Fed: Hanson predicts Labor win on preference system

AAP General News (Australia)
02-19-2001
Fed: Hanson predicts Labor win on preference system

By Shane Wright

CANBERRA, Feb 19 AAP - Pauline Hanson today predicted Labor would win the upcoming
federal election as Prime Minister John Howard rejected doing a deal on One Nation preferences.

As all parties reflected on the fallout from the weekend's Queensland election, Ms
Hanson said she feared Labor would sweep the federal poll expected in October.

But despite her concerns, Ms Hanson said One Nation would continue the government-destroying
practice of directing preferences against sitting members.

"What concerns me is the Labor Party will push for the republican issue, and so will
(federal treasurer) Peter Costello for that matter," she told Melbourne radio 3AW.

"I think the native title division of Australia will escalate under the Labor Party,
so that will further cause divisions of the Australian people, so it is of great concern
to me.

Mr Howard, attempting to calm a coalition spooked by successive disastrous results
in Western Australia and Queensland, said preference exchanges between the coalition and
One Nation were irrelevant.

He said preferences of the major parties were rarely distributed, and so had little
impact on an election outcome.

But Mr Howard said there would be no change in his opposition to Liberal MPs directing
preferences to One Nation.

"The Liberal Party's position is as I have stated and nothing has changed," he told ABC radio.

"In the end the preferences are decided by the state divisions.

"I would expect the position they took last time to be exactly the position it is taking
this time."

The issue will be one of the major talking points of a National Party meeting of MPs
and senators in the southern New South Wales town of Corowa tomorrow night.

Nationals' leader John Anderson is expected to demand more support from his backbench
for his opposition to One Nation preferences.

Ms Hanson said she had yet to talk to any National Party members about preferences,
although the door was open to anyone interested in doing a deal.

One Nation, despite riding high in both state polls, had its own problems today.

In Queensland, the Courier-Mail newspaper reported the Director of Public Prosecutions
was considering charges against Ms Hanson and former officials David Ettridge and David
Oldfield.

The paper said the charges being considered included conspiracy to defraud the Queensland
Electoral Commission and fraud involving $4.3 million of commission funding.

In Tasmania, One Nation has asked the federal police to investigate a series of newspaper
advertisements which said a weekend party meeting was off.

Numbers to the meeting, which did go ahead, were down by 50 per cent on expectations.

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KEYWORD: NATION NIGHTLEAD

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