event staged at Melbourne’s Savoy Hotel.
Pickering issued a pre-emptive threat to sue media companies which published or broadcast “blatant character assassination attempts” of candidates.
Hanson said it was the first time she had denied the ABC entry to one of her press conferences. “I am not putting up with the spin gotcha moments, wanting to have a go at me, or treat us totally different to what you do the other major political parties,” she said.
“Enough is enough. So they’re banned.”
Two ABC regional reporters were ejected from a One Nation press conference on May 8 during campaigning for byelection for the federal seat of Farrer.
Pickering is One Nation’s second confirmed lower house candidate behind Darren Hercus, the small business owner who stood for the party in this year’s Nepean byelection. One Nation on Monday announced seven upper house candidates who, polls suggest, are all likely to be elected.
The line-up includes:
- Colleen Harkin, a former member of the Liberal Party’s administrative committee who took her own party to court for loaning former state leader John Pesutto $1.55 million to pay his legal costs to Moira Deeming and avoid bankruptcy.
- Mark Nicholson, the creator of One Nation’s anti-woke film Super Progressive Movie and a co-founder of the animation house Stepmates Studios, which creates Hanson’s cartoon web series Please Explain.
- One Nation’s only Victorian state parliamentarian, Rikki-Lee Tyrrell, who will recontest her Northern Victoria seat.
- Geelong councillor and former police officer Chris Burson, who at the last election stood for the Angry Victorians Party which sought to undermine anti-lockdown sentiment for electoral gain.
- Political newbies Fiona Lopez, Aaron Sandford and Natalie Adams.
Hanson said her party intended to stand candidates in every state seat. “People want change in their state, and they’re crying out for that change,” she said. “They don’t trust the major political parties at all. They don’t believe what they’re delivering is the answer to it.”
Hanson was dismissive of last week’s decision by Victorian Labor to move against former premier Jacinta Allan and install Ben Carroll as the new state leader.
“They have just moved the decks on the Titanic,” she said, interrupting her new state leader to make the remark.
Pickering described the coming political contest in apocalyptic terms.
“We are on the precipice of social and economic collapse and anyone who doesn’t believe that is simply not paying attention,” he said.
Pickering said his party’s “core” policies on farming, energy and cost of living would be announced at the end of August, along with the names of the party’s other 86 lower house candidates.
So far, the party has promised, if elected, to abolish Victoria’s treaty with its First Nations People, establish a royal commission into Big Build corruption and hire more police and open more police stations. They are all policy positions shared with the Coalition.
One Nation has announced a significant change to its backroom operations nationally, with Hanson’s long-time chief of staff, James Ashby, promoted to national director. Ashby spent more than a decade as Hanson’s closest adviser and helped to professionalise the party.
Chris Taylor, who recently worked as chief of policy at the Australian Banking Association, will become Hanson’s chief of staff.
With Lachlan Abbott, Fiona Byrne and Heidi Murphy
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Chip Le Grand leads our state politics reporting team. He previously served as the paper’s chief reporter and is a journalist of 30 years’ experience.Connect via email.
Angus Delaney is a reporter at The Age. Email him at angus.delaney@theage.com.au or contact him securely on Signal at angusdelaney.31Connect via email.
