One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has dismissed allegations that Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart is influencing her party’s strategy and policy as “absolute garbage”.
On Saturday, this masthead revealed allegations made by Sean Black, Hanson’s former national campaign director and a convicted rapist, in a conversation that was secretly recorded.
Black claimed there was a “conga line of people” connected to Rinehart moving through One Nation, that Hanson’s top adviser James Ashby was using the party to enrich himself and that Black himself was still secretly working for the party even after his sacking.
Hanson sacked Black in April after the federal Coalition put pressure on Hanson over his past – which included prison time for rape – though in the recordings he claimed “she would have me back in a heartbeat once things died down”.
Speaking in Swan Hill on Saturday, in a northern Victorian state seat One Nation hopes to win off the Nationals, Hanson dismissed the allegations the moment a journalist approached her.
“I’m furious about it,” she said of the reporting. “It’s absolute garbage, and I’m sick of people who are disgruntled because I sacked them for their work ethic or whatever reasons.”
Hanson said she was equally furious with the media.
“All this dirt files and everything they’re trying to drag … the people are over it. They’re not interested, they just want sheer honesty, be truthful with us,” she continued, before trying to steer the interview towards the Labor government’s spending and the cost of living.
“These people [in the media] who are out there, who go back, even to my first husband of over 50 years ago, to get some dirt on me. It’s not good enough.”
The latest allegations have prompted a wave of criticism from both major parties, at whose expense One Nation’s rise in 2026 has largely come.
“What we see ongoing, including from these allegations, is that One Nation is not in this for working people,” said Environment Minister Murray Watt.
Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson said Hanson needed to answer to the recordings.
“This goes straight to the heart of trust and integrity in her party, where they say one thing publicly, but they’re secretly doing things behind closed doors, inconsistent with what they claim are their values,” he said.
When pressed in Swan Hill, Hanson also said she had never made payments to Black’s family firm for fundraising, which he had claimed.
The One Nation leader had previously denied an interview request from this masthead and failed to answer questions about the allegations.
The latest Resolve Political Monitor shows One Nation polling on 23 per cent in Victoria, just behind the incumbent Labor government. Its state leader Warren Pickering remains well behind Premier Ben Carroll and Opposition Leader Jess Wilson in the preferred premier stakes.
For more on this story, watch 60 Minutes at 7pm on Sunday.
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Alexander Darling is a breaking news reporter at The Age. He has previously worked at the ABC, as well as Horsham’s Wimmera Mail-Times and Triple M radio stations in NSW.Connect via email.From our partners
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