Yesterday, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation committed its Senate votes to the passage of the Coalition’s long fought corporate tax cuts, making it increasingly likely they will pass.
Hanson said she was ultimately convinced to do so by a letter from the Business Council of Australia.
But don’t think One Nation didn’t get something in return for helping the Turnbull government along. If the tax cuts get through, Hanson will be rewarded with 1000 new government-funded apprenticeships. Labor Senator Murray Watt has described it as “Pauline Hanson’s biggest sellout yet“.
We’re not so sure. In the year and a half Hanson has been back in parliament, she’s already established a long history of supporting policies that have an adverse affect on the very people who elected her.
The Family Court
In a speech — littered with attacks on single mothers, apparently rorting the welfare system by having multiple children — after returning to the Senate, Hanson took aim at the Family Court system, saying fathers were murdering family members out of “sheer frustration” at the system.
“Children have two parents and until we treat mums and dads with the same courtesy and rights, we will continue to see murders due to sheer frustration, depression and mental illness caused by their unworkable scheme,” she said.
Legal experts and activists said abolishing the Family Court would actually put the most vulnerable people in society — victims of domestic violence, economically vulnerable women — at greater risk.
Decreasing welfare
Soon after, Hanson had to defend her party’s decision to back more than $6 billion in welfare cuts proposed by the Coalition. Not for the last time, she would have to face the fact that many who voted for her party were low-income earners, with some on welfare.
“I’m sorry, I can’t please everyone and not everyone’s going to agree with me, but I have to make decisions I believe are right for this country and future generations.”
She said her supporters would not tolerate “welfare bludgers”.
Penalty rates
First, she backed the decision of the Fair Work Commission to cut the penalty rates for hospitality and retail workers on Sundays and public holidays — and again, she had to field questions about the low-paid workers who voted for her and would be hurt by this decision, and simply replied: “They are getting their wage.”
After weeks of negative feedback from her base, Hanson was forced to row back, posting a Facebook video saying she had changed her mind.
Let me make it quite clear. After listening to people coming through my office, and on the streets, and back home over the weekend in the lead-up to this, generally the majority of people do not want a cut to penalty rates. You’ve got my support. I’ve listened and this is what you want and I will not support any cut to penalty rates.
Of course, you can’t please all the people all of the time. But base politics should be a gimme.
If Pauline Hanson was a Liberal candidate today who said the things she said in the 90s, they wouldn’t even make her stand aside as a candidate. Her views fit 100% with the Liberal Party. The fact that her party acts as a magnet for disgruntled voters from both Labor and the Coalition has happened despite her, and she regularly seems to be actively trying to shake off the Labor-preferencing part of her base…
This is a most astute observation.
What exactly separates Hanson from mainline LNP government members?
One thing for sure is the number of Labor voters who give her a first preference.
Worse in every conceivable way?
‘If Pauline Hanson was a Liberal candidate today who said the things she said in the 90s, they wouldn’t even make her stand aside as a candidate.’
The only reason the Liberals wouldn’t accept her would be because they are already full to the gunwales with 21% female representation in the federal Parliament.
Well done Pauline. You have just backed another policy you believe is based on a false claim, that puts another $60 billion of our hard earned tax dollars into the pockets of those who least need it for a measly $65 million of our taxes that will also go to the bosses in the form of an employment subsidy (I’m already thinking of how this plan is going to be abused by self serving bosses). And Just how do you expect to fund the consequent budget blow out. Cuts to education and health perhaps!
Seduced by that smooth talking Mathias Cormann and various mining magnates (again), I suspect. Have they offered to contribute to your next election campaign by the way? When are you going to realise that you are way out of your depth when it comes to dealing with the big end of town and go back to the only trade you know well? Or at least stop pretending that you are on the side of the battler and raise the LNP flag you serve.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for the wealth to ‘trickle down’ – yes, that old hory, highly discredited Liberal theory seems to have been resurrected. Have you noticed the recent huge increase in share buybacks in the US? That must be working well for battlers!
I look forward to joining the plethora of disenchanted Australians manning the voting booths at the next election.
I think it was Twiggy what did it, telling her he was paying millions in tax that he would spend on employing people. Two problems, he has recently been sacking workers and also depending on what you believe, he doesn’t actually pay and tax (maybe he confuses it with royalties).
‘Employing people’! And who believes that apart from Hanson? Twiggy is the dude that reckons he could sack 900 workers by introducing driverless vehicles. Where is that mining super profits tax when you need it. Oh that’s right, good old Abbott abolished it, even though he alleged it wasn’t raising any revenue!
And people wonder why the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, wages are stagnating while profits increase. Well PHONs battlers should at least be relieved to know that Pauline is doing very well thanks to your hard earned tax dollars. Don’t know why PHON supporters don’t just bypass the middle person and vote LNP.
Hilariously, though, taxes are on profits…..you know, the stuff left after expenses (like LABOUR COSTS!!!!) So hiring more staff-on decent wages-would effectively reduce the amount of tax he pays without the need for a massive tax cut.
why would anybody be surprised at Hanson selling her soul to the highest bidder, after all she`s based her income on sucking from the public purse through the electoral system failings, simply standing for parliament has giver her hundreds of thousands of dollars from the public purse to keep her in the lifestyle that she now enjoys while castigating and voting against the interests of people on welfare or benefits.
Let us hope that PHON, Canardi & Hastie don’t breed.
Imagine the lovechild – the Rodent would naturally be Godfather.
Or has it already happened?
Exhibit A – the dickpotato hizownself, Dunceton.
PHON already has, and let’s hope there is no ‘love child’ out their from her one night motel stand with that other perennial attention seeking skid mark on the underpants of humanity, Odfeller or something like that! The love that dare not speak it’s name!
I’ve been a supporter of Hanson’s for years. But no more. She’s shown herself to be just like every other politician who will sell out providing the handfuls of silver are big enough.
Hanson built her support base from the average Australian who trusted her to do the right thing. But she has now become nothing more than a money grubbing pollie filling her pockets by doing deals with political scum.
She will pay the price at the next federal election.
Sure, but will you still have this view when she starts her pork barrelling closer to the election? She can no longer claim to be the naive politician that entered politics in the mid nineties. She is now a veteran who has been living off public funds as a serial campaigner for so long now she has become addicted to this income stream and now has her snout well and truly in the trough! But then again, she always was a true blue Liberal conservative.