Pauline Hanson said a spate of African gang crime was driving a surge in One Nation membership in Melbourne and accused police of going soft on festival rioters.
The Queensland senator’s party now has more members in Victoria than her home state and she said disgust at violence on the streets was behind this.
‘I know there’s strong support in Victoria,’ she told Daily Mail Australia on Friday.
‘I’m hearing it constantly, all the time – they are fed up with the violence, crime that’s happening on the streets.
‘The footage we see up here of these gangs, smashing down doors in their hoodies going into businesses, smashing it up, terrorising people, this is not the country I grew up in and a lot of Australians wouldn’t relate to this.’
Pauline Hanson says a spate of African gang crime is driving a surge in One Nation membership in Melbourne, with more paid-up supporters in Victorian than Queensland
The One Nation leader has also claimed Victorian Police officers had been directed to go soft on African gangs, as they ruined Melbourne’s Moomba festival for the third year running
The One Nation leader also claimed Victorian Police officers had been directed to go soft on African gangs in March, as they ruined Melbourne’s Moomba festival for the third year running.
‘The police were told do not go in, break it up, we will get it on CCTV footage and deal with it later. That is a fact. I’ve had police sources,’ she said.
Daily Mail Australia has sought a response from Victoria Police.
Senator Hanson has called for African gang members and any dual citizen convicted of a violent crime to be deported.
‘You might be able to do this stuff back in your own country but it’s not acceptable here in Australia,’ she said.
‘Why are we allowing these sort of people in the country in the first place?.’
The One Nation founder blamed Daniel Andrews’s Labor government for being soft on crime and predicted his handling of the African gang issue was helping One Nation gain the support of frustrated Victorians (Footscray barber shop riot last year pictured)
The One Nation founder blamed Daniel Andrews’s Labor government for being soft on crime and predicted his handling of the African gang issue was helping One Nation gain the support of frustrated Victorians.
‘People are saying, “What is going on her? Why doesn’t the government do something about it?”,’ she said.
‘Why are the police allowing this to go on?’
‘Why should people live in fear from these gangs?
Insiders in the state’s ruling Labor Party fear One Nation could win three seats in the upper house and have the power to frustrate the Andrews government’s agenda should it be re-elected.
James Ashby, Senator Hanson’s chief-of-staff who is also One Nation’s general secretary, said Victoria was the party’s strongest state when it came to membership.
Victorians are joining One Nation in droves as Melbourne is gripped by a wave of Sudanese gang crime (an African youth being arrested at Tarneit pictured)
Insiders in the state’s ruling Labor Party fear Pauline Hanson’s party could win three seats in the upper house and have the power to frustrate Daniel Andrews’s agenda if he’s re-elected
‘We don’t give our membership away but it surprised me that in the last six months, Victoria has been the strongest state in this country for One Nation membership, followed by New South Wales, followed by Queensland which is now our third strongest state,’ he told Fairfax Media.
One Nation is polling higher in outer suburban areas of Melbourne, with internal Labor polling showing it has 11 per cent support in the safe Labor seat of Sunbury, which is double the state-wide average for the party.
While One Nation would be unlikely to win any lower house seats at Victoria’s November election, Labor fears it would win a swag of electorates in the Legislative Council.
James Ashby, Senator Hanson’s chief-of-staff who is also One Nation’s general secretary, said Victoria was the party’s strongest state when it came to membership
One Nation is polling higher in outer suburban areas of Melbourne, with internal Labor polling showing it 11 per cent support in the Labor seat of Sunbury, which is double the state average
‘If they play their cards right, they could get two and maybe even three [seats] in the upper house,’ a party insider told The Age.
Josh Bull, the Labor member for Sunbury, paid for Essential Research to poll 771 voters in his electorate.
It found One Nation was taking more voters from the Liberal Party than the government, with the 12 per cent of Greens voters in the seat more likely to preference the ALP.
African gang problems have been more prevalent in other areas of Melbourne, such as Tarneit and Werribee in the city’s west.