Pauline Hanson has broken down talking about her time in prison in an emotional swipe at former prime minister Tony Abbott. <\/p>\n
The One Nation leader wiped away tears in images from a speaking event on Thursday at the Swan Chamber of Commerce in Perth\u2019s eastern suburbs. <\/p>\n
The emotional response was reportedly triggered by an account of Senator Hanson\u2019s 11-week stint in prison in 2003 for election fraud and the toll it took on her children, as well as alleged domestic violence during her second marriage. <\/p>\n
Senator Hanson blamed her jailtime, which was overturned on appeal, on Mr Abbott and former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a political witch hunt,\u201d she said, per reports from The Australian.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrior to my trial Peter Beattie changed the laws in Queensland from a six month jail term or a fine to seven years retrospective. That\u2019s why the judge could (sentence) me to three years on each charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was structurally set up by Tony Abbott, who set up a slush fund to take me through the process of that legal challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he got ten prominent Australians to put in $10,000 each.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senator Hanson claimed at least one of the individuals was from Western Australia, but said she did not know who they all were.<\/p>\n
She said her time behind bars was \u201cvery hard for my children\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids didn\u2019t have their fathers at that time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the only one that they had and so I was their whole life. And through politics, they\u2019ve had to wear so much. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut, you know what they said to me the other day? They said mum, it hasn\u2019t been easy, but you\u2019ve taught us resilience to be independent, to stand on our own two feet, and for that we thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Senator Hanson fought back years in an interview with Karl Stefanovic while talking about her time in jail.<\/p>\n
The 71-year-old said she was \u201cdevastated\u201d by the ordeal, and that she \u201cnever thought she end up\u201d in prison.<\/p>\n
Later on Thursday, Senator Hanson also talked about an experience with domestic violence. <\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t go into detail \u2026 We split up in 1987 and from that time I\u2019ve actually have been a single woman,\u201d she reportedly said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a couple of relationships, but I\u2019ve never married again, it\u2019s not something for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daughter to run for Senate seat<\/p>\n
Senator Hanson said her daughter Lee, who unsuccessfully ran as a One Nation candidate at the 2025 federal election, was working for the party for one of its senators.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe will stand for the Senate at the next election and I\u2019m so proud of her,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe in jobs for the boys, and either you can cut it or you can\u2019t. Because what I\u2019m trying to do, what I\u2019m trying to achieve, you need the right people around you to drive it. And that\u2019s why I think she\u2019s going to be a great asset.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Senator Hanson said she would not have her sons \u201canywhere near it\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, my daughter, she\u2019s different,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
It comes as a Liberal frontbencher Tony Pasin urged the opposition to negotiate an arrangement with One Nation that would see them divvying up which seats that ran for. <\/p>\n
Leader Angus Taylor has in recent weeks left the door open to a deal with One Nation as the right-wing populist party continues to surge in the polls.<\/p>\n
New Liberal Party president and former prime minister Tony Abbott has also backed a potential preference swap with One Nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pauline Hanson has broken down talking about her time in prison in an emotional swipe at former prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[468,23,133,4841,26789,26780,1949,26785,10228,9502,26786,22295,26783,379,120,1926,335,26782,7477,26788,489,212,26781,26784,26787,2589,24305,353],"class_list":["post-29253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-angus-taylor","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-domestic-violence","tag-election-fraud","tag-emotional-moment","tag-federal-election","tag-frontbencher-urges","tag-jail-time","tag-karl-stefanovic","tag-lee","tag-nathan-schmidt","tag-new-liberal-party","tag-newswire-news","tag-oceania","tag-pauline-hanson","tag-perth","tag-peter-beatie","tag-peter-beattie","tag-political-witch-hunt","tag-prime-minister","tag-queensland","tag-right-wing-populist-party","tag-slush-fund","tag-swan-chamber-of-commerce","tag-tony-abbott","tag-tony-pasin","tag-western-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}