Speaking of Pauline Hanson, it has been confirmed today that the One Nation party leader will be joined by three other senators under her banner: Rod Culleton from WA (pending a few court cases), Brian Burston in NSW and Malcolm Roberts from Queensland. Until today many psephologists predicted that Roberts would lose out to the Liberal Democrats’ Gabe Buckley, but in the end Hanson’s climate denier got over the line. Roberts is a project leader of the “Galileo Movement“, an organisation that denies that climate change is taking place, and it has been reported that One Nation’s policies on climate change come directly from the positions of the Galileo Movement. On announcement of his election, Roberts posted a statement to his Facebook page, and while most of his statement sticks close to the Hanson line, towards the end we were reminded of someone else with ginger hair trying to get elected:
“We can do this by doing what made our country great — by speaking openly and working with all Australians.”
We will see how long the Hanson “party” can keep it together. The previous version fell apart quickly. Palmer “United” didn’t last long either. Too many people with barrows to push who don’t want to be told what to do or say.
This drooling idiot received 77 votes. The rest from preference flow down. Be careful who you vote for.
Too few people understand how the various preference systems work (federal is different from state (NSW) and different again from local government voting. Too confusing for most. The other issue here though, is how little thought really goes in to people’s voting. Very little idea of policies and likely performance.