One Nation’s new push

Party reapplies for registration in time for State Election

PAULINE Hanson’s One Nation party has applied for registration in Tasmania in time for the State Election — five months after its registration efforts were shut down and its state secretary had quit in protest.

The party’s state branch was set to be registered in June, but One Nation’s head office abruptly shut down the Tasmanian committee, which at the time was headed by former Australian Federal Police officer and former Palmer United Party candidate Michael Figg.

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission is today advertising the party’s registration application and its 107 members.

For a party to register in Tasmania, it needs to be supported by at least 100 members.

Acton Park’s Andrea Jack- man is the party’s new branch secretary in Tasmania. She could not be contacted yesterday.

In February, the party’s national executive director Rod Miles said One Nation intended to run candidates in all five Tasmanian House of Assembly seats at the next election.

The party’s State Election plans were left in disarray when the state branch was shut down in June.

Mr Figg at the time said the branch had been undermined by party leader Senator Pauline Hanson and “those in her Queensland office”.

Concerns were raised about too much control being exercised from One Nation’s Brisbane head office, including over finances and candidate selection.

“Too many politicians have their snouts in the public troughs and, as an ex-Australian Federal Police officer, I could not continue being part of the organisation that failed to give any accountability or transparency to the members or credibility to what its stated values were,” Mr Figg said at the time.

Mr Miles declined to outline the specific problem he had with the local committee, saying “it just didn’t feel right” and “I wasn’t happy with what was going on there”.

Mr Figg has since started his own political party, the Tasmanian Party.

He said a number of its members had left One Nation in Tasmania at the same time he did.

“We’ll register after the election; we’re not about shortterm solutions,” Mr Figg said yesterday.

“The people that have come across — we’ve had people from Labor, Liberal, people who have never been in a party, accountants, business people, all sorts of members — they’re sick and tired of nobody listening to them and being told what to do, and having nowhere to complain to.”