Elation has turned to turmoil following One Nation's election of four Senators in 2016. Credit:Fairfax Media But on Friday a spokeswoman for the university disclaimed any connection to the senator. "The University of Newcastle has no record of Brian Burston ever being employed," the spokeswoman said. This week Senator Burston was named as Ms Hanson's top lieutenant as the party confirmed it would field candidates for next year's NSW election, which could see it control the balance of power. A Fairfax poll from last October put the party's primary vote at 8 per cent, less than one percentage point behind the Greens. Senator Burston's university experience featured heavily in the party's 2016 election material. "Brian brings ... a wealth of knowledge [of] higher education teaching," his profile on the party website read. "Brian's teaching background saw him [… join] the faculty at Newcastle University for four years".

Senator Burston sits behind Senator Hanson. This week he was nominated as deputy in charge of the party's NSW campaign. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The revelations are the latest scandal to rock the party after two of its senators, Rod Culleton and Malcolm Roberts, were disqualified for being legally deemed ineligible over a conviction for a scuffle with a tow truck driver that was later anulled and caught up in the foreign citizenship affair respectively. Mr Roberts' replacement, Fraser Anning, is tipped to join another right-wing party after Senator Hanson said she had "abandoned" him to be an independent MP following an internal dispute about staffing. Knowingly misleading Parliament has historically been one of the most serious transgressions for MPs in Westminster democracies. In Australia it can result in a $5000 fine or six months' jail but is typically resolved by a parliamentary ethics committee's investigation. In December Senator Burston, who attended US President Donald Trump's inauguration, used a parliamentary letterhead without mention of his party affiliation to send an inflammatory letter to NSW school principals about Islam.

Islam, the letter claimed, commands adherents to "kill non-Muslims as their ticket into paradise". Further inconsistencies in the senator's claim to a university job have been unearthed by examining his own contribution to Hansard. Senator Burston was employed at the former Newcastle Teachers College. Yearbooks list him as a "lecturer" in technical education but not as holding qualifications besides a TAFE Diploma in Education. "In May 1987, I resigned my position [in the TAFE system] because of the rape of the education system overall by the NSW Liberal government," he told parliament last August, adding that he mainly trained apprentices in turning, fitting and boilermaking. The university and college were later merged as part of a nationwide overhaul of vocational education, but this was two years after Senator Burston's resignation.

Senator Burston's media adviser is Ku-rin-gai councillor Peter Kelly, who has said he obtained a doctorate from an unaccredited "university" incorporated in Florida and Gambia; he also claimed to have been a professor at the defunct Poseidon International University and to have advised a Malaysian sultan on Islamic law in Borneo. Soon after a 4 Corners expose this year into multiple alleged violations of electoral law by his party, Senator Burston threatened to vote against much of the government budget unless the broadcaster's funding was cut by $600 million. A decade ago Senator Burston was one of three members of a hastily convened party board after its treasurer was sacked and payments of $215,000 in electoral commission rebates were approved to be paid to Senator Hanson as a salary and directly into a personal bank account. Police did not act on complaints about that transfer. Senator Hanson spent 11 weeks in jail in 2003 for fraud for allegedly falsely registering the party as eligible to claim election funding before the three-year conviction was quashed on appeal. Senator Burston's office requested questions be emailed to his Parliament address but he did not respond to phone calls, text messages and emails.

IN THE FIRING LINE It's been a turbulent few years for One Nation, which has produced a cast of colourful characters who have brightened the landscape of politics. Malcolm Roberts: Disqualified senator for Queensland Mr Roberts was disqualified for being a British dual national in October after the High Court found he inherited the status through his Welsh father. A noted conspiracy theorist, Mr Roberts believed global warming data had been falsified by NASA and that international bankers such as the Rockefellers were seeking to use global warming to gain power. He attempted a comeback at the recent Queensland state election but was not elected. Rod Culleton: Disqualified senator for Western Australia

Mr Culleton was forced to resign from Parliament in January 2017 after being found to have been ineligible to stand in the 2016 election. Mr Culleton was convicted of larceny after stealing a key from a tow truck driver and later trying to evade an employee from a hire-car company trying to repossess a car he had borrowed; the conviction was later annulled. Party leader Pauline Hanson responded that Culleton had been "a pain in my backside" and that she was "glad to see the back of him". Peter Kelly: the adviser Mr Kelly is an adviser to Senator Burston but has a political career of his own. He was elected to Ku-rin-gai Council after picking up a surprising one-third of the vote. He ran as an independent but is also a member of the far-right party. Cr Kelly has no undergraduate degree but claims a PhD from La Ruggero, an unaccredited university located in Rome but incorporated at several obscure international outposts. He describes it as a "club for royalty". His campaign flyers included an endorsement from Prince Omar Kiram, cousin of the sultan of the self-styled Sultanate of Sulu and Sabah, whom he claims to have advised on Islamic law. Fraser Anning: the replacement who didn't last Senator Anning replaced Mr Roberts as Queensland senator but immediately fell out with Senator Hanson over his choice of top adviser, despite a long friendship. He now is understood to be considering aligning with another party on the right of politics.