Hanson to lead One Nation again

Pauline Hanson
Pauline Hanson
Pauline Hanson has declared she'll lead the One Nation Party once more, and its first electoral test will come next year when Queenslanders go to the polls.

The party's executive unanimously backed Ms Hanson's return as leader at a meeting a few weeks ago and members are expected to formally endorse her at a meeting on November 29.

The serial candidate has insisted on her name being included once more in the party's brand.

But she insists the move to rebrand the party as Pauline Hanson's One Nation has nothing to do with ego.

"I have no ego," she told the Seven Network.

"But I think that people relate to me."

She said she wasn't going to repeat past mistakes and allow people to infiltrate the party and destroy it from within.

"I'll take total control of it myself," she said.

"If I don't succeed then it'll be my fault. But no one's going to pull my strings. No one's going to tell me what to say."

She said the reborn party's first test would come early next year at the Queensland election, and she was also aiming to win a seat in the federal parliament.

"People are so disillusioned with Campbell Newman and the Liberal National party," she said, adding there must be an alternative for voters who didn't want to back the Palmer and Katter parties.

Ms Hanson said she was reluctant to return to the helm of the party she founded in 1997, but felt she had no choice given voter disillusionment with the two main parties, the Greens and Clive Palmer's party.

"I think that people want an honest voice they want to know what's going on," she said.

"They want honesty. They want accountability. Who else is there?"

"I'm calling on the people of Australia to please get behind me."

She said her own disillusionment with the current political landscape forced her to overcome her reservations about having yet another crack at a political career.

"I see nothing changing. I thought that maybe Clive Palmer the PUP party, would be the answer - I don't think he is," she said.

"I have to give it a last shot."

The party's Queensland director Ian Nelson told AAP there was overwhelming support for Ms Hanson's return, and he expected members would put that on show when the vote on her leadership on November 29.

PAULINE HANSON'S POLITICAL CAREER:

1996: Elected as independent MP for federal seat of Oxley after being booted out of the Liberal Party for making racist comments.

1996: Makes maiden speech to parliament, criticising immigration, multiculturalism and assistance to Aborigines

1997: Co-founds One Nation with David Oldfield and David Ettridge

1998: Loses federal seat

2001: Fails to win Queensland Senate seat in federal election as One Nation candidate

2003: Fails to win NSW upper house seat

2004: Fails to win Queensland Senate seat in the federal election as independent

2007: Launches Pauline's United Australia Party, again fails to collect a Queensland Senate seat at federal election.

2009: Stands as an independent candidate for the seat of Beaudesert in the Queensland state election but loses.

2011: Nominates as a candidate for the NSW upper house in the state election and loses.

2013: Announces she will rejoin One Nation and run for a NSW Senate seat at the September federal election. She loses.

2014: Announces she has the backing of the executive to return as leader, with the party to be rebranded Pauline Hanson's One Nation.

Ms Hanson later told Fairfax radio she would stand as a candidate at the Queensland election, but would not be taking on Premier Campbell Newman in his seat of Ashgrove.

"At this stage I'm not going to disclose which seat it may be but I will disclose it before Christmas," she said.

Asked if it would be Ashgrove, she replied: "No."

She nominated foreign ownership of Australian farms as one of the key issues the rebranded party would campaign on.

She also said health and education services must be restored, and backed the Abbott government's polices on asylum seekers.

Ms Hanson praised the government's announcement that Australia will no longer accept asylum seekers who apply for resettlement after July 1 through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Indonesia.

There was plenty of evidence that many asylum seekers wanting to come to Australia were economic migrants seeking a different life, she said.

Palmer United Party leader, federal MP Clive Palmer, said he wasn't worried about the return of Pauline Hanson stripping support from his party.

"We've got policies which are totally different to hers," he told Fairfax radio.

"I think our (Queensland) parliamentary leader has a much higher profile than her. We'll be announcing that pretty soon.

"Our base is really from the centre of politics."

The Palmer party this year lost the only two MPs it has in the Queensland parliament.

Alex Douglas, who was the PUP state's leader, quit in August to become an independent, alleging a culture of "jobs for the boys" within the party.

Carl Judge also walked away from the Palmer party in October, saying he'd turned independent over Palmer party disunity at the federal level.

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