One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has sided with her volunteer after originally apologising to Liberal Senator James Paterson over a clash at a polling booth on Wednesday.
The clash unfolded when a One Nation volunteer appeared to grab Senator Paterson’s phone during a heated exchange, prompting an apology from Ms Hanson on Wednesday night.
Hours later, however, One Nation chief of staff James Ashby accused Senator Paterson of provoking the incident.
“I don’t condone any action where things get aggressive and behaviour gets out of hand here, but James Paterson went into that rage baiting, he went looking for a blue,” the One Nation chief of staff claimed.
Speaking to journalists in Albury on Thursday afternoon, Ms Hanson said she was “standing by my volunteer in that whole scuffle”, insisting she had not seen the full footage of the incident on Wednesday night.
“When I first heard about it I was just about to go on air with Chris Kenny and I didn’t get the full story,” Ms Hanson said.
“Since then, I’ve been able to watch the full video clip of it and I feel for my volunteer.”
Ms Hanson said the clash was caused by “dirty politics” and that she would personally shake the volunteer’s hand.
“Well, haven’t I seen the dirty politics come out, especially in this election. And you know what? People are fed up with it, absolutely fed up, as I am,” Ms Hanson said.
“Because the people who are screaming out for change, they don’t give a damn about the politicians. They really don’t. It’s about representing the people.
“And these gutter politics that’s going on at the moment, you want people want, they want change from the Labor and the Greens and the Teals. They want the conservatives to work together.”
Ms Hanson said she would not “get in the gutter” like other politicians, referring to the Coalition’s attacks against One Nation’s Farrer candidate.
“The people don’t want it, they won’t get it from One Nation. But I tell you, I’m going to meet that volunteer. And I’m going to shake his hand and I am going to stand by him,” Ms Hanson said.
Mr Ashby told SkyNews.com.au that he accused Mr Paterson of provoking the confrontation after reviewing the footage.
“David Farley and I made contact with Senator Paterson after hearing of a scuffle involving him and a One Nation volunteer at the polling booth to make sure he was ok,” Mr Ashby said.
“We had not seen the video footage at that stage.
“Once I was able to review the footage Senator Paterson had personally filmed and provided to TV networks, it became obvious that the Liberal Senator had deliberately provoked the response from the pensioner.
“Senator Paterson should be ashamed of himself.”
Senator Paterson told Sky News on Thursday that the private response he received told a different story.
“Well, I’m scratching my head because the One Nation volunteers who are on the booth came up to me and immediately apologised,” he said.
“About half an hour later James Ashby called me and put David Farley on the phone and both of them apologised to me.”
The shadow defence minister also revealed assurances were given about the volunteer involved.
“They assured me that the volunteer in question wouldn’t be appearing on the booths again,” he said.