One Nation leader Pauline Hanson vows to go on ‘listening tour’ to decide policies at Leadership Matters

Pauline Hanson has announced a listening tour of the nation to decide One Nation’s policies for the next election, as she declared she is capable of being Prime Minister.

Speaking in front of a sold-out crowd at The West Australian’s Leadership Matters breakfast, the Queensland Senator was quizzed about her recent comments about the White Australia policy, her trip to Italy with WA mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, and her podcast appearance with far right British activist Tommy Robinson.

The political veteran — whose minor party has surged in opinion polls over the past six months — was also questioned over her economic policies and claims Australia is going backwards, but declared she wants to hear from the nation before announcing her election platform.

IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID

The former fish and chip shop owner said businesses can’t find workers, workers can’t find homes and the Albanese Government is blaming everyone else.

She blamed the cost of renewable energy for fuelling inflation, and mass migration.

“That’s not compassion. That’s negligence,” Senator Hanson said.

“Business owners tell me the same thing everywhere I go. The power bill used to be a small cost; now it’s one of the biggest, and that cost doesn’t stop there. It goes into the price of bread, the price of a haircut, the price of everything on the shelf.”

But voters will have to wait to hear the detail of her plans to fix it.

“There’s three things the government should do: adhere to the Constitution, the rule of law, and the economic stability of the nation,” Ms Hanson said.

“Get out of telling people how to run their businesses and their lives.

“I’m not going to give you a taxation policy because that’s something that I’ll be working on before the next election that I want to take to the people. But I think the key is also taxation. Stop taxing people to the hilt. Incentivise them to get out there.”

She announced plans for a nationwide listening tour, to ask “what’s holding you back?” and promising the answers will form the basis of future policy decisions.

“Canberra stopped listening to ordinary Australians. One Nation has not,” Ms Hanson said.

A MASS MIGRATION CRACKDOWN

She insisted she was not advocating a return to the White Australia policy that was abolished five decades ago, when she was interviewed by British agitator and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson.

“When did it change (that) Sudanese or Somalians came into the country? That’s what he asked me,” Ms Hanson said.

“And I said, well, that changed in 1973 when Gough (Whitlam) came and changed the White Australia policy,” Senator Hanson said.

“I have never advocated for the White Australia policy. I’ve had people from all different cultural backgrounds that stood for us for Parliament, and it’s not about skin colour, it’s not about your race, colour, creed. It’s who you are, that you stand up for the values and for this nation.”

But she repeated her call for a crackdown on migration from “radical Islam” nations.

The crowd jeered when Ms Hanson was asked whether that amounts to a new version of a White Australia policy.

“Don’t go there with me. I’ll tell you what, because I won’t stand for it,” she responded, to cheers.

There was no detail about how any mass deportation would be enforced.

“I tell you what I do like. Trump did this. Trump said, ‘OK, all those that are in the country illegally, I will actually give you a one-way ticket out of the country’,” she said.

“’Then you can apply to come back in some time later. But if you don’t go, you will never get back in the country again.’”

“Over 2 million took that one-way ticket, and 600,000 they had to round up. Fine, I think that’s a great way of doing it.”

Ms Hanson used migrants who fled the Middle East conflict as an example.

“I wouldn’t have brought any of those people out from Gaza,” she said.

But when pressed to identify which “radical Islam” nations she would ban, she baulked.

“This will be discussed with the departments and having a look at where migrants are coming from. I’m sure ASIO would give us a better understanding which countries,” Ms Hanson said.

She claimed ASIO has 18,000 people on its watch list. Not according to spy chief Mike Burgess.

He’s previously said there are fewer than 100 people on the highest-priority terrorist watch list, but that more than 10,000 have been investigated.

POLITICAL FRIENDS AND FOES

She was a political pariah when she was first elected in 1996.

Ms Hanson said she still doesn’t have many friends in Canberra, and spoke frankly when asked for her reaction to other leaders.

Anthony Albanese: “The worst Prime Minister, ageing hasn’t helped him”.

Angus Taylor: “I’m very happy to work with a Coalition government, the Libs and the National Party to join forces, if we have to to get rid of the Labor-Greens Government”.

But she won’t be part of a potential Taylor-led cabinet. “They’re not going to strip me of my independence to object to legislation,” she said. “Once they get rid of this net zero rubbish, then we can actually do business in this country”.

Donald Trump: “fight, fight, fight”.

Roger Cook: “I don’t know him that well, I don’t think I’ve ever met him so it’d be unfair for me to pass judgment”.

LOTS OF LOVE FOR WA

The One Nation leader is likely to return to Perth ahead of the August 29 by-election in Secret Harbour, and declared she’s a big fan of the mining State’s economic credentials.

“Western Australia helps to pay this nation’s bills. Your royalties fund the services here. Your taxes fund them everywhere else,” Ms Hanson said.

She said Federal policies are holding the State’s businesses back.

“A major project in the state has to wait too long for approval. Up to nine years for resources projects. A housing estate can wait four,” she said.

“That delay means less jobs for Western Australians, homes that never get built”.

Her solution? Slow migration.

“Let me tell you why there’s nowhere to live. It’s not a mystery. Last year, this country’s population grew by more than 400,000 people”.

AMBITION AND PUBLIC OPINION

Quizzed on stage by The West Australian’s editor-in-chief Christopher Dore over her friendship with Gina Rinehart, and whether she would declare who paid for her trip to Italy and London, Ms Hanson bristled over the media’s intrusion.

“It did not cost the taxpayer one cent for my trip overseas,” she said.

“I wish they’d question Albanese’s friendship with Pratt and Twiggy Forest, and then you’ve got he went to Kyle Sandilands’ wedding.

“No one else gets the question like I do. My God, my private life is up there for, let’s just let it rip”.

She described Mrs Rinehart as a “wonderful” West Australian and provider of jobs.

“She’s told me the problems that are in the mining industry,” Ms Hanson said.

And she laughed off video of One Nation Senator Barnaby Joyce yelling at his dog to “sit down!” during a fiery ABC television interview.

“We’re just human,” she said. “He told the dog shut up. So what is your problem with that?”

There was tight security inside and a heavy police presence outside the Crown venue, where a few dozen protesters were kept well away.

Ms Hanson wasn’t fussed by them, recalling similar scenes when she visited Perth in 1998.

“They were just as nasty and aggressive as what they are these days,” she said. “But people still came out. They wanted to hear what I had to say”.

As for One Nation’s momentum in the polls that recently saw Ms Hanson named preferred prime minister?

“It would be a huge responsibility,” she said. “I could do it. I have no doubt about that”.

But does she want to?

“I want the right person in the right job, and if someone that I believe can do a better job than I can, you go for it. To pull this country back out of the quagmire that we’re in.”