Pauline Hanson is back
March 2nd 2009 19:53
Pauline Hanson
When I heard, three minutes ago, that Pauline Hanson and Warwick Capper are likely to contest the seat of Beaudesert in the Queensland state election on March 21, I thought, "Best take two aspirin and go back to bed."
My second thought was, how best to describe this to a visitor to Australia, one of those underprivileged people who have grown up without the benefit of exposure to the glittering lives of these two extraordinary Australians?
Let's start with an introduction.
Pauline Lee Hanson (née Seccombe). Born May 27, 1954. Raised in the Brisbane suburb of Woolloongabba. Father owned a fish and chip shop. Left school at the age of 15. Worked in a variety of unskilled jobs. Accumulated several rental properties. Became independently wealthy.
Hanson then entered politics. She became an independent councillor with the City of Ipswich, and then won endorsement as the Liberal Party's candidate for the national seat of Oxley for the March 1996 Federal election. Oxley was the safest Labor seat in Queensland, but Hanson found a way to change everything. Just before the election, she told a newspaper that she believed special government assistance for indigenous Australians should be scrapped.
Just how calculated it was, we will never know, although no-one can deny that Hanson went on to make a luminous, if brief, political career out of bigotry. The initial comments to the newspaper led to her being dropped by the Liberal Party (but too late for this to be noted on the ballot papers), led to her winning the support of every redneck yokel who had ever nursed a grievance against Aboriginals, and led to her romping home in the election with 54 per cent of the vote.
So Pauline Hanson entered Federal Parliament, where she was not allowed to sit with the Liberals. And she delivered a maiden speech which dwarfed anything she had done before in terms of shock and outrage. In essence, Pauline Hanson wanted the government to stop allowing Asians to migrate to Australia.
It made international headlines, as did the tide of support which Hanson garnered for her views. While much of Australia watched in shock, Hanson became a powerful political figure, and in April 1997 founded the One Nation party.
On August 20, 2003, Hanson was convicted of electoral fraud and sentenced to three years' imprisonment. There were stories of political pressure from on high to ensure a conviction and to guarantee that Hanson never again entered politics. On November 6, 2003, the Queensland Court of Appeal overturned the guilty verdict and rebuked many politicians, including then Prime Minister John Howard, for "observations" which demonstrated "a fundamental misunderstanding of the Rule of Law...[and] an attempt to influence the judicial...process".
Hanson's message was essentially a white Australia policy, but it received such widespread support that debate continues to rage in Australia, in the halls of acadaemia, in legislatures, and around dinner tables. She polarised the country like few have ever done, but in doing so brought into the open a racist attitude which had clearly been underestimated. She was hailed or hated, with little in between. In 2006, she was named by the The Bulletin magazine as one of the 100 most influential Australians of all time
And now she's back.
Warwick Capper. Born June 12, 1963. An Australian rules football legend. Played briefly for the Brisbane Bears before moving to the bright lights of Sydney. Wearing skin-tight shorts, he kicked 388 goals in 123 games from 1983-1991, including 103 goals in 1987 season. Flamboyant on and off field personality. Remembered for world's most extravagant mullet hairstyle.
Since retiring from football, Capper has worked as a council road worker and Amway agent, and tried his hand at multi-level marketing and pornography.
Capper says he will swap his BMW for a Hummer if he wins the election. Says he knows a bit about the Beaudesert area because "I went there once - a fair few Aborigines and very multicultural out there." Suggests, "We could have a bit of a cook-off between me and Pauline. She's got the fish shop and I'm about to open a coffee shop called Warwick Cappuccino".
Capper has yet to nominate formally. Nominations close today, March 3. We don't seriously expect his hat to land in the ring, because one final piece of information we discovered is that Capper and Hanson have the same publicist, "celebrity agent" Max Markson.
Capper's flirtation with politics, therefore, appears to be a self-serving stunt.
Hanson's may also be described as self-serving, but unfortunately it's no stunt.
news.com.au, en.wikipedia.org, goldcoast.com.au, theage.com.au
Warwick Capper
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