Dumped One Nation candidates take aim at James Ashby
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Version 0 of 1. Two dumped One Nation candidates for the Queensland state election have taken aim at senior party adviser James Ashby, accusing him and the party leader, Pauline Hanson, of pushing them out without due process. Peter Rogers was dumped as the party’s candidate for the seat of Mulgrave on Friday night after posts on his campaign website claimed that drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi was “alive and well” and that the Port Arthur massacre was “a fabricated incident”. On Monday Rogers complained in a lengthy Facebook post that he had been told the party executive “never convened a meeting to discuss my candidacy” before Hanson and Ashby “left [him] no choice” but to offer his resignation. He said he remained disappointed at the pair’s decision. “The website comments and articles were not posted by me, nor did the third party posting have my authority to upload.” He also pointed the finger at the party’s new state leader, Steve Dickson, who he said “appeared to capitulate with Pauline and Ashby’s condescendence” and had made no effort to resolve the dispute. “It appears there was no due process, democracy or a ‘fair go’ in conjunction with the party constitution,” he said. Rogers said Hanson had offered a “glimmer of hope” to Australians disenfranchised by the major parties. “Unfortunately, I believe that there is a force working within One Nation, unbeknown to Ms Hanson, that is using herself and the party to create chaos and so far it is succeeding. “One Nation is owned by the party members and not any singular individual.” Shan Ju Lin, who was disendorsed for saying “gays should be treated as patients”, backed Rogers, sharing his post and warning on Monday that “One Nation is controlled by Ashby”. Ju Lin shared a legal threat to her allegedly from Ashby demanding she take down a post relating to an ABC article written in 2012 about a Queensland police investigation into him which was captioned by her with “this might explain my disendorsement”. However, Ju Lin’s post did not include the fact that the post was updated in December 2016 to reflect the fact there was insufficient evidence to proceed with criminal charges against any person. “Shan Ju Lin the post you put up 4 hours ago were false allegations,” Ashby allegedly told her. “If you fail to remove this post immediately I will have my lawyer deal with you and your comments.” Ju Lin told Guardian Australia she was entitled to share the article and did not intend to take it down. “One Nation supporters need to know, we tried so hard to make this party successful. To make Australia great again. “But he’s not the right person. He has to be removed from his position or One Nation will lose a lot of support. People won’t vote for a party controlled by James Ashby.” Guardian Australia contacted Ashby for comment. |