One Nation Under Oldfield

ONE NATION UNDER OLDFIELD
by
Ben McGinnes

If anyone saw 60 Minutes last night they would have been treated to the sight of more than a hundred One Nation members hijacking the discussion, allegedly under the direction of Pauline Hanson's political adviser, David Oldfield. Mr. Oldfield was noticed by his absence until the end of this discussion, though there were other high profile members of the party present, not surprising since the group was hand-picked by the party. These included Peter James (the Queensland state director), Bill Feldman (state MP for Caboolture and Queensland Party Leader), Shaun Nelson (state MP for Tablelands), Ken Turner (state MP for Thuringowa) and, I think, Charles Rappolt (state MP for Mulgrave).

What Richard Carleton and Channel 9 had apparently originally intended as a forum in which members of One Nation could discuss their views with three "experienced mainstream political operators," including Graham Richardson, was quickly commandeered by the One Nation members, most notably Mr. Feldman. When Richard Carleton, as moderator, attempted to ascertain what One Nation actually stood for, Feldman refused to answer, leaving the response to newly elected state MP Shaun Nelson.

"One Nation stands for bringing Australians together as a unified mass and uniting our country under one people, one land mass, one flag?"
-- Shaun Nelson, Queensland MP One land mass? Is Mr. Nelson forgetting Tasmania, an entire state, let alone the Torres Strait islands and countless others around the coast. Debates about changing the flag aside, at the moment about a quarter of it is the Union Jack, but that's okay for One Nation since that?d represent the number of members with varying British accents in their "hand-picked" group. The Member for Tablelands didn?t limit himself to just one inane remark for the discussion and I'm sure he won't in the future either.

The "anti-asianisation of the nation" topic slid by without much fuss as the concentration was applied to employment issues and employment for Australian citizens first. This, however, was followed by the allegation that current and past governments have gone out of their way to damage or destroy rural Australia. When queried by Michael Kroger as to whether or not they believed this to be deliberate the response was that either these governments were "hopeless managers or it was deliberate." There's a nice one for the conspiracy theorists, a government set out to destroy its primary producers, in a country that needs them to survive.

This was followed by a little more statistic quoting, this time as regards the banks in Australia and again One Nation has managed to get its statistics wrong. This seems to be something of a habit for the fledgling party, one wonders if it will ever be broken. This, however, quickly turned into an argument as to whether or not Australia was an economic disaster and ruin.

This brought us viewers to Shaun Nelson's second entertaining little quote for the evening, which was one of the better examples of double-think in action with his statement about One Nation members of parliament to Graham Richardson, "we're not politicians, sir, we are citizen legislators." If he honestly believes that somehow he and his fellow One Nation members are going to be free of inter- and intra- party politics, that they are not going to have to cut any deals or make any compromises to achieve their goals, whether those goals be personal, political or idealogical, then Mr. Nelson is in for a rude awakening. Despite the common stereotypes of politicians and honesty there is a certain amount of political activity which comes part and parcel with the job of being an elected representative of a particular region. These representatives, whether they call themselves politicians or "citizen legislators," must learn to deal with that fact or they certainly won't retain their positions in the Queensland Parliament for very long.

The plaintive cry of a sixteen year-old girl that, thus far, there had been no mention of One Nation's "positive policies." She referred to the family policies as such, even though it is these same policies which target single mothers, especially those with more than one child, for reductions of government support. Of course this came from a girl who described herself as "a sixteen year-old child," a description which I'm sure most people of that age would have to be paid to use. Most sixteen year-olds insist on their maturity and that they are not children, yet this girl claimed so quite happily, not even resorting to the "young person" title used by most Christian organizations. This certainly smacks of a certain amount of scripting for the party members, a script almost certainly written by Pauline Hanson's political adviser.

The arrival of David Oldfield at the end of the discussion, seeming almost like a cameo appearance, appeared more like a snake slithering out of the bushes. There can be no doubt that his reptilian gaze marked the entire proceedings, missing nothing. After all it was, apparently, this man who prepared the other One Nation members for their showdown with 60 Minutes and the guest speakers. Having made this comparison I am reminded of the parable of the Old Woman and the Snake and I wonder if Pauline Hanson is aware of it. Oldfield seemed quite happy to rebut Carleton's description of him as One Nation's "eminence grise," but he clearly did nothing to defend the description of the party members as his brood. Nor did those same party members do anything to dissuade the television audience of this unflattering description. His smooth assault of 60 Minutes and the representatives of the Labor, Liberal and National Parties was so slick I half expected him to leave a trail.

Oldfield then claimed that the One Nation members present were the perfect cross-representation of Australian society, yet I for one saw no Aboriginals, asians, or other ethnic groups amongst them, nor did I see any single mothers or youth who weren't obviously with their families. Though sight can be difficult to go on as regards religion, I would also be willing to bet that most of them were Christians of one kind or another. Other "alternative life-styles," I'm sure, are not likely to be found at One Nation party gatherings, not a hippie in sight, yet this doesn't prevent Oldfield from making his patently ridiculous claim. Still this isn't the first time a representative of One Nation has made an obviously incorrect statement or proposal, as David Ettridge's comment about printing money proved, and I sincerely doubt it will be the last.

Monday August 3rd, 1998

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