Fed:Party co-founder pronounces One Nation dead

AAP General News (Australia)
12-29-2004
Fed:Party co-founder pronounces One Nation dead

By Samantha Baden

SYDNEY, Dec 29 AAP - One Nation would never again be a credible force in Australian
politics and now only existed in the minds of a handful of "lonely" people who were "clinging
to a cadaver", the party's co-founder said today.

One Nation co-founder David Ettridge, who is no longer connected to the party, today
said the organisation he started with Pauline Hanson was now dead.

His comments come a day after One Nation NSW Upper House MP David Oldfield announced
he would leave the party next year and serve the remainder of his term as an independent.

Mr Oldfield's departure leaves just two parliamentarians serving under the One Nation
banner, Queensland state MP Rosa Lee Long and Queensland senator Len Harris, who lost
his place in the last election and will retire on June 30 next year.

"I really think the party is non-existent," Mr Ettridge said.

"It exists in the minds now of a handful of people who are clinging to a cadaver and
those people I think are just lonely souls who need somewhere to go for monthly meetings."

One Nation's steady erosion began in 2000, two years after the Hanson-led movement
won 11 seats in the Queensland parliament.

It has been plagued by disunity ever since, Mr Ettridge said.

Mr Oldfield was forced into leaving the party because of its lack of popularity, Mr
Ettridge said.

"This is the essence of David Oldfield's move - the One Nation party could not pass
an audit test by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC)," Mr Ettridge said.

"It simply doesn't have enough members and he's forced into being an independent no
matter what happens because he simply can't remain registered as a party."

Mr Oldfield today rejected the claim and said extra members' details were lodged with
the AEC when he left the party to keep membership numbers at the correct level.

"That's just ridiculous, the numbers are appropriate," Mr Oldfield said.

Mr Oldfield was voted into the NSW Legislative Council in 1999 as a representative
of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party, but quit that party in 2000 when he helped to found
One Nation NSW.

Both Mr Ettridge and Ms Hanson made separate unsuccessful efforts to win Senate seats
in the November federal election.

Both were previously jailed for 11 weeks for electoral fraud before their convictions
were overturned on appeal.

Mr Ettridge is no longer in contact with Ms Hanson or any of his former One Nation
colleagues and sees no future for himself in politics.

"I have no faith in it, no belief in it and certainly no future in it."

AAP smb/nf/cdh/jlw

KEYWORD: OLDFIELD

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