UPDATED: Sting operation catches One Nation seeking funds from US pro-gun groups
Last edited Mon Mar 25, 2019, 11:53 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: The Age
New York: An elaborate sting operation has revealed that senior One Nation figures, including Pauline Hanson's chief-of-staff, sought millions of dollars in donations from the US pro-gun lobby to help them water down Australia's gun control laws.
A journalist from news network Al Jazeera, posing as the head of a fake gun lobby group, secretly filmed Hanson's top adviser James Ashby and One Nation's Queensland leader Steve Dickson during a visit to Washington DC last year.
While in the US capital Ashby and Dickson met with representatives from the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) and other conservative groups.
In a conversation with journalist Rodger Muller, the fake gun advocate, Dickson said that he was hoping to raise $10 million from Koch Industries, a leading funder of US conservative causes.
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Read more: https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/sting-operation-catches-one-nation-seeking-funds-from-us-pro-gun-groups-20190326-p517iq.html
Explainer; One Nation is a fringe, right-wing political party here in Australia. Hanson and her sidekick Ashby are both nasty pieces of work.
UPDATE: One Nation refers Al Jazeera to police over secret gun lobby recordings
By Max Koslowski
March 26, 2019 — 11.03am
One Nation has referred Qatari-owned media outlet Al Jazeera to the Australian Federal Police, after a years-long sting operation caught senior party figures seeking multimillion-dollar donations from the US gun lobby.
The investigation - in which a reporter set up a fake pro-gun organisation in order to mingle with top-level figures in the United States' National Rifle Association - secretly recorded two senior advisers to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson during their visit to Washington in September last year.
In one recording, Queensland One Nation leader Steve Dickson says his party would "have the whole government by the balls" if it were to receive millions from the NRA.
The report comes as the government considers whether to preference One Nation last on its how-to-vote cards at the upcoming federal election in light of the Christchurch terrorist attacks, due to One Nation's anti-Islam rhetoric.
More: https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/one-nation-refers-al-jazeera-to-police-over-secret-gun-lobby-recordings-20190326-p517ky.html
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