Hanson fury at sit-in by journalists

DAYS BEFORE Australia's general election, Pauline Hanson called in the police and declared a media blackout on the rest of her campaign when reporters refused to leave thecampaign launch of her anti- immigration One Nation party.

The senior citizens' centre in Gatton, west of Brisbane, was the scene of a tense stand-off as journalists, weary of being deprived of interviews and information from the Hanson campaign, staged a sit-in.

Journalists assigned to cover Ms Hanson's campaign have heard promises of government spending to bring relief to hard-pressed rural communities, but no detailed costings. Trouble flared when a breakdown of One Nation's budget plans, due to be given out to news crews covering the launch, failed to materialise.

David Oldfield, a Senate candidate in New South Wales, promised to fax a document to newsrooms later that day, insisting the media leave to allow supporters to conduct their meeting.

But correspondents assigned to the Hanson trail have become a battle- hardened bunch, often keeping track of the campaign by guesswork as the self-styled Mother of Australia has plotted an unpredictable course across the country. A stalemate ensued until two members of the Queensland Police department advised the pack to wait in the blazing sunshine for a glimpse of their quarry, who was smuggled away through a side exit.

Yesterday's shambolic scenes were seen as a crude attempt by One Nation to subvert media efforts to scrutinise the political process and to use "mob rule" to intimidate journalists.

Many trace Ms Hanson's reluctance to give interviews to the emergence of One Nation policies, such as a proposal to run Australia's public finances on the basis of a flat rate "easy tax" on all transactions, including salary or wages as well as the purchase of goods and services.

Since details of her ideas began to emerge, her opinion poll standing has halved to its present 8 per cent, and party supporters, including her neighbouring parliamentary candidate Colene Hughes, now see the easy tax as an aberration.

After the meeting, Ms Hughes gave an insight into the perceptions that drive the One Nation bandwagon. On race, the party maintains it wants equality for all - meaning an end to affirmative action and government- funded programmes to improve the lot of Australia's indigenous population. "I have three step-nieces and step-nephews who are as black as the ace of spades," Ms Hughes said, by way of vouchsafing her anti-racist credentials.

The problem was hand-outs to Aborigines and those who "jumped on the bandwagon" claiming Aboriginal descent on the basis of one black ancestor, which bred resentment among whites. When One Nation's policy document finally arrived in Australia's newsrooms the chief proposed saving from existing budgets was to cut A$1.5bn from support for indigenous affairs.