Pauline Hanson warned of 'implosion' as One Nation rebel speaks out
Pauline Hanson is being warned of an “implosion” of One Nation amid complaints she is turning the political party into a “dictatorship” while rumours swirl over an approach to former Labor leader Mark Latham to join her team.
In a deepening crisis over the party’s future, NSW senator Brian Burston told Fairfax Media he was being wrongly accused of deserting One Nation and insisted he would stay loyal to the party and its leader.
But Senator Hanson moved on Friday afternoon to force him out, telling him by letter that she had lost confidence in him and had removed him as a deputy registered officer in NSW and at a federal level.
"Please consider resigning from the Senate seat and handing it back to the party," Senator Hanson wrote.
In a stand-off over the move, Senator Burston told Fairfax Media he did not want to quit the party and that any attempt to drive him out would backfire on Senator Hanson and One Nation,
“If Pauline Hanson wants me to go she can sack me if she likes. I’m not sure what benefit that would be to the party,” he said in an interview.
“I think it’d be a move that might lead to One Nation’s demise, politically.”
In a spectacular breakdown in the controversial party, Senator Hanson accused Senator Burston on Thursday night of approaching the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party to seek a new political home.
Fairfax Media has spoken to the man who telephoned the Shooter’s Party on Thursday and he has insisted he did not do so at Mr Burston’s behest. He spoke on condition he not be named.
In a sequence of events that sparked a crisis, the friend of Senator Burston contacted Shooter’s Party NSW director Filip Despotoski at about 3.20pm on Thursday but insists he did so without Senator Burston’s knowledge.
An agreement was reached to hold the meeting on Friday, June 8, and the intermediary passed this on to Senator Burston at about 4.10pm on Thursday.
“All I want to do is be accurate so people know it is not right to say Brian Burston reached out to the Shooters,” the man said. “He didn’t ask me to do it.”
Rumours of the approach began swirling after 7pm and Senator Hanson revealed the news on Sky News in an interview with host Ben Fordham at 7.20pm.
Senator Burston said he was being wrongly blamed for approaching the Shooters Party when he had not asked his constituent to contact Mr Despotoski.
In a warning over One Nation’s future, Senator Burston said that out of 29 or 30 of the party’s elected MPs since it was formed, 23 have been sacked or have quit.
The party has also seen its federal presence shrink from four to three senators, with Queenslander Fraser Anning quitting, and this could get worse if Sentor Burston is driven out of the party under Senator Hanson’s leadership.
“That’s not to say I’ve got any high profile like she has, but the fact that One Nation would be seen as imploding, from four senators down to two, well, it’s not a good record.
“I don’t think letting me go would add to One Nation’s reputation at all, it would diminish it substantially and the media would have a field day.”
Senator Burston was doing an interview with 2GB on Friday afternoon when he was told of Senator Hanson’s letter to him asking for his resignation, but he said he had not received the letter.
“That’s disappointing,” he said.
“She’s saying she has no longer has the confidence that I would agree with every single decision she makes as president for life.
“I thought I joined One Nation as a democratic political party not as a dictatorship.”
He said he would not resign his Senate seat, would not resign from One Nation and would sit as an independent if she proceeded to remove him from the party.