Qld: Hanson in unfamiliar territory
By Ainsley Pavey
BRISBANE, April 26 AAP - One week down in the electoral fraud case against PaulineHanson and the flame-haired former fish and chip shop owner's silence has been deafening.
It's an unusual predicament for the former One Nation leader whose political successwas born out of speaking out against the "bastards".
But the outspoken former federal MP has been forced to stay quiet while the airingof her party's dirty linen has hit new heights in Brisbane's Magistrates Court.
With the prospect of a jail term hanging over her head, Hanson has left the talkingto her solicitor Chris Nyst while co-accused David Ettridge has mounted his own defence.
The 56-year-old Sydney businessman has stolen the show in the top-floor hearing roomof the old court house on the banks of the Brisbane River.
Normally set aside for the Coroner - because of a large public gallery - Court 21 waspicked on the opening day to accommodate hordes of Hanson devotees.
But the supporters dwindled to just one lone placard-waver today.
Ettridge has been catching the train to court with his trolley-load of legal documents,taking on Queensland's judiciary on his own terms.
He has copped repeated warnings from Magistrate Michael Halliday about incriminatinghimself but has pressed on after researching his defence for three months.
Part of his efforts have included sticky-taping a large sheet of paper to the wallto "clear up the confusion" over the structure of One Nation which is the issue at thecentre of debate.
He has kissed and made up with Hanson, who he was suing to pay for his legal costs.
During a break in the hearing, Ettridge revealed Hanson rang him last week to clear the air.
"I think coming into this thing this week united is what gave her a lot of comfortthan sitting there and thinking 'I don't like you'," Ettridge said.
"I heard through a third party that she was very happy to have that discussion.
"She is very melancholy, I think, because she's now suddenly placed in a position whereshe's under enormous duress."
Hanson's only escape from the hearing was during a coughing fit which forced her outside.
She returned to sip cough mixture from a cup.
The party co-founders are facing claims they deliberately misled Hanson's supportersinto believing they were members of a political party when they had merely joined a supportmovement.
Chief police investigator Graham Newton claims supporters' names were then used toregister One Nation in Queensland in 1997 and that amounted to electoral fraud because- among other things - it breached the party's own constitution.
The only evidence against Hanson so far has been a videotaped Townsville branch meetingin November 1997, which is at the centre of the Crown case.
Detective Inspector Newton reckons he can hear Hanson in the background on the tapebacking up Ettridge in an alleged lie.
It may be all that is used to commit Hanson to trial but there is another three moreweeks of hearings to go and a string of former One Nation figures to testify.
AAP ap/jhm/ldj/de
KEYWORD: NEWSCOPE QLD (AAP NEWS ANALYSIS)
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