The Liberal Party should have dumped Colin Barnett as leader last year in an effort to minimise the scale of its electoral defeat but lacked the courage to do so, former cabinet minister Joe Francis says.

Asked if the party "didn't have the guts" to sack Mr Barnett, Mr Francis agreed, but conceded even that would not have spared the Barnett government from Saturday's catastrophic loss to Labor.

"I don't know if it would have saved the government, but I think it would have saved a lot of seats," he told 6PR.

Labor is on track to hold 40 seats in the Legislative Assembly, with the Liberals predicted to hold just 14. Five seats remain in doubt, including Mr Francis' own seat of Jandakot.

He said the Liberals lost the trust of the electorate by breaking promises and sold out its base of supporters by increasing taxes.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-14/liberals-didnt-have-the-guts-to-sa...

 

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-11/wa-election-pauline-hanson-says-li...

 

By then Hanson and her chief advisor, the rogue Liberal operative James Ashby, should have learnt some basic lessons from its WA omnishambles. There will, for example, be no dumb deals with major parties.

More significantly One Nation will have a significant home field advantage.

We can expect to see candidates subjected to vetting and nominated for every seat. To that end the party has already benefited from four defections from Queensland's Liberal National Party.

There will be less resentment at head office control (One of the complaints of the party's WA operation was that everything had to be "sent back to Queensland" for approval) and Hanson's own considerable political instinct will be more attuned.

There is no polling to show whether or not the WA debacle has hurt One Nation in Queensland yet, but a Galaxy poll last month measured its support at 23 per cent, enough to secure about 11 seats. A state presence like that would provide it with the political resources it needs to fight the next federal election in the very state that could well decide that election.

However the second reason is more significant.

The fault lines that One Nation has always used to find its way into the body politic are still there. Resentment at the political class remains powerful as our leaders fail to narrow the divide between rich and poor, rural and urban.

Populist movements around the world are becoming ever more creative and effective at harnessing that resentment to accumulate power.

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/its-far-too-soon-to-writeoff-pauline-hanso...

 

Gus: James Ashby should be in prison but this is another case of the Libs (KONservatives) helping Hansonism to survive in order to defeat Labor. The Libs have done everything they can, including use the classic "I can't recall" to prevent Ashby being charged for having perverted the course of justice while bringing down the Gillard government. I am prepared to believe that James has been well rewarded (cash and protection?) for his stunt against Peter Slipper...

But Politicosms like One-Nation are like cockroaches. No matter how much poisoned spray you use, they survive in the nooks and crannies of the floorboards. They have a natural right to survive, but not TO DICTATE nor spoil the soup of the day in the kitchen, with crap and ignorance. Yes I know, it's easier to have a dump than to cook a decent meal, and easier to be ignorant than to learn something. One Nation does not appeal to human intelligence but relies on the cockroaches' ability to survive in the darkness of dumb resentment.

 

One Nation also copped a hiding, largely as a result of the Faustian bargain on preferences struck between Barnett and Pauline Hanson and her sinister adviser, James Ashby.'  

~ Mungo MacCallum

MALCOLM TURNBULL has always been a glass-half-full kind of guy, so he probably woke up on Sunday morning thinking that the result in Western Australia was not all bad.

True, the longest serving and most reliable of the conservative dominoes has fallen – not merely fallen, but plummeted almost to the bottom of the abyss. But no one could say that it was all his fault. His rare and desultory visits to the west may not have helped. But they hardly mattered against the parlous state of the local economy – which the incoming Labor Premier, Mark McGowan, will now have to deal with – and more importantly the massive "it’s time" factor.

It was obvious that Colin Barnett and his Liberal Government were well and truly past their use-by date, a view confirmed by Barnett’s major election promise: if re-elected, he would not serve his full term. Understandably, the electorate thought it might as well cut to the chase and dispatch him on the spot.

But the good news is that although the Libs were clobbered beyond the worst fears of even the most zealous pessimists, One Nation also copped a hiding, largely as a result of the Faustian bargain on preferences struck between Barnett and Pauline Hanson and her sinister adviser, James Ashby. Hanson explained that her supporters were just too ignorant to understand the system, and immediately demanded that the goalposts should be moved to make it simpler for them.

read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/mungo-maccallum-hanso...

On 17 March, disendorsed candidate Dane Sorenson, a man who calls a spade a fucking shovel, sent his own missive to "the team". He titled it ‘a look back’.

Dane summed things up, addressing Aidan Nagle in particular,

We, the shabby remnants of a shambolic and stupidly conducted amateur attempt of a campaign, run by self proclaimed experts and one child protege who was promoted as a stellar tech wiz kid who both Labor AND Liberal would have given undisclosed riches, if only they could have him on THEIR team, well - we would, in retrospect, happily have seen all of the Eastern States “support” team campaign for either of the major parties. Actually, they might have helped the Liberals - they did marginally better than PHON …… just.

Pauline, ever the delusional leader she is, went from condemning all and sundry for a disastrous result and appointing blame in a scatter gun way to claiming two MLC’s as an earth shattering success.

Well, for one of them it WAS an earth shattering success - the duplicity and underhandedness involved in securing his seat is breathtaking if for nothing else then for it’s total disregard for EVERY other member of the party.

You can not even say you were unaware or even that no one warned you, but very few of you even comprehended the breath of the deceit and self interest involved.

Dane then describes the upshot of PHON’s farcical preference deal with the Libs, before going on to say,

What I would like to see us all take away from this is the utter conviction that we were absolutely duped and used - certainly by one James Ashby but sadly, it appears, also by the lady herself.

This is the person who demanded that it is “My party and you’ll do as I say” - as such, the owner of the party must take responsibility for what she allowed and/or directed to happen.

@SkyNewsAust And the person along with Hanson behind this descrimination, Yep a regular in the courts system, Lovely blok NOT James Ashby, pic.twitter.com/o0mTMrErti

— Newcastle Guardian (@NewcastleGardia) March 8, 2017

James was not happy:

Wow, you’ve surprised me with such eloquent words Dane, unlike the multiple foul mouthed calls, where words like ‘cunt and fuck’ spewed from your vile mouth.

Don’t ever contact me again you self righteous, deranged man.

James Ashby

Aidan chipped in:

I concur

It really is a piece that you should be submitting for consideration to get published. You are quite coherent when every second word is not, "fucking shit cunt officers",  "fuckstain higher ups", or "cunting niggers" as you have said before verbally to many members of PHON staff. Good luck with your future endeavours but as a disendorsed candidate any input into PHON operations is not appreciated nor requested.

Dane shot back:

Hello Aidan,

Well, you seem to have a limited sense of reality my boy.

I’d take this opportunity to point out you are yet again lying - I did not verbally abuse “many” members of PHON - just yourself and James - and to portray otherwise is dishonest.

I was not aware Pauline was on the phone when James called and never intended to use that language in front of her - James rang, did not disclose Pauline was on the line, so the responsibility for her being exposed to my tirade is squarely with him. To be fair, Pauline should have declared herself.

If you’d like to discus matters further - I’m actually in Brisbane for a few days and would love to opportunity to have a meaningful face to face with both yourself and James. 

My Best Regards

Dane Sorensen

Meaningful.

Disendorsed One Nation candidates Sandy Baraiolo and Dane Sorensen go nuclear on James Ashby: https://t.co/lpmCJGgSsu pic.twitter.com/T4EmNQtkJI

— Crikey.com.au (@crikey_news) March 20, 2017

A couple of days later, on 19 March, disendorsed candidate Sandy Baraiolo wrote to her would-be colleagues:

The election is over, my positive thoughts have been with you all, sadly we were never given any clear written directions nor any real help from PHON. It’s my personal belief candidates were placed in as many seats as possible for monetary gain for the party only. What the party did to Brain Brightman was abhorrent it’s my belief they had no intention to run him as a candidate just use him for political gain. It now appears PHON were only concerned with Upper house seats and then a certain candidate was given preferential treatment over and above everyone else, favoritism and nepotism, how are you today Colin? How was this fair to all candidates who have spent money when the real prospect of them winning was very poor? Please know I am a phone call away if you need to chat.

Sandy then addressed James directly:

You James should be ashamed, you're nothing more than a bully and this is not a good trait in a person you spew vitriol at any one who cares to stand up to you. I have been on the end of your tirade a few times. Just remember many a person has been taken down by the written word, I did absolutely nothing wrong and you became a monster to me.

 

read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/one-nation-ca...

Labor has referred Pauline Hanson's One Nation party to the Australian Electoral Commission over allegations it breached political donation laws.

Former One Nation state treasurer Ian Nelson told the ABC's Four Corners program he warned Senator Hanson that a light plane she used must be disclosed as a political donation.

Mr Nelson said he understood party donor Bill McNee transferred money to buy the Jabiru aircraft to Senator Hanson's chief of staff, James Ashby, who later allegedly pressured Mr Nelson about concealing the donation.

He alleged Mr Ashby — who the plane is registered to — told him to list the donor as anonymous.

"He said, 'Well can't you just put anonymous donor?' And I said, 'No, you can't do that, I'll end up in jail'," Mr Nelson said.

Insurance documents also showed the plane, which bears the party logo and a caricature of Senator Hanson, was listed as being used for business purposes.

Under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, political parties and candidates have to disclose donations of more than $13,200.

The inclusion of false or misleading information may result in a fine of up to $10,000.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-04/labor-refers-one-nation-to-austral...