The Conversation Documentaries
May 26, 2026 · 20 min · 6 segments
We’d all like deeply considered policy and informed debate to be at the heart of politics, but unfortunately controversies and scandals tend to steal the show. For most parties, scandals are…
Jordan McSweeneyGuest
Ashlyn McGeeHost
Jordan McSweeney, you're at the University of Canberra researching far right parties and the scandals that plague them.
To be honest, never really, right? 'Cause I don't think the scandals are necessarily a negative for the party.
We begin with the verdict which has found Pauline Hanson guilty of electoral fraud and immediately-
Pauline Hanson was convicted and briefly went to prison for electoral fraud.
One of the other big ones is in 2017 the party was investigated by the Australian Electoral Commission for failing to properly declare flights on a plane owned by James Ashby, who of course is today the chief of staff for Hanson.
On top of that, you've got things like the 2018 secret recording of James Ashby-
There is an opportunity for us to make some money out of this if we play this smart
... suggesting that One Nation should deliberately overcharge its candidates at the Queensland state election for electoral materials.
In 2019, probably the other big one was the party was revealed to have been seeking funds from American pro-gun groups, like the National Rifle Association, in exchange for watering down Australia's post-Port Arthur massacre gun laws.
Pauline Hanson is facing what could be the toughest week of her political career as the firestorm over the gun lobbying sting continues to engulf her party.
Bit more recently I guess, there's been the defamation battle with the Green Senator Mehreen Faruqi which Hanson lost, and a federal court judge found that Hanson had engaged in racial discrimination against her fellow senator.
And then on top of all of that, there is the fact that One Nation has basically lost all of its parliamentarians to splits and divisions and very public falling outs with Hanson.
After the 2016 federal election, Rod Culleton, Brian Burston, Fraser Anning all broke with the party, all following disputes.
Burston quite famously got into a scuffle with James Ashby in the Great Hall of Parliament and ended up smearing his blood on the door of Hanson's parliamentary office, which is one of the weirder things to have happened.
Whilst I do not, uh, recall the incident of blood on the door, I now have come to the conclusion that it was myself, and I sincerely apologize for that action.
And then I guess the most high-profile one is, of course, the former ALP leader Mark Latham and his fellow One Nation New South Wales MLC Rod Roberts, again, resigning the party again after falling out with Hanson.
Every time they get a few people elected, bang, there tends to be a split with Hanson.
They all fall out and the party loses its representation in Parliament, not because they've lost seats at election necessarily, but because of, you know, internal disagreements.
And yet, at the same time I say in a way none of this has mattered, right? It hasn't really put a dent in Hanson's popularity.
It hasn't really mattered in terms of the party's appeal to its supporters.
Jordan McSweeney, you're at the University of Canberra researching far right parties and the scandals that plague them.
To be honest, never really, right? 'Cause I don't think the scandals are necessarily a negative for the party.
We begin with the verdict which has found Pauline Hanson guilty of electoral fraud and immediately-
Pauline Hanson was convicted and briefly went to prison for electoral fraud.
One of the other big ones is in 2017 the party was investigated by the Australian Electoral Commission for failing to properly declare flights on a plane owned by James Ashby, who of course is today the chief of staff for Hanson.
On top of that, you've got things like the 2018 secret recording of James Ashby-
There is an opportunity for us to make some money out of this if we play this smart
... suggesting that One Nation should deliberately overcharge its candidates at the Queensland state election for electoral materials.
In 2019, probably the other big one was the party was revealed to have been seeking funds from American pro-gun groups, like the National Rifle Association, in exchange for watering down Australia's post-Port Arthur massacre gun laws.
Pauline Hanson is facing what could be the toughest week of her political career as the firestorm over the gun lobbying sting continues to engulf her party.
Bit more recently I guess, there's been the defamation battle with the Green Senator Mehreen Faruqi which Hanson lost, and a federal court judge found that Hanson had engaged in racial discrimination against her fellow senator.
And then on top of all of that, there is the fact that One Nation has basically lost all of its parliamentarians to splits and divisions and very public falling outs with Hanson.
After the 2016 federal election, Rod Culleton, Brian Burston, Fraser Anning all broke with the party, all following disputes.
Burston quite famously got into a scuffle with James Ashby in the Great Hall of Parliament and ended up smearing his blood on the door of Hanson's parliamentary office, which is one of the weirder things to have happened.
Whilst I do not, uh, recall the incident of blood on the door, I now have come to the conclusion that it was myself, and I sincerely apologize for that action.
And then I guess the most high-profile one is, of course, the former ALP leader Mark Latham and his fellow One Nation New South Wales MLC Rod Roberts, again, resigning the party again after falling out with Hanson.
Every time they get a few people elected, bang, there tends to be a split with Hanson.
They all fall out and the party loses its representation in Parliament, not because they've lost seats at election necessarily, but because of, you know, internal disagreements.
And yet, at the same time I say in a way none of this has mattered, right? It hasn't really put a dent in Hanson's popularity.
It hasn't really mattered in terms of the party's appeal to its supporters.
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