Former One Nation president Ian Nelson says he will continue to speak out about party’s ‘secrecy’ despite the gag on him releasing 4,000 recordings

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The former One Nation president Ian Nelson says he will not be silenced despite Pauline Hanson securing a temporary legal gag on him releasing secret recordings of her and party officials.

Lawyers for Hanson filed an injunction against Nelson and the ABC in the New South Wales supreme court on Thursday seeking a stop to publication of further covert material.

The court made an interim restraining order on Nelson until a hearing date next Tuesday, but no orders were made regarding the ABC.

Nelson told Guardian Australia he had 4,000 secret recordings and would continue to speak out against One Nation and its “secrecy”.

One Nation directed donations to Pauline Hanson's personal account Read more

“[The injunction] doesn’t bother me, it’s temporary, and I’ll get through that,” he said.



“[Hanson is] not stopping me from talking. This is still a democracy and if it’s bad news for her, bad luck. She’s doing it all to herself.

“It’s only going to make matters worse because I’m going to really let fly. I’ve got 4,000 recordings. Not all about Ashby and Hanson, but there are a lot there.”

The legal action followed a series of revelations about One Nation’s internal discussions, including a conversation in which Hanson expressed concern about the outing of a major donor and media being told he had bought a light plane for the party.



The Australian Electoral Commission later began investigating whether One Nation breached electoral laws by not reporting the plane as a donation.

One Nation and its donor, the Melbourne developer Bill McNee, have denied he gave the plane to the party. Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby, has said he bought the plane for his business and declares when it is used for the party.

Hanson’s lawyers applied to the court to permanently stop Nelson and the ABC from “dealing in any way” with recordings he made involving One Nation business.

The Queensland senator, who has painted Nelson as a disgruntled former official seeking revenge on the party, also asked for all recordings held by him and ABC to be delivered to her.

Nelson said he understood from the legal material before him that the injunction applied to him “making more secret recordings”, which he said was impossible since “they don’t talk to me [anymore]”.



Nelson said he wondered about the jurisdiction of the NSW court.

“I’m in Queensland, I don’t intend to honour that, nobody’s told me anything,” he said.

The ABC reported that Nelson gave it a recorded phone call with McNee, which Nelson argued was an indication the developer donated the plane to One Nation.

However, McNee denied this in the conversation, saying he had run out of money after giving about $70,000.

Other secret recordings recently published by media including the ABC is one in which Ashby discussed inflating candidate package fees that were then to be claimed back from the Queensland Electoral Commission.

Ashby has said it was a “silly idea” floated in a “brainstorming” session on how to cut party costs but never enacted.

But the revelation prompted calls for police investigations by federal Labor.

Gaven Morris, the ABC’s news director, said the public broadcaster was “satisfied with the outcome of today’s proceedings”.

“The ABC vigorously defends our role in reporting stories that are in the public interest, especially where stories concern the nation’s electoral processes, its political representatives and political parties.”