Firebrand Australian Senator Hanson takes far-right campaign to rural Queensland ahead of state election
Many in the remote areas see her views and her One Nation party’s policies as mainstream
It was early morning last Thursday when Pauline Hanson’s rented “battler bus” started hissing so loudly the election campaign was halted at a service station on a stretch of desolate highway near a remote edge of Australia. Unable to get to the rural Queensland state voters she is relying on to deliver her anti-immigration One Nation party its best result in two decades, her supporters came to her.
Stranded near the gemstone mining town of Marlborough, with a population of just a few hundred, Hanson was approached by truckers and travellers, most hoping to get a picture taken with her.
“I was actually stopping to get something to eat, and as I was looking across I went, ‘Oh there’s the ‘battler’ bus, I’ll have to go say hello to Pauline,’” said truck driver Shane Williams.
“I think immigration is a big thing for everybody. I think it’s going to be a good thing if Pauline gets some say in parliament – keep the b******s honest.”
She speaks like us … People call us racist, but we are just telling it like it is
Hanson is not a candidate in the Queensland state election on November 25, having last year re-entered the federal parliament on a wave of popular support after a near two-decade absence.
