Party leader accuses Brian Burston of trying to defect but he says claim is ‘absolutely false’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Pauline Hanson says Brian Burston, who defied her by vowing to vote for the Coalition’s company tax cut package, has now attempted to defect to the Shooters party.



A tearful and furious One Nation leader told Sky News on Thursday night the attempt had been thwarted by officials for the Shooters party, who had told Burston: “We don’t trust you.”

Burston later told Sky News he had not attempted to defect, and intended to remain with One Nation “unless Pauline decides otherwise, of course”.

“The claim that I have approached the Shooters party is totally and absolutely false,” he said.

“I’ve never stabbed Pauline Hanson in the back,” Burston said. “I think there is a way through this, I think Pauline and I should sit down and have a drink.”

He said he hoped she would “come back down to earth”.

The leader of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party, Robert Borsack, told media outlets on Thursday night that Burston had approached his state director to inquire about joining his party but the overture had been rejected.

Anna Henderson (@annajhenderson) BREAKING: Robert Borsak from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party claims One Nation Senator Brian Burston has made an approach to the party but been knocked back @politicsabc #auspol



More to come... pic.twitter.com/festXl9vB3

Burston said: “I’ve never met Borsack or spoken to him in my life.”

Hanson characterised what she insisted was an attempted defection as a personal betrayal.

Despite the implosion in her Senate bloc playing out as melodrama on live television, she declared she was not finished in politics. “I am not finished, and if you think Brian Burston or anyone else will finish me – they will not”.

“I’m sorry to the Australian people that this has happened again. It was the same with Rod Culleton, it was the same with Fraser Anning. They haven’t got the intestinal fortitude, it is all about themselves.

One Nation senator defies Pauline Hanson over company tax cuts Read more

“Well, I don’t want people like that. At the end of the day, I will win.”

The public breakdown has been coming for several weeks. Burston has become increasingly isolated within One Nation, scrubbing his website of references to the party and being dumped as party whip.

Guardian Australia understands that Hanson adviser’s James Ashby has openly canvassed the possibility of Burston losing party preselection to recontest his Senate seat on One Nation’s New South Wales ticket at the next election.

Burston said he had attempted to talk through his position on company tax cuts through with the party leader, but Hanson and Ashby had avoided him. He said he had texted her on “dozens of occasions and not received any reply”.

He said he had been dumped as party whip after requesting that his preselection position was clarified – asking if he would remain at the top of the NSW Senate ticket. Hanson had then asked him to provide his position on the company tax cuts.

“I said I’m not prepared to backflip and break a handshake deal with the government,” Burston said. “About one minute later, she said you are no longer whip.

“It was a little bit of payback, a little bit of punishment, for not supporting her position in terms of those government tax cuts.”

The blow-up over the business tax cuts has been triggered by One Nation’s concerns about its fortunes in the looming byelection in Longman.

Labor had been campaigning against One Nation – which polls well in the Queensland seat – using Hanson’s previous support for the tax cuts for Australia’s largest companies.

Under pressure, Hanson launched an abrupt about face, breaking a deal with the government to support the package.