By Dave Wright
Just how does someone join Pauline Hanson's One Nation party? Is it a trial by ordeal perhaps? Or do you have to publicly swear that you have never been a Communist, a homosexual, Asian, Aboriginal, a Muslim or a Jew while singing "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" in a white hood while clutching a burning cross? As it turns out, it is a lot simpler than that.
On August 20, One Nation held its second meeting at North Richmond in western Sydney. The first meeting attracted about 50 supporters and 60 protesters. At the second, around 25 chanting, placard-waving University of Western Sydney students turned up to protest.
The other protesters decided I should go into the meeting and check it out. I wandered into the building to chants of "Racists out!" in the distance. The meeting room doors were closed, so I knocked. Several burly blokes looked me up and down, then smiled and said "Welcome", and "Come in, mate". I went to the front table, where I was told there was a $5 entry fee.
Having paid my $5, I was told to write my name and address on an attendance list, and that for just $1 I could buy a copy of New Australia Times. One of the beefy blokes said it wasn't a One Nation publication, but it was a terrific read and supported the cause. I thought: "Which cause?".
As I moved along the table, I was given an abridged version of Hanson's maiden speech (with all the factual errors edited out), a copy of the previous meeting's minutes and, to my surprise, a "One Nation Supporters" membership card: my $5 had bought me membership of One Nation Supporters! In all their coverage of Hanson's party, the media have never made it clear just how easy it is to join.
It was pretty weird sitting in that room. There were quite a few people sitting by themselves, nervously looking around, apparently hoping that they wouldn't be recognised. Most were over 50 and nodding a lot as the "chairman" made pronouncements about nothing in particular.
It struck me how uptight they all looked. I really felt like yelling "You're white and uptight" at them but refrained when I glanced over at the locked door and the two goons next to it rocking back and forth on their chairs like something out of the movie Deliverance.
As the "chairman" droned on about the need to build their group, I flicked through the articles in the New Australian Times, including "Hypocrites hunt Hanson", "ABC Asia's voice", "The Asianisation of Australia", "Marxist women and housewife to harlot", "The feminist plague" and "Communist infiltration in Australia". One article even resurrected the Communist plot to fluoridate the water to make the masses docile and subservient!
It would all be laughable except the paper appears to be very well funded — it is a 32-page monthly, has full colour front, back and middle pages, and is well laid out with nasty but clever cartoons and graphics.
No organisation puts its name to the paper, which can be contacted via a post office box and telephone number in south Queensland. The paper's goal is clear — it is a call to action by the far right to support Hanson.
When the meeting organisers began calling for people to help, I decided to rejoin the protest outside. One of One Nation's security goons came out to distribute leaflets to us and within two minutes was provoking arguments. When he tried to argue that it wasn't racist to call Aboriginal people "Abos" because he didn't mean anything by it, a young Aboriginal woman stood toe to toe with him yelling. Her courage was inspiring.
In response to One Nation supporters' activities in the area, a Blue Mountains/Hawkesbury Anti-Racism Network has been launched. The group will be holding a protest action at the next One Nation Supporters' meeting (to be addressed by One Nation national "chairman" David Ettridge) at 7pm at the Hawkesbury Sporting Club in North Richmond on Wednesday, September 3.
This time I won't be going inside!