Australian right-winger to stand trial

BBC ^ | 5-27-02 | some twit

[jordan8]

Pauline Hanson, one of the founders of Australia's anti-immigration One Nation party, is to stand trial on electoral fraud charges.

She is accused of fraudulently registering One Nation as a political party and of dishonestly obtaining nearly $300,000 in electoral funding.

After a month-long committal hearing in Brisbane, a court ruled on Monday that there was enough evidence for her to stand trial.

Mrs Hanson, a former chip shop owner, achieved notoriety because of her extreme views on Australia's indigenous community and asylum seekers.

She will stand trial together with the co-founder of her One Nation Party, David Ettridge.

Ms Hanson, who resigned as party head in January, described the electoral fraud charges as a "witch hunt" designed to run her out of politics.

She and Mr Ettridge, who face a maximum 10 years imprisonment, have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Failed Senate bid

Mrs Hanson rose to prominence in 1996 after winning a seat in Australia's federal parliament as an independent candidate known for her uncompromising views.

She claimed that Asian immigrants and Australia's aboriginal people received too many welfare payments from the government and did little to help themselves.

Her opinions on asylum seekers were equally uncompromising. She called them common criminals and queue jumpers and said they did not deserve Australia's compassion.

Her anti-immigration rhetoric caused widespread offence, but did strike a chord with sections of Australia's white conservatives.

In 1998, One Nation - running on a platform that opposed immigration, foreign investment and welfare payments to Aborigines - won almost a quarter of the vote in Queensland state elections and 11 seats in the legislature.

But the party quickly fell from grace, and in last November's federal elections, it failed to win a single seat in Parliament's lower house and Mrs Hanson lost her own bid for a Senate seat.

[What Is Ain't]

I'm impressed by this balanced piece from the notoriously fair BBC.

Please observe:

Mrs Hanson, a former chip shop owner, achieved notoriety because of her extreme views on Australia's indigenous community and asylum seekers

She claimed that Asian immigrants and Australia's aboriginal people received too many welfare payments from the government and did little to help themselves.

Her opinions on asylum seekers were equally uncompromising. She called them common criminals and queue jumpers and said they did not deserve Australia's compassion.

Her anti-immigration rhetoric caused widespread offence, but did strike a chord with sections of Australia's white conservatives.

[shaggy eel]

,,, Aussie's very own Enoch Powell in a dress. Time will record that she was perhaps extreme, but some of her thoughts will remain quite well founded.

[Peter Libra]

Not too widely known ,but George Orwell based some of his observations for 1984 on the BBC. He worked for them in the second world war and became disenchanted with their methods. He did, however, admit that anything was almost permissable to defeat the Facists. This is why he lent himself to them. I listened to it throughout the second world war myself.

Sadly the BBC is a bought, sold,and paid for, propaganda machine. Just a joy to be able to float this out into the ether, or what ever it is ,via the internet. We now know that the hardnosed Australians may be not what they seem. Crocodile Dundee nothwithstanding.