Speaker 1: I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to seven AM. As
Speaker 1: one nation's political clout rises, so too does its bank
Speaker 1: balance courtesy of the very elite Pauline Hanson often rails against. Now.
Speaker 1: An investigation by The Brisbane Times in Sydney Morning Herald
Speaker 1: has detailed some of the places One Nation's cash is
Speaker 1: coming from, from exclusive parties hosted at Gena ryan Hart's mansion,
Speaker 1: to movies to merch. But perhaps even more pertinent is
Speaker 1: the contributions hidden from public view. Today Sidney Morning Herald
Speaker 1: investigative reporter Patrick Begley on the sources of one Nation's wealth.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, August eleven. So Patrick, let's begin with these
Speaker 1: dinner parties that have been hosted at Gena rein hart
Speaker 1: Riverside mansion in Brisbane. What can you tell me about them?
Speaker 2: So these are quite intimate affairs, we're told me and
Speaker 2: my colleague James Hall from the Brisbane Times. They're small
Speaker 2: dinner parties and they're at this beautiful Hawthorne mansion that
Speaker 2: yin Hut has with wonderful views overlooking the Brisbane River.
Speaker 2: The admission price is ten thousand dollars a ticket, and
Speaker 2: what you get is sometimes Ryan Hunt herself, although at
Speaker 2: times she's a late withdrawal, but Pauline Hanson is certainly
Speaker 2: there and sometimes her star recruit Barnaby Joyce is there
Speaker 2: as well. And these dinners are really a chance for
Speaker 2: people to mingle with Hansen. And the guest list, we're
Speaker 2: told is often people from industry bodies like the resources sector,
Speaker 2: wealthy business people, sometimes small business owners, and they're not
Speaker 2: always political themselves guests, but they might just want to
Speaker 2: contribute via fundraising.
Speaker 1: And so it's fair to say then that this ten
Speaker 1: thousand dollars is less for the Champagne and cavia On
Speaker 1: offer and more for the opportunity to network and perhaps influence.
Speaker 2: That's right. I don't think that the people paying ten
Speaker 2: thousand dollars are doing so for astronomy reasons. I think
Speaker 2: it's who's in the room. And for a long time
Speaker 2: now Ronehart has had these dinner parties. They're apparently quite
Speaker 2: well known in political circles, especially up in Queensland. Whereas
Speaker 2: once upon a time they were really about people trying
Speaker 2: to maybe influence the policy of the Liberal National Party,
Speaker 2: they're now heavily geared towards one nation and our reporting
Speaker 2: show that some had even heard gloating from those present
Speaker 2: that the donations from one nation were flooding in, and
Speaker 2: the implication there was, you really don't want to be
Speaker 2: outside of this. You don't want to be failing to
Speaker 2: contribute to the flood of donations, because you want to
Speaker 2: be in the room, in the know, and in close
Speaker 2: proximity with people who are, in Reinhardt's case, enormously powerful
Speaker 2: through her business interests, and in Hanson's case, a real
Speaker 2: rising political force.
Speaker 1: And when you think about it, ten thousand dollars is
Speaker 1: comparatively speaking, a bit of a steal compared to some
Speaker 1: of Gina's past one nation fundraisers. There's been the luxury
Speaker 1: cruise ship, her private jet events on that. So why
Speaker 1: do you think she's offering this cheaper option.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, she's certainly been extraordinarily generous with her
Speaker 2: support for the party, But you have to remember that
Speaker 2: these are dinner parties with maybe ten or so guests,
Speaker 2: and we're told that there have been multiple of these
Speaker 2: type of events, and for a political party, I think
Speaker 2: you're never saying no to cash. Every little bit counts,
Speaker 2: and we can see this right across politics, whether it's
Speaker 2: the Liberal Party, the Labor Party. They do these events,
Speaker 2: and I think that it's because they can't rely solely
Speaker 2: on wealthy benefactors, you know, the mega mega donors. They
Speaker 2: need to be casting around for a broader pool. As
Speaker 2: for Reinhartz motivations, I don't think we know exactly. You know,
Speaker 2: why not just donate the one hundred and twenty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars you might earn from that particular event. But I
Speaker 2: suppose that if you're a billionaire who's got political interests,
Speaker 2: then it doesn't hurt to be mingling with other people
Speaker 2: who share similar views and have similar policy ambitions.
Speaker 1: And I suppose we're not going to know exactly how
Speaker 1: much revenue is being raised for one nation for these
Speaker 1: kind of events for the time being right well, for the.
Speaker 2: Time being and potentially forever. And that's because of the
Speaker 2: disclosure thre thresholds that are currently in place. I think
Speaker 2: at the moment at the federal level, that's about seventeen
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, So if you're donating less than that, then
Speaker 2: essentially it will not appear publicly. That is going to change.
Speaker 2: Labor has introduced new rules that are set to take
Speaker 2: effect next year that will drop the disclosure threshold right
Speaker 2: down to five thousand dollars. But yeah, those people who
Speaker 2: are donating right now at the dinners, we might never
Speaker 2: know who they are.
Speaker 1: And so this is only one way in which One
Speaker 1: Nation is raising funds. Tell me a bit more about
Speaker 1: what we know about where else One Nation's money is
Speaker 1: coming from, because some of it is pretty unorthodox.
Speaker 2: Right, that's right. I mean, like all political parties, it
Speaker 2: gets quite a lot of money from the government. Essentially,
Speaker 2: it gets distributions from electoral commissions for campaign finance, for
Speaker 2: administrative expenses and so on, and that's definitely significant and
Speaker 2: can't be ignored. What you see in One Nation, though,
Speaker 2: is a party that has entered out into all kinds
Speaker 2: of different things. It's got this very extensive merch section
Speaker 2: on its website where you can get everything from mousepads
Speaker 2: to beach balls to bottles of gin, which received some
Speaker 2: negative reviews online. You've got the make Elbow Go Away
Speaker 2: baseball caps, so you've got the merch side of things.
Speaker 3: We've got new.
Speaker 1: Great Pauline Hanson One Nation hats, we got the socks
Speaker 1: which are incredibly comfy, and we've got.
Speaker 2: These Then there's also the film production business that they
Speaker 2: entered into. I think it was last year on Australia Day,
Speaker 2: they released the very sarcastically titled super Progressive movie.
Speaker 1: We're going every single capital city.
Speaker 3: We're going around. Pauline's going to be there. We've got
Speaker 3: the orange carp but we're going to have a media wall.
Speaker 2: I'm just really excited about it because and this is
Speaker 2: an animated film directed by the Party with the help
Speaker 2: of a production studio, and apparently it costs about five
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars to make, it's been reported. And this film,
Speaker 2: the Party has said, is to raise proceeds for the
Speaker 2: fight against the Albanese government in twenty twenty eight, so
Speaker 2: it's a very explicitly political project. Now, what we found
Speaker 2: in our reporting is that that actually raises a bit
Speaker 2: of a question for the Party about whether a super
Speaker 2: progressive movie and the companies associated with it should actually
Speaker 2: be declared as associated entities. Now, under electoral law, associated
Speaker 2: entities are pretty much there so that you don't have
Speaker 2: these backdoorways of contributing money to parties. So if you've
Speaker 2: got a company and it's substantially controlled by a party,
Speaker 2: or it's for the party's benefit. In the main, it
Speaker 2: should be an associated entity, and the Australian Electoral Commission
Speaker 2: has told us, without going into specifics, that it's examining
Speaker 2: whether there are associated entities of one nation that ought
Speaker 2: to have been declared. We don't know for sure.
Speaker 1: Yet still to come. One nation's dubis track record with finances. Patrick,
Speaker 1: I imagine it can be pretty difficult trying to piece
Speaker 1: together all of this because Pauline Hanson and her party
Speaker 1: there's a history there of failing to declare financial interests
Speaker 1: and gifts and spending over the years.
Speaker 2: That's right. I don't think any party is without issues
Speaker 2: when it comes to compliance with electoral regulations. You know,
Speaker 2: we see pretty commonly politicians having to update their personal
Speaker 2: interests because of one failure or another. But I do
Speaker 2: think it is fair to say that one nation has
Speaker 2: form when it comes to this.
Speaker 3: Electoral Commission has confirmed it will and its investigation into
Speaker 3: one nation's finances. The ABC's four Corners claims the party
Speaker 3: used money from a Victorian property developer to buy a
Speaker 3: light plane.
Speaker 2: We discovered that even just recently, the party in Queensland
Speaker 2: was forced to update its declarations to show that it
Speaker 2: had spent an extra two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 2: or so at the last Queensland state election campaign, and
Speaker 2: that meant that it had effectively failed to declare nearly
Speaker 2: half its spending in that campaign until it received some
Speaker 2: correspondence from the Electoral Commission. And on top of that,
Speaker 2: there's also news that came out recently that in Queensland,
Speaker 2: the political entity there that One Nation has could even
Speaker 2: face deregistration for failing to upload some further reports and
Speaker 2: financial accounts. So there's definitely a lot going on in
Speaker 2: this space.
Speaker 1: One nation is in danger of being struck off in
Speaker 1: Queensland over missing financial records the film business.
Speaker 2: I only learned about that earlier this year when I
Speaker 2: did a company search on Pauline Hanson and I could
Speaker 2: see that she had these various directorships and shareholdings and
Speaker 2: companies and they did not appear on her register of interests.
Speaker 2: And that's what every senator or member of Parliament is
Speaker 2: required to upload publicly, all of their various income sources,
Speaker 2: interests and so on. Pauline Hanson had just left those off.
Speaker 2: She did later correct the record. Another thing that we
Speaker 2: were dealing with here is some of the loans that
Speaker 2: go on within one nation. We could see money going
Speaker 2: from one branch to another to another. And Pauline Hanson
Speaker 2: is actually a really significant lender to the party herself.
Speaker 2: She since she's become a senator about a decade ago,
Speaker 2: has lent the party five hundred and seventy five thousand
Speaker 2: dollars or so, and in twenty twenty four to twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five she lent another or within that two hundred
Speaker 2: and forty five thousand dollars. And so one angle that
Speaker 2: James and I were exploring in our reporting is the
Speaker 2: interest that she was earning on those loans. The Party
Speaker 2: has said it's a commercial rate of interest. Other interest
Speaker 2: rates charged by the party are around about the six
Speaker 2: percent mark, and that means that Pauline Hanson in that
Speaker 2: financial year would have stood to earn, based on those
Speaker 2: kinds of figures, about fifteen thousand dollars in interest by
Speaker 2: lending to her own party. The thing is that there
Speaker 2: is no additional income source reported by Pauline Hanson that
Speaker 2: just doesn't show up. We asked her about it, Unfortunately
Speaker 2: she declined to comment.
Speaker 1: So as it stands, then, how much of one nation's
Speaker 1: donations are undisclosed, meaning we don't know who's made them.
Speaker 2: So that will depend whether you're looking at the states
Speaker 2: or federally. But if we just take the federal level.
Speaker 2: I spoke to Jute Tam who's a researcher, a law
Speaker 2: professor at the University of Melbourne, and he had a
Speaker 2: quick look at one nation's accounts at the federal level.
Speaker 2: One nation in twenty twenty four twenty twenty five took
Speaker 2: in about three point three million dollars at the federal
Speaker 2: level and two million dollars more than two million dollars
Speaker 2: of that went undisclosed. So I think that points to
Speaker 2: in this case, not necessarily any kind of failing by
Speaker 2: one nation, but a failing of our political system. It's
Speaker 2: really just, I think a sad reflection of Australian politics
Speaker 2: that for so long we've let very large amounts of
Speaker 2: money come in without proper declaration and disclosure. The Labor
Speaker 2: Government is acting on that. We're going to have the
Speaker 2: new laws in place next year, the lower threshold for disclosure,
Speaker 2: some better reporting in terms of the time frame. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's not real time, but it will be closer to
Speaker 2: real pa as it stands. It's a bit of a
Speaker 2: guessing game each year at the federal level. We wait
Speaker 2: until it's February, I think, and then there's a flood
Speaker 2: of information that comes out about what's been going on
Speaker 2: for the last year. Those new laws from Labor will
Speaker 2: hopefully fix that.
Speaker 1: And One Nation isn't the only political party obviously that
Speaker 1: relies on donors and fundraising dinners. We were chatting to
Speaker 1: Sean Kelly last week about the Prime Minister's ten thousand
Speaker 1: dollars ahead dinner at Point Piper. So is One Nation
Speaker 1: doing anything different to any of the major political parties.
Speaker 2: In one way? No, I mean hospitality and fundraising go
Speaker 2: together and have done for a very long time. I
Speaker 2: think that what's interesting about One Nation, though, is its
Speaker 2: sheer proximity to such a wealthy and powerful person in
Speaker 2: the form of Gina Einhart.
Speaker 3: She's a very proud, patriotic Australian and she sees the
Speaker 3: same in me.
Speaker 2: Sposh. You back to me. Now, other billionaires have supported Labor,
Speaker 2: they've supported the Liberals, sometimes both, But I think that
Speaker 2: when it comes to Reinhardt and Hansen, I don't think
Speaker 2: that we've seen this level of closeness and proximity between
Speaker 2: such a powerful business figure and someone like Hanson who
Speaker 2: is both outside of the political mainstream in one way
Speaker 2: but increasingly becoming the center of attention, and someone who,
Speaker 2: through her party, I think, poses a real threat to
Speaker 2: the political parties, you know, the main political party systems
Speaker 2: that we see in place at the moment.
Speaker 1: Well Patrick, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Also in the news, tonight's census is being hailed by
Speaker 1: some as Australia's most progressive, with new questions on sexuality
Speaker 1: and gender. LGBTIQ plus advocates say the data collected will
Speaker 1: be transformative in learning more about the queer community and
Speaker 1: lead to better decisions around things like health and community services.
Speaker 1: Held every five years, the census is compulsory and we'll
Speaker 1: see millions of Australians simultaneously complete the same sixty six
Speaker 1: question survey. And two airport workers have been temporarily stood
Speaker 1: down as investigators look into the second near collision between
Speaker 1: two planes at Sydney Airport in two weeks. An airline
Speaker 1: worker was injured when a Jet Star plane was forced
Speaker 1: to slam on its brakes after coming within meters of
Speaker 1: striking aktar Jet. Transport Minister Catherine King says there was
Speaker 1: unplanned leave due to illness in Sydney over the weekend,
Speaker 1: but his confident Air Services Australia is doing everything it
Speaker 1: can to get on top of the situation. I'm Riby Jones.
Speaker 1: This is seven AM. Thanks for listening, new
Speaker 2: And