Qld: Hanson's competition confident she won't win support

AAP General News (Australia)
08-15-2007
Qld: Hanson's competition confident she won't win support

BRISBANE, Aug 15 AAP - Pauline Hanson's rivals for a Queensland Senate seat are confident
she won't win public support this time around.

The former One Nation leader has applied to the Australian Electoral Commission to
register Pauline's United Australia Party.

If successful, an abbreviated name, Pauline, will appear above the line on the Senate
ballot paper, making it easier for people to vote for Ms Hanson.

The 53-year-old today said her policies had not changed since her days as the independent
MP for the Queensland electorate of Oxley.

Ms Hanson would like a moratorium on Muslim immigration, and would seek to protect
local manufacturing from "cheap imports", she told ABC Radio today.

"Most definitely, nothing's changed," she said.

"I think that we need to look at getting out of the 1951 convention of refugees, and
not being forced into taking refugees in this country that bring in diseases, who are
incompatible with our lifestyle."

Of Queensland's six Senate positions available at the election, five are held by the
major parties, with the remaining seat held by Australian Democrats senator Andrew Bartlett.

Ms Hanson will be up against Senator Bartlett, the Greens' Larissa Waters and Family
First's Jeff Buchanan for the required 14.5 per cent of the vote to gain a Queensland
Senate seat.

Ms Waters today said people had "moved on" from the ideas Ms Hanson represents.

"The name of the party is extremely ironic considering Pauline stands for policies
that are extremely divisive," she told AAP.

"I don't think that Queenslanders share Pauline's views and I don't imagine that she
will be a senator in Queensland."

Senator Bartlett said Ms Hanson personified a "divisive, inward-looking approach".

Meanwhile, Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce said he would examine Ms Hanson's policies
before deciding to support her bid for a seat.

He also questioned whether her stint as a contestant on TV's Dancing with the Stars
was a good idea.

"I don't think people associate Dancing with the Stars with leading the country, and
I think that's an issue where you've got to be a little bit careful about how you're perceived,"

Senator Joyce said.

Ms Hanson won Oxley at the 1996 election after being expelled from the Liberal Party
due to her views on immigration.

Her maiden speech to the House of Representatives in 1996 warned against Asian immigration,
and caused a sensation around the world.

Her anti-immigration One Nation party expired amid bitter infighting, but not before
it won a big tally of seats at the Queensland state election. Ms Hanson lost her own seat
at the next federal election.

The Electoral Commissioner will call for objections before the possible registration
of Pauline's United Australia Party, which could occur next month.

AAP gd/evt/mn

KEYWORD: HANSON NIGHTLEAD

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