While the world mourns the victims of the Christchuch terror attack, disturbing footage has emerged of Pauline Hanson seeming to suggest the 1996 Port Arthur massacre was a government conspiracy, ABC News reports.
The Port Arthur attack is known as one of Australia’s darkest days – when 35 innocent men, women and children were murdered in a lone gunman’s open fire as they enjoyed a day out at the tourist site.
It was this event – this horrific act of terror in which a 28-year-old man was able to purchase a semi-automatic assault weapon from a gun dealer without holding a licence – that saw Australia declare, “This can never happen again.”
But according to Senator Hanson, there are “a lot of questions” surrounding the massacre which prompted the John Howard Government to introduce The National Firearms Agreement, making history in the country.
The video in which her unnerving claims are made is part of Al Jazeera‘s three-year long investigation exposing One Nation for attempting to weaken Australian gun laws, approaching powerful US lobby groups for $28 million in funding for their cause.
Senator Hanson was secretly filmed by Rodger Muller, an Al Jazeera journalist who posed as the leader of a fictitious firearm advocate group called Gun Rights Australia when she made the comments.
In the video released by the publication, the senator claims an MP had told parliament it would take “a massacre in Tasmania” for gun law reform, before the attack had happened.
“An MP said it would actually take a massacre in Tasmania to change the gun laws in Australia,” she said.
“Haven’t you heard that? Have a look at it. It was said on the floor of parliament.”
In a separate, equally as concerning video, Senator Hanson is sitting with her chief of staff James Ashby, discussing other conspiracy theories, including 9/11.
“That whole September 11 thing, too,” Mr Ashby adds during the group discussion on Port Arthur.
“Those shots. They were precision shots,” Senator Hanson responds.
“Check the number out. I’ve read a lot and I have read the book on it, Port Arthur. A lot of questions there.”
Australia has some of the strictest gun laws in the world due to the Howard Government’s response to Port Arthur – laws which have often been used as examples in overseas debates over weapons reform.
In the wake of the report published overnight by Al Jazeera, Scott Morrison has expressed deep concern, and vowed not to take a backwards step on gun laws.
“Australia’s gun laws are world’s best thanks to (former Prime Minister) John Howard and we will not be changing them,” he posted on Twitter.
One Nation’s James Ashby and Steve Dickson were the central figures in Al Jazeera’s investigation, and were recorded talking about using National Rifle Association (NRA) funding to weaken Australia’s gun laws.
Both have fronted cameras in an attempt to explain their statements, claiming they had “got on the sauce” when they were recorded.
Speaking on The Bolt Report on Tuesday night, Ashby also called on Al Jazeera to release the rest of the footage from their recorded conversations so they could be put into context.
“It will show that we were not selling Australia down the drain,” he said.
Hanson is yet to speak to reporters, but took to Twitter this afternoon, saying she was “disgusted” by the news publication’s piece.
A statement released by One Nation has confirmed the news report has been referred to police and intelligence services.
“Al Jazeera are a state-owned propaganda arm of the Qatari government that supports Islamic extremist groups and are not a legitimate media organisation,” the party told AAP.
“The matter has been referred to ASIO and the Australian Federal Police due to concerns of foreign interference into Australian politics in the lead up to the imminent federal election.”
The second part of Al Jazeera’s documentary will air on ABC on Thursday night, and is available online on iView.
Top Comments
I watched both Part 1 and Part 2 of the "How to Sell a Massacre" documentary.
1) Hanson is just as complicit as Ashby and Dickson. She was on the phone to them daily while they were in the US.
2) Alcohol was not a factor. Both Ashby and Dickson were sober during their hour long meetings trying to procure over $20 Million from NRA reps, Gun manufacturers, and the Koch Brothers reps.
3) ON wanted to procure donations from foreign entities to gain the balance of power in both the House and Senate. In return, ON planned to weaken our gun laws.
Hanson has been caught out, and instead of accepting responsibility she continues to lie and blame the media. Currently the ALP, GRN, and LIB are all preferencing ON last. Both NAT and the QLD LNP need to follow suit.
This is no surprise. I recall reading that she believed Port Arthur to be a conspiracy in a news article 3 or 4 years ago. I totally forgot about it, until now. I thought everyone knew she believed it was a conspiracy? Shrugs.
Her media press conference was a lie-fest. She never takes responsibility for anything. She never admits any mistakes. Ever. It is always someone else's fault. Oh they were drunk, oh the media trapped us into talking about it. FFS the public would respect you if you simply just copped it and said sorry. She is a compulsive liar. She has been caught out lying numerous times, even on documents and then media about whether she knew about Rod Culleton being bankrupt. Said she had no idea. But emails from her, and a taped (by Culleton) phone conversation proved she knew before she pre-selected him. She is like the energiser bunny; she just lies and lies and lies!!!
I remember reading about the conspiracy when I was in like year 9 in high school (some 16 years ago) and writing an essay about it for "Australian History Class." The difference being I was a 16 year old student. She's a 64 year old Senator and is paid by the public to be a representative of the Australian people. I was a bit of a peanut. She's a disgrace.