One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has stormed out of a press conference after one of her closest confidantes was caught on camera groping dancers and making derogatory comments about women at a strip club.
Steve Dickson, One Nation’s candidate for a Queensland Senate seat and Senator Hanson’s right-hand man, resigned from the party on Tuesday after a secretly-filmed video of him at a strip club in Washington DC was revealed by A Current Affair on Monday night.
‘I think white women **** a whole lot better, they know what they are doing, Asian chicks don’t,’ Mr Dickson was recorded saying.
‘I’ve done more Asians than I know what to do with.’
The footage showed Mr Dickson groping the breasts of one dancer before putting money into the underwear of another.
Senator Hanson said she was ‘shocked and disappointed’ after seeing the footage – captured by Al Jazeera journalists as part of their investigation into the party – and has accepted Mr Dickson’s resignation.
Senator Hanson stormed out of the interview when she was asked about Mr Dickson’s trip to the United States and claims that the purpose of the trip was to request millions of dollars in funding from the National Rifle Association.
‘I have asked for the [full] vision to be released, I am not answering any more questions,’ she said.
Steve Dickson, One Nation’s candidate for a Queensland Senate seat and Senator Hanson’s right-hand man, resigned from the party after secretly-filmed video of him at a strip club (pictured)
Senator Hanson (pictured) said she was ‘shocked and disappointed’ after seeing the footage
Earlier in the press conference, Senator Hanson said she had previously supported Mr Dickson but was forced to take action after the strip club footage was leaked.
‘I have always spoken very highly of Steve Dickson, but the footage I saw last night cannot be ignored or condoned,’ she said.
‘I am both a mother of three boys and the only female leader of a political party in this country. I wouldn’t tolerate my own children behaving this way towards women and I cannot, and will not, condone my own candidates dealing with women in this fashion either.
‘Steve’s language and behaviour was unacceptable and does not meet my expectations nor the greater public’s expectation of a person who is standing for public office.’
Senator Hanson said she was not worried about more footage from the Al Jazeera investigation being released.
‘This is something I knew nothing about… I’m not impressed, I’m not happy about it, and I’ve made that quite clear. I’m upset… Steve is a family man… he is deeply upset by this.
‘I’m not going to judge him any further, it is a family matter.’
She said she hoped voters would consider her party’s record before the scandal when casting their ballots during next month’s federal election.
‘I think that my job now is to continue to fight for the Australian people,’ she said.
Mr Dickson (pictured) resigned from the party on Tuesday morning after the strip club video was revealed
Senate candidate Steve Dickson was filmed inside a Washington DC strip club groping dancers and saying derogatory things about women
Mr Dickson resigned from the party on Tuesday morning after the strip club video was revealed, the Today Show reported.
He was overheard making comments about women at the strip club, calling one dancer a ‘b****’, 9 News reported.
‘I’ve asked her, she said she wants to come home and suck my d***,’ he said while receiving a lap dance.
In a statement, Mr Dickson apologised to his wife Debbie, to Senator Hanson and to the Australian public.
‘The footage shown does not reflect the person I am. It shows a person who was drunk and not in control of his actions and I take full responsibility for allowing that to happen,’ he said.
‘I am also deeply remorseful for my disrespectful comments towards women. I found the footage difficult to watch as my words and actions under intoxication and in that environment, are not a true reflection of myself.’
After the Al Jazeera piece was aired One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson called a press conference to throw her support behind Mr Dickson as a good family man
In March, Mr Dickson and One Nation chief-of-staff James Ashby were filmed discussing covert plans with American gun lobbyists to legalise assault rifles in Australia.
After the piece was aired One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson called a press conference to throw her support behind Mr Dickson as a good family man.
Mr Dickson was filmed describing gun control as a ‘poison’ and saying his party could ‘change Australia’ if it were given money.
He said Australian gun law is important in the context of a global battle for gun rights.
‘If we don’t change things, people are going to be looking at Australia and go ‘Well, it’s OK for them to go down the path of not having guns, it’s OK for them to go down that politically-correct path,’ he said.
‘And it’s like a poison – it will poison us all unless we stop it.’
Mr Dickson has been running on a platform of family values, identifying himself as a ‘family man’.
His website describes him as a happily married man with two grown sons.