Editing Pauline Hanson's One Nation (section)

===1998: First elections===
[[File:1998 Queensland election - PHON Vote Strength.svg|thumb|341x341px|Percentage of first preference votes for One Nation in each electorate.]]
The [[1998 Queensland state election]] produced One Nation's greatest electoral success, with the ALP winning 44 seats to be the largest party in the Assembly, the Coalition winning 32 seats and One Nation winning 11 seats. During the campaign, polling for One Nation led to commentators saying One Nation might secure the balance of power in a hung parliament.<ref name="1998 government stats">{{cite web |last1=Newman |first1=Gerard |title=1998 Queensland Election – Current Issues Brief 2 1998–99 |url=https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/CIB/cib9899/99CIB02 |website=Parliament of Australia |publisher=Australian Government |access-date=4 November 2020 |archive-date=4 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104022304/https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/CIB/cib9899/99CIB02 |url-status=live }}</ref> During the campaign, all three major political parties suffered a decline in voter support due to One Nation having entered the fray. The National Party saw an 11.1% drop in support, their Liberal Party coalition partners lost 6.7% and Labor's vote dropped 4.0%.<ref name="1998 government stats"/> To the surprise of many pundits, the One Nation Party received 22.7% of the first preference vote, giving them the second largest voter turnout for any party in Queensland during the 1998 election. One Nation drew the majority of its support from regional and rural Queensland, winning nine of its 11 seats in rural and regional electorates.<ref name="1998 government stats"/> 

With nearly 23% of the vote, One Nation gained a higher percentage of the vote than any other third party (i.e. not Labor or [[Coalition (Australia)|Coalition]]) at the state or territory level since Federation. This was also the only election at which a third party gained more votes than both the [[Liberal Party of Australia (Queensland Division)|Liberal Party]] and the [[National Party of Australia – Queensland|National Party]] considered separately.

Subsequently, the One Nation contingent in the Queensland Parliament split, with dissident members forming the rival [[City Country Alliance|City-Country Alliance]] in late 1999.<ref name="apg">{{Cite book |title=Australian Politics and Government: The Commonwealth, the States and Territories |last=Wanna |first=John |editor-first=Campbell |editor-last=Moon |editor2-first=Jeremy |editor2-last=Sharman |chapter=Queensland |year=2003 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |isbn=0521825075 |page=92 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=37Sel9HEYgUC |access-date=26 July 2012 |archive-date=18 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230218222009/https://books.google.com/books?id=37Sel9HEYgUC |url-status=live }}</ref>

At the [[1998 Australian federal election|1998 federal election]], Hanson contested the new seat of [[Division of Blair|Blair]] after a redistribution effectively split Oxley in half. Hanson lost to [[Liberal Party of Australia|Liberal]] candidate [[Cameron Thompson (politician)|Cameron Thompson]], and the One Nation candidate in Oxley lost the seat to ALP candidate [[Bernie Ripoll]].<ref>{{cite web |title=A loss in Oxley could spell disaster for Labor |url=https://theconversation.com/a-loss-in-oxley-could-spell-disaster-for-labor-17058 |website=The Conversation |date=21 August 2013 |access-date=5 November 2020 |archive-date=7 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807132432/https://theconversation.com/a-loss-in-oxley-could-spell-disaster-for-labor-17058 |url-status=live }}</ref> One Nation candidate [[Heather Hill (politician)|Heather Hill]] was elected as a senator for Queensland. Hill's eligibility to sit as a senator was successfully challenged in ''[[Sue v Hill]]'' under the [[Australian Constitution]] on the basis that she had failed to renounce her childhood British citizenship, despite being a naturalised Australian citizen. The seat went to the party's [[Len Harris (politician)|Len Harris]] following a recount.<ref name=crossroad>{{Cite book|title=The High Court at the crossroads: essays in constitutional law|first1=Anne|last1=Twomey |author-link=Anne Twomey (academic)|editor1-first=Adrienne|editor1-last=Stone|editor2-first=George|editor2-last=Williams|isbn=1-86287-371-2|publisher=Federation Press|year=2000|location=[[New South Wales]], [[Australia]]|chapter=''Sue v Hill'' – The Evolution of Australian Independence}}</ref>

Political scientists [[Ian McAllister (political scientist)|Ian McAllister]] and Clive Bean, in an analysis of the 1998 federal election, found that although it was assumed that One Nation supporters came from a traditionally conservative demographic, instead:
{{Blockquote|"in a number of significant respects it in fact tends more towards [[Australian Labor Party|Labor's]] profile instead. One Nation support, for example, comes disproportionately from manual workers, trade union members, those who describe themselves as working class, the less well educated, men and people who never attend church – a list of characteristics which comes close to defining the archetypal Labor voter … [The evidence] suggests that it is Labor-style voters in rural areas – rather than the much more predominantly urban Labor voter – who are chiefly attracted to One Nation"<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Clive |first1=Bean |last2=McAllister |first2=Ian |editor1-last=Simms |editor1-first=M |editor2-last=Warhurst |editor2-first=J |title=Howard's Agenda: The 1998 Australian Election |date=2000 |publisher=University of Queensland Press |page=181 |chapter=Voting Behaviour}}</ref>}}

Within a year of One Nation's electoral success, three of the 11 Queensland MPs elected had quit the party claiming the leadership had too much control over the party.<ref name=ABCONtimeline/>

==== Internal disputes and claims of corruption ====
The party was affected by internal divisions and has split several times.  Lawsuits involving ex-members did eventually force Hanson to repay approximately $500,000 of public funding won at the 1998 Queensland election amid claims by Abbott that the party was fraudulently registered. Abbott established a trust fund called "Australians for Honest Politics Trust" to help bankroll civil court cases against the party.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/02/1062403506222.html |title=AEC defends handling of Abbott slush fund – National |newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald |date=2 September 2003 |access-date=8 January 2017 |archive-date=22 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222063812/http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/02/1062403506222.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The suits alleged that the party was undemocratically constituted in order to concentrate all power in the hands of three people—Hanson, Ettridge and Oldfield (in particular Oldfield)—and that it technically had only two members: Ettridge and Hanson. Even though Hanson's fraud charges were dropped, the Electoral Commission of Queensland never reimbursed Hanson for the monies that they collected from the claim.<ref name=ABCONtimeline/>

The first Annual General Meeting of the One Nation party was held in April 1999, which critic Paul Reynolds said demonstrated that One Nation lacked organisation.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Rutherford|first1=Jennifer|title=One Love Too Many: The Undoing of Pauline Hanson|journal=[[Australian Journal of Politics and History]]|date=June 2001|volume=47|issue=2|pages=192–208|doi=10.1111/1467-8497.00227}}</ref>

At the [[1999 New South Wales state election]], [[David Oldfield (politician)|David Oldfield]] was elected to the [[New South Wales Legislative Council]]. In October 2000, Hanson expelled Oldfield from the party after a disagreement.<ref name=ABCONtimeline/> His expulsion created even more instability in a party which was constantly embroiled in scandal and internal strife. Oldfield attacked Hanson publicly, saying that "everything including her maiden speech and every word of any consequence that she's said since, has actually been written for her".<ref name=ABCONtimeline/> Oldfield engineered a split within the party, creating [[One Nation NSW]], in 2001.<ref name=ABCONtimeline/> The new party took advantage of electoral party registration laws to register itself as a political party under the 'One Nation' name with the NSW electoral commission, and achieved registration in April 2002.<ref name=ABCONtimeline/>

At the [[2001 Western Australian state election]] One Nation won three seats in the state, however the party was reduced to 3 seats the same year at the [[2001 Queensland state election]]. During the [[2001 Australian federal election]], the party's vote fell from 9% to 5.5%. Hanson failed in her bid to win a Senate seat from Queensland, despite polling a strong 10% of the primary vote. Hanson also failed to win a seat in the [[New South Wales Legislative Council]].<ref name=ABCONtimeline/>

==== Electoral fraud charges ====
In 2001, disendorsed One Nation candidate Terry Sharples accused the party of not having the 500 members needed for registration, and called for the party to be deregistered, which was carried by the Supreme Court. Hanson appealed the verdict but was unsuccessful.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.ccc.qld.gov.au/research-and-publications/publications/misconduct/the-prosecution-of-pauline-hanson-and-david-ettridge-a-report-on-an-inquiry-into-issues-raised-in-a-resolution-of-parliament.pdf |title=The prosecution of Pauline Hanson and David Ettridge: a report on an inquiry into issues raised in a resolution of Parliament |date=January 2004 |publisher=Crime and Misconduct Commission |access-date=8 January 2017 |isbn=1-876986-21-2 }}{{Dead link|date=June 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Hanson appeared before the [[Brisbane Magistrates Court]] to face charges of [[electoral fraud]], that same year. Hanson pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming that she was being subjected to "a political witch-hunt." While court hearings proceeded, Hanson ran for a seat in the NSW Upper House as an independent, but only received 1.9 per cent of the vote.<ref name=ABCONtimeline/>

Both Ettridge and Hanson were found guilty of fraudulently registering One Nation and obtaining more than $500,000 from the AEC, in 2003. Crown lawyers accused them both of falsely claiming more than 500 people were party members when they were not truly members. Hanson was sentenced to three years in jail, stating outside the court that the verdict was "Rubbish, I'm not guilty... it's a joke".<ref name=ABCONtimeline/>

It was later disclosed that Abbott had been working behind the scenes to take Ettridge and Hanson down, meeting with several disgruntled One Nation members including Sharples. On November 6 of that same year, Hanson was released from prison after successfully appealing her conviction; she was acquitted on all counts.<ref name=ABCONtimeline/>