No Fake News Media, One Nation’s WA Campaign is Not in Disarray

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According to the mainstream media Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Western Australian election campaign has fallen apart just days before polling day. Fairfax Media reports the party is imploding, News Corp’s news.com.au calls it a meltdown while taxpayer funded SBS claims the party is facing disunity questions. Earlier this week we reported on the mainstream media and political establishment’s campaign to derail the One Nation campaign.

Through this sensationalized reporting, they gleeful think they have achieved that goal. They seized upon news this week that former Western Australian office bearers Ron McLean and wife Marye​ Louise Daniels are going to file an anti-discrimination claim against Pauline Hanson because she told McLean who is 87 that he was too old to run as a candidate in a winnable position.

They have also gladly published complaints from disgruntled One Nation candidates such as Ray Gould who claimed about Hanson that “It’s just power and money,” and was upset with the preference deal with the Liberals and apparently, there is not enough support for candidates on the ground. Another candidate Margaret Dodd labelled Hanson a “liberal puppet” for the preference deal and will not be handing out the official One Nation how to vote cards. Two candidates were already dumped last month for disagreement with the Liberal preference deal.

The media are also satisfied they have got Hanson to partially back down on her vaccination remarks on Sunday stating, “Vaccinations have controlled a lot of diseases. I admit that. As far as having tests done, I admit I was wrong with that’ but still maintained “It’s a personal decision. I just want parents to make sure that they do the right thing by the children”. They also believe they have obtained a gotcha moment from her falsely reporting that she wanted to strip GST money from Queensland to pay Western Australia when the question was about if redistributing the GST meant taking revenue away from Queensland would she still support it.

The purpose of this reporting is to paint the picture that One Nation’s leadership is incompetent, treats its supporters badly, its policies are all over the place and if any of them were elected on Saturday the Western Australian Parliament would be in chaos. But we are living in an age where fake news is easy to debunk.

Given the fact that One Nation in its current incarnation has existed for less than a year problems with candidates and office bearers are of course going to occur. One Nation doesn’t have a party machine apparatus or paid party staff like the major parties, it is still a grassroots party with volunteers doing what they can in their free time. It is not going to be able offer significant resources to every candidate, some logistical difficulties are bound to occur. There are going to be disagreements about policy and political strategy, but newsflash the same thing applies to every party. The only difference is the media reports on any conflict in One Nation like it is a major scandal.

Let’s not forget that there are 62 One Nation candidates running in the Western Australian election, nobody reports on the excellent job they are doing running their campaigns and coordinating their own volunteers. How do I know that is the case? If they all were doing a terrible job I’m sure we’d have endless articles about them. Some of the candidates have made triggering statements but again newsflash, One Nation doesn’t aim to be politically correct so if some of their statements are offensive then good, that is the aim.

It is also worth highlighting the fact that even the major parties cannot filter out problem candidates even with all their professional staff thoroughly vetting candidates. A Liberal candidate at the last federal election was disendorsed after it was revealed he owned a brothel. At the 2014 Victorian election another Liberal candidate was disendorsed when it was revealed his company was bringing an adult film actress out to Australia.

There is also plenty of dysfunction in the major parties. Just look at what is happening inside the New South Wales Greens Party with the openly communist faction Left Renewal aiming to take the party in an even more radical leftist direction. The faction has already earned the condemnation of the Greens leader Richard Di Natale and former leader Bob Brown. Yet the Greens receive almost universally flattering coverage from the mainstream media.

Would it be better if these rogue One Nation candidates and office bearers did not bring the party unwanted press coverage? Of course, could One Nation be run in a more organised and decentralized manner? Yes it could, we have previously reported on the concerning influence of Pauline Hanson’s Chief of Staff James Ashby.

But ordinary Australians still know that Pauline is a genuine down to earth person who cares deeply for the future of her country. In this era, more than ever they will see the media coverage for what it is, an attempt to destroy One Nation’s chances this weekend and continue to smear her as an unhinged bigot. They all told us Trump’s campaign was falling apart in its final days, yet he stunned them all with his triumph victory. This fake news coverage about One Nation’s campaign is more than likely to motivate more people to turn up vote for them and stick it to the establishment once again.

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