Libs meet with Hanson on preferences

Pauline Hanson has had talks with the Liberal Party about doing a preference deal for the WA election during a visit to Perth to meet 55 candidates.

Senator Pauline Hanson

Pauline Hanson says One Nation has been approached by the WA Liberals about doing a preference deal. (AAP)

Pauline Hanson says she has met with Liberal Party powerbrokers in Perth who approached her about doing a preference deal for the WA election.

Ms Hanson kicked off the One Nation party's campaign in Perth with most of the party's 55 candidates, signalling that it will try to run on every seat.

A ReachTEL poll last week indicated One Nation could win 11 per cent of the vote, while Labor is slightly ahead in the battle to win government.

"I have spoken to the Liberal Party who approached me about preferences," she told reporters outside Parliament House in Perth.

"I'm not here to guarantee (Premier Colin) Barnett's re-election or Labor Party get into this government or the Greens or anyone else.

"I'm here to do best I can to get our members elected."

Voters should not follow how-to-vote cards like sheep anyway and the major parties should not underestimate One Nation's popularity, she said.

Ms Hanson was joined outside parliament by 45 out of at least 55 candidates who One Nation will run in the March 11 poll, including WA leader Colin Tincknell.

"What I want to instil in the candidates here is to just be upfront, be honest with the people and pass legislation on its merits and is right for this state," she said.

Mr Tincknell said they had had 200 applicants and hoped to run candidates in every seat.

Ms Hanson is best known for her anti-immigration policies, which are focused on Muslims currently but was aimed at Asians in her first political life in the late-1990s.

However, she said policies such as her call to ban the Islamic burqa were peripheral for West Australians.

She named the major issues she at least partly blamed on the Liberal National government.

They included WA's unemployment, which fell to 6.6 per cent in December, the end of the resources boom, foreign workers taking the jobs of locals through temporary visas - which Labor leader Mark McGowan also brought up this week - and the youth scourge of the drug ice.

She was reluctant to talk about what specific policies she offered to create jobs, however, other than suggesting incentives for people to start small businesses such as payroll tax cuts.

The WA Nationals, which face losing seats to One Nation, have already proposed payroll tax relief.

The candidates that joined Ms Hanson were dominated by white men who were middle-aged or older.

However there was about a half-dozen women, a 44-year-old former investment banker with a Chinese name, Tsung Chang, and a 20-year-old male university student.


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Published 19 January 2017 5:30pm
Source: AAP

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