Multiple tax invoices seen by theHeraldand worth thousands of dollars were made out to the party’s former national executive treasurer Alex Jones and delivered to One Nation’s then-head office in Brisbane but invoiced to the NSW division.
Mark Latham quit Pauline Hanson’s One Nation in sensational style.Alex Ellinghausen/Dominic Lorrimer
The documents are part of the NSW division’s financial records which underpin allegations of impropriety made by former NSW One Nation leader turned independent Mark Latham in the parliament on Wednesday.
“It was part of the Ashby cash economy:merchandise sitting in a Brisbane warehouse to be on-sold with the money laundered to Ashby and Hanson. And some of it for campaigns in other parts of the country,” he said.
The allegations came almost two months after Latham accused One Nation’s leadership of attempting to misappropriate $270,000 worth of NSW electoral funds by “funnelling” funding into Queensland.
James Ashby,chief of staff to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson,has previously categorically denied the allegations.
One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson with adviser James Ashby.AFR
In one invoice from MHA Products dated April 27,2021,two expanding roller conveyors are purchased for $3580;the invoice has the delivery address as a commercial space at Holt Street,Eagle Farm,a suburb in Brisbane.
The NSW division’s administrative expenses show $999 spent on a 16″ x 20″ Swingaway Press,a product designed to imprint logos onto merchandise.
Another tax receipt from Jigsaw Puzzles Australia worth $5500 for 200 jigsaw puzzles is also made out to Jones at One Nation’s Eagle Farm office. Other expenses for 300 A-frames at a cost of $13,875 and $23,577 worth of baseball caps are purchased from the supplier “Pauline Hanson’s One Nation – Qld Div”.
The party’s office was in December 2021 after Jones was charged with defrauding the Electoral Commission of Queensland of $24,000 in election funding.
Mark Latham (left) during his time as One Nation’s NSW leader,and his colleague Rod Roberts.Supplied
Then 23-year-old Jones pleaded guilty to one count of attempted fraud in November last year but he avoided a criminal conviction.
In response,Ashby called on Rod Roberts,Latham’s One Nation ally who sat on the division’s state executive until he quit the party in August,to explain why he didn’t raise concerns in March 2019 or September at the time of the alleged impropriety.
But Roberts told this masthead the NSW One Nation state executive had no control of the division’s bank accounts,which were based in Brisbane and the signatories were members of the party’s national executive in Queensland.
“An exhaustive search of the NSW minutes will show nobody ever moved any motions to purchase any of this stuff. We didn’t know about it because the bank accounts weren’t even in the control of NSW people,” he said.
Mark Latham has been pushed out as One Nation's NSW leader,claiming it was without “consultation or due process”.
Roberts claimed the first time he became aware of the financial impropriety was when the NSW Electoral Commission contacted the division by email asking for an explanation about the purchases.
“The question that’s been asked,well posed by Ashby and some of those,is why didn’t Roberts take it to the Electoral Commission?” he said.
“Well,I’ll tell you why I didn’t:I didn’t have to. The Electoral Commission brought it to us. They flagged these transactions as suspicious. We in NSW knew nothing about it.”
The electoral commission’s investigation is ongoing and has recently been broadened to examine earlier years of the division’s financial history,One Nation sources unauthorised to speak publicly claimed.
In August,Latham claimed $102,000 allegedly misappropriated from the division’s funds was returned after he threatened to go to the NSW Police and the NSW Electoral Commission.
Ashby declined to comment.
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