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Investigations editor Ross Jones and IA founder Dave Donovan spent days on the ground last week interviewing locals and politicians, and following the antics of the infamous James Ashby and his equally notorious boss, Pauline Hanson, ahead of One Nation’s tilt for the Queensland seat of Keppel, while managing editor Michelle Pini grilled him in a phone interview for our revelatory report.
JAMES ASHBY, Pauline Hanson’s right-hand man, a man whose many dubious deeds have been documented in IA over the years, is running for office in the Queensland seat of Keppel — and he might well get elected.
Ashby revealed in an interview with Independent Australia‘s editor Michelle Pini, some rather troubling views on women’s rights, then promptly hung up when asked about law and order and his own criminal conviction for threatening behaviour in 2002.
This was no surprise to us because as we documented in the book we published on Ashby and his misdeeds, Ashbygate: The Plot to Destroy Australia’s Speaker, there was also the time when, in a pique, Ashby grabbed a journalist’s phone and threw it into a culvert. And much, more more.
Bullying record notwithstanding, Ashby stands, in the assessment of Independent Australia – who was on the ground in Keppel most of last week speaking to hundreds of people – a strong chance of getting elected. The closest parallel is Trump still being considered a chance to rule America again. Democracy in the West seems to have run off the rails in recent times.
GETTING WRECKED AT KEPPEL
Roughly 40,000 registered electors in the division of Keppel will cast their vote in the 2024 Queensland State Election on Saturday, 26 October 2024.
That’s only approximate, because last time around in 2020, only 90 per cent bothered to turn up.
Those who did had a choice of seven candidates including representatives of Legalise Cannabis, Informed Medical Options and United Australia Party.
None of these parties had the slightest impact, none managed to attract more than 3% of the vote; none are running in 2024.
In 2020, Labor’s Brittany Lauga prevailed with 55.6% of the two-party preferred. Both Labor and the LNP enjoyed swings towards them.
The loser was One Nation, which suffered a 9.8% swing against it, probably because of its forgettable candidate, Wayne Rothery. Despite Wayne, One Nation still pulled 15.7% of the primary.
This year, things are different.
While there are again seven candidates, this time around One Nation’s offering is the infamous James Ashby — a man clearly unsuited for office, yet here we are.
James has the ability to appear to be a reasonable candidate and so far in Keppel, he might just be pulling it off.
This year, there is also a Family First candidate on a tight budget with next to no presence. IA enquiries indicate he will have done well if his own family voted for him.
Also marginal in the presence game are Independent candidate Petrina Murphy – probably scratching to get 2% – and Greens Clancy Mulbrick, who might get around 4% if the gods are smiling.
The polls are saying Brittany Lauga is struggling to keep her seat.
Yeppoon has a pub at one end and the Bay Plaza shopping mall at the other. Deeper into the mall, Pauline Hanson and James Ashby had just finished lunch when IA approached the pair and sought comment. It didn’t go that well.
AN UTTER ABORTION ISSUE
The surprise issue, however, in this Queensland State Election may be abortion.
The Katter’s Australian Party’s (KAP’s) recent abortion ambush has blindsided LNP Leader David Crisafulli, whose anti-abortion track record contradicts his insistence that:
“There will be no changes to abortion laws if government changes in Queensland.”
Crisafulli has spent many weeks refusing to answer the question of whether he would allow his MPs a conscience vote if KAP went ahead with its anti-abortion bill.
Unfortunately for Crisafulli, a Guardian report reminded us that last year the LNP Leader told a live audience:
‘”I don’t believe in late-term abortions” and promised MPs a conscience vote on the issue.’
Then there’s the inconvenient fact that Crisafulli voted against legalising abortion in 2018 (along with all but three members of his party).
Crisafulli’s statement the LNP would not support an anti-abortion bill is meaningless if he refuses to rule out allowing the MPs he leads a conscience vote on the matter. If the LNP wins government and the KAP introduces a bill, support for such a move in his party means it would very likely pass.
It has made the LNP suddenly a lot more vulnerable.
ASHBY REVEALS CONTENTIOUS OPINIONS ABOUT WOMEN, THEN HANGS UP… ON A WOMAN
But James has staked out the low ground.
According to a recent report in the Townsville Bulletin:
‘Pauline Hanson’s right-hand-man and One Nation Keppel candidate James Ashby… was slapped down for graphically likening a late-term abortion to “cutting up a Sunday roast chicken”.’
IA finally gained an interview with Ashby. (Full transcript available HERE.)
At first, Ashby appeared quite reasonable, the professional local politician, sharing his views on the need for services for Keppel — such as more medical professionals and a new high school.
As the topic turned to abortion, however, Ashby launched into an extended lecture in which he detailed what he will and won’t “stand in the way of”, when it comes to women’s reproductive rights [IA emphasis]:
Independent Australia: What are your thoughts on the Katter Australia Party’s abortion bill?
James Ashby (JA): Well, I’m not interested in the Katter Australia Party’s abortion bill. We’ve put forward some amendments of our own … to legislation that was created in 2018, here in Qld by the Labor Party, which allows a mother to have an abortion right up until the day before birth.
…The legislation does not provide medical assistance to babies born alive through a botched abortion, … Those babies, sadly, are left to die on a clinical bench… I just find that abhorrent…
IA: Don’t women only go into abortion situations that late in pregnancy for medical reasons?
JA: That, well, that’s untrue. That is just proven untrue. For medical reasons, we understand the need to provide women with the opportunity, if it means the life of a mother verse [sic] that of an unborn child, there is grounds for those procedures to take place.
And I wouldn’t stand in the way of that.
But we are talking about legislation … which has resulted in women being able to make a decision that just, for whatever reason, it might be financial decision [sic], it might be for others, but to terminate the life of a child right before birth, is, is not appropriate.
… There have to be safeguards put in place, to protect the lives of these unborn children, that, for, for whatever reason, you know.
We know after talking to countless doctors and nurses, that some people are going in for these procedures because it’s just not the right gender. Or financial situations have changed…
Ashby then mansplained to Michelle Pini what women should be doing rather than contemplating abortion:
… If it does come down to financial reasons, you don’t have to go through with that procedure.
…And certainly, there’s more born alive than what we think. And um, its traumatic. Its traumatic for, for the, ah, nurses and doctors that are involved in the procedures. And um, we just think that there’s gotta be some protections put in place.
…We do want them to know that there are other options available to them, particularly when it comes to late term abortion.
IA fact-checked Ashby’s above claims. We concluded that his claims about late-term abortions, Labor’s 2018 Legislation to allow them, and, indeed, pretty much everything he stated above to editor Michelle Pini on this issue was absolutely false.
It was when he was asked about his prior criminal record (which you can read about HERE) that Ashby lost his cool — lost it, despite IA forwarding him the full list of questions prior to the interview:
IA: So let’s move to law and order, if you’re okay to go there?
JA: Yeah, go for it.
IA: I know that you’ve have had a conviction, for what I incorrectly referred to as assault, but it was actually making a threat over a carriage service that you were convicted of, is that right?
JA Um, look, that doesn’t play into it, it’s well documented, so, moving on.
IA: Okay, well I think from the point of view of you running on a law and order platform, I think it’s probably relevant. Would you agree with that or not?
JA: [Prolonged Silence. Ashby then abruptly hangs up and storms out.]
The interview, along with James Ashby’s thoughts on law and order and the relevance of his chequered past, concluded there.
IA did a lot of work pounding the streets last week and came away with the impression James is in with a real chance in Keppel, despite, or maybe because of, the LNP.
Of course, this is from a relatively small sample, but it seems to IA that James Ashby and LNP candidate Nigel Hutton will likely fight it out. Hutton, a former local councillor with strong community links, will be a strong contender. But James Ashby has won most situations in which he has found himself. This might be no exception.
He is in with a chance. Don’t do it, Keppel!
You can read Independent Australia’s longstanding investigation into James Ashby HERE and buy Ross Jones’ outstanding book Ashbygate: The Plot to Destroy Australia’s Speaker HERE.
You can follow, on Twitter/X, IA investigations editor @rpzjones_fin, founder and publisher Dave Donovan @davrosz and managing editor Michelle Pini @vmp9.
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