Mr ABBOTT (9:35 PM) —Pauline Hanson, the member for Oxley, says that her One Nation Party is different from all the other political parties. In this respect at least she is absolutely right, as the Sun-Herald newspaper revealed on Sunday. Whatever faults the existing parties have, at least they are all internal democracies. In the Liberal Party, for instance—my own party—members elect delegates to state council, the state council elects office-bearers and elects an executive to take responsibility for the affairs of the party. It is a democracy because every member has a share, however small, in the democratic decision making process of the party.

The member for Oxley says that she is listening to the people, that she is the only true democrat amongst all the mere politicians that make up this parliament. However, an examination of the One Nation Party's internal structure shows that the member for Oxley believes in democracy but not just yet. She believes in democracy but only for other people. Pauline Hanson's political party is not a political party as such, but a company. It is not a democracy, but a business. It does not have thousands of members: it just has three directors—the member for Oxley, David Oldfield and David Ettridge.

Like the Prime Minister (Mr Howard), I do not believe in personal attacks on my colleagues, however misguided they might be. But I do think that the people of Australia have a right to know—any of those who are tempted to support the One Nation Party—that it is not a democratic party they might be tempted to support but, in fact, a private company with just three directors running it and they are responsible to no-one but themselves. The people of Australia who might be tempted to support the One Nation Party need to know that every time they give One Nation money they are not giving it to a democratic organisation which they control: they are giving it to a private company run by just three people.

They should also know—and again I am indebted to the Sun-Herald for this information—that every dollar they give to One Nation means 12.5c given to the pocket of David Ettridge. David Ettridge, as it turns out, is operating on the same basis as Terry Bourke, the brother of Brian Burke, the former Premier of Western Australia, operated; only at least Terry Burke's money went to the Labor Party which was democratically controlled by its members.

Then there is the question of the public funding of $500,000 due to One Nation as a result of its Queensland election vote. This $500,000 presumably is not going into the hands of the party itself; it is going into the hands of the three people who control that party—Hanson, Oldfield and Ettridge. The people of Australia need to ask the question: is what they really want that public funding should go not to democratic parties but to private companies controlled by just three people?

I think it is time that explanations were demanded from the member for Oxley. What does she intend to do with the taxpayers' money to which her party is entitled? I seek from the member for Oxley an absolute and categoric assurance that none of that taxpayers' money will end up in the hands of David Ettridge. I seek a further assurance that none of that taxpayers' money will be used to fund the personal expenses of her staff.

It is a very strange political party which trots out a member of a politician's staff to speak on behalf of the party. In this country, we have a tradition that politicians should speak for themselves. Sure, staff advise them, but at the end of the day they speak for themselves and they take responsibility for their words. But, with One Nation, you might vote for Pauline Hanson but you actually get David Oldfield who not only writes the words but also increasingly is saying them. This is a deeply un-Australian development.

As someone who knows David Oldfield's capacity to look after No. 1, I warn the member for Oxley not to put herself in the hands of two old diving buddies who go back much further with each other than they do with her. I make this prediction that David Oldfield will use One Nation to try to get himself elected to the Senate and then he will seek to become the leader of One Nation in form as well as in substance, and that would be a very dangerous and damaging development for this country.