December 4, 2023
The Queensland Court of Appeal has overturned the convictions of Pauline Hanson and David Ettridge.
The One Nation founders were convicted in the District Court of Queensland on August 20, 2003 and sentenced to three years in jail.
The Court of Appeal heard the appeal yesterday and delivered judgment today.
Prime Minister John Howard has had a willing encounter with an ABC interviewer who quizzed him over Tony Abbott’s involvement in the legal action against One Nation.
Howard appeared on the AM program. He was interviewed by Catherine McGrath.
Transcript of John Howard’s interview with Catherine McGrath on AM.
MCGRATH:
Mr Howard, good morning. Tony Abbott said last night that in 1998 he thought it was very important that the One Nation juggernaut, he called it, be stopped. Did you think that back then?
This is the transcript of a doorstop interview given by Craig Emerson, the ALP’s Shadow Minister for Workplace Relations.
Emerson commented on the role played by Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott in the legal action taken against Pauline Hanson and One Nation.
Transcript of doorstop interview by Craig Emerson.
EMERSON: Yet again the Howard Government has thrown the truth overboard. Tony Abbott had denied the existence of any fund to pay for the costs of witnesses who testified against Pauline Hanson. It’s emerged today that such a fund did exist. Not only did it exist, Tony Abbott organised it personally. Tony Abbott needs to answer these questions: where did the money come from, who received the money and who made decisions on who received the money? A $100,000 secret slush fund is a huge amount of money in anybody’s terms. But perhaps not in the Liberal Party’s terms. So Tony Abbott needs to answer those questions and surely John Howard is not going to deny any knowledge of Tony Abbott’s $100,000 slush fund.
Pauline Hanson and David Ettridge have both been found guilty of electoral fraud charges and jailed for three years.
Hanson, 49, and Ettridge, 58, pleaded not guilty to fraudulently registering One Nation in Queensland on December 4, 1997. Hanson also pleaded not guilty to dishonestly obtaining nearly $500,000 in electoral funding after the 1998 Queensland state election.
After deliberating for nine hours, a Brisbane District Court jury found the pair guilty on all counts.
Judge Patsy Wolfe made no recommendation for parole.
The Supreme Court of Queensland has delivered a finding that One Nation was fraduluently registered.
The judgment is in Sharples v O’Shea & Anor.