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Drink, drugs and a drama One Nation didn’t need · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, September 9, 2026. Drink driving, unpaid fines and
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  Speaker 1: allegations about serious drugs. These are not the talking points
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  Speaker 1: One Nation wanted for its bold bid to become part
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  Speaker 1: of Victoria's government. But Pauline Hanson's hand-picked State President Warren Pickering,
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  Speaker 1: a former soldier, is having a tough week. thanks to
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  Speaker 1: exclusives broken by The Australian's Jamie Walker. That's today's story.
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  Speaker 2: This is a personal matter.
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  Speaker 3: We've responded to it and I've got nothing more to
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  Speaker 3: say to it.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not doing this to be vindictive.
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  Speaker 3: If we're saying that any person... will be held to
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  Speaker 3: account for any action they ever did. I would suggest
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  Speaker 3: there are a lot of people in the Parliament who
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  Speaker 3: will no longer have a job Monday morning.
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  Speaker 4: I've never made the suggestion that I'm any type of angel.
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  Speaker 4: To assume that I would be is an absolute mistake.
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  Speaker 5: This is shaping up as a very, very big test
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  Speaker 5: of where One Nation is actually going.
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  Speaker 1: Jamie Walker is an Associate Editor of The Australian. He
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  Speaker 1: broke a story this week that has upended One Nation's
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  Speaker 1: bid to reshape itself from protest party to potential force
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  Speaker 1: in government. Serious allegations about past drug use against Warren Pickering,
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  Speaker 1: One Nation's Victorian president, levelled by his former partner, Joanne Scott.
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  Speaker 5: And if they are a real force, do they potentially
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  Speaker 5: go into government, possibly in a minority government with the
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  Speaker 5: Liberals after this? assuming that Labor loses power. And I
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  Speaker 5: have to say that given the performance of Victorian Labor
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  Speaker 5: over the past term, that's a pretty good prospect.
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  Speaker 1: The Labor Party, if it's not worried about One Nation,
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  Speaker 1: should be. But one of the things that I think
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  Speaker 1: is reassuring Labor is that One Nation has a pretty
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  Speaker 1: bad track record of hanging on to candidates. They choose
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  Speaker 1: people who either don't stay in their position, they quit
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  Speaker 1: the party and decide to sit as an independent, or
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  Speaker 1: they're revealed in some way to not be who One
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  Speaker 1: Nation kind of thought they were. There's been legal disputes.
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  Speaker 1: There's been accusations of sexual harassment. There can't have been
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  Speaker 1: a bit of everything in One Nation's history. So going
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  Speaker 1: back to the start of how Warren Pickering came to
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  Speaker 1: be a One Nation candidate, what do we know about
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  Speaker 1: his life to date?
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  Speaker 5: Well, this was the starting point for our exercise in
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  Speaker 5: terms of looking at Warren Pickering, if he wins his
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  Speaker 5: seat of Aconum. there is a prospect that he could
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  Speaker 5: have a very important role in public life in Victoria
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  Speaker 5: in the next government going ahead. So when we started
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  Speaker 5: looking at Warren Pickering, we were very conscious that there
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  Speaker 5: was very little on the public record about this guy. Now,
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  Speaker 5: his life story is quite abridged. He is a former bricklayer.
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  Speaker 5: He worked around in various other jobs through his 20s
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  Speaker 5: and early 30s. He joined the Army in In about 2013, again,
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  Speaker 5: that's not clear, he became a combat engineer. He had
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  Speaker 5: some deployments overseas, but at that time, the army wasn't
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  Speaker 5: engaged in active war zone activities or active war zone operations.
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  Speaker 5: We'd finished in Afghanistan. And after that, he returns to Victoria,
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  Speaker 5: where he'd grown up, to regional Victoria, West Gippsland.
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  Speaker 4: And he.
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  Speaker 5: got involved with One Nation. He ran for the Senate
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  Speaker 5: unsuccessfully in 2022. He became the president of the Victorian
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  Speaker 5: division of One Nation. And in August, only a month ago,
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  Speaker 5: Pauline Hanson tapped him to be the leader of One
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  Speaker 5: Nation going into the Victorian election and their lead candidate.
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  Speaker 1: And then you come along and ruin everything with a
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  Speaker 1: story about Warren Pickering's past, according to one of his
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  Speaker 1: former partners. This is Joe Scott. What is Joe Scott
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  Speaker 1: saying about her time with Warren Pickering?
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  Speaker 5: Well, it was a very troubled time. Now, they were
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  Speaker 5: together from 2000 to 2018, on and off, but mainly on.
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  Speaker 5: They met when he was 17 and He was actually
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  Speaker 5: an apprentice bricklayer to Joe Scott's then-husband, who was very
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  Speaker 5: tragically killed in a car accident in October 2020. He
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  Speaker 5: and Joe Scott got together fairly casually to begin with,
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  Speaker 5: but in 2004, they moved in together after Miss Scott
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  Speaker 5: gave birth to their daughter. Joe Scott also had three
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  Speaker 5: sons to her previous husband, to her late husband. And
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  Speaker 5: They started living together. They formed a life. Now, according
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  Speaker 5: to Jo Scott, it was a pretty chaotic relationship. They
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  Speaker 5: both used drugs quite heavily, by her account. They used
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  Speaker 5: ice quite a lot, again, by her account. And this
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  Speaker 5: is in various homes, which have four children in them.
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  Speaker 5: And at some point, there was interaction with the police.
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  Speaker 5: She had a lot of problems in her life. She
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  Speaker 5: became addicted to ice. It's not clear whether Mr Pickering
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  Speaker 5: himself was actually addicted to the drug. She says he
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  Speaker 5: used it constantly. He smoked it. She says there were
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  Speaker 5: glass pipes all around their homes. They would go to
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  Speaker 5: a party house and consume ice, and we have an
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  Speaker 5: independent witness to them doing it. They eventually both cleaned
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  Speaker 5: up their acts, and this is when you fast forward
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  Speaker 5: to the period where Mr Pickering died. joins the Australian
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  Speaker 5: Army and moves to Townsville in North Queensland. At that point,
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  Speaker 5: it seems that he's no longer taking drugs, according to
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  Speaker 5: Jo Scott, though she says he has one last big
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  Speaker 5: session with her in January 2014, shortly before she moved
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  Speaker 5: up to Townsville to join him with the children, and
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  Speaker 5: they broke up for good in 2018, and apparently that's
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  Speaker 5: about the time that he returned to Victoria.
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  Speaker 1: He said in a written statement to you, these allegations
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  Speaker 1: are false, they're extremely hurtful, and I just hope the
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  Speaker 1: public can see through them. But in the story that
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  Speaker 1: we published in The Australian on Monday, Jamie, we included
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  Speaker 1: extracts of handwritten notes that he appears to have written
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  Speaker 1: that say things like, I've been talking to people about
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  Speaker 1: my own sexual deviance when on the shit, and it
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  Speaker 1: turns out it's all fairly common, like all 70s rock
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  Speaker 1: stars who got off everything and went on to lead
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  Speaker 1: normal lives. I mean, the mind boggles as to what
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  Speaker 1: exactly that is about. But it seems to be an
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  Speaker 1: acknowledgement by him in that letter that he has at
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  Speaker 1: the very least used drugs and is regretful. He says
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  Speaker 1: in another one, we both need to find an occupational
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  Speaker 1: field that stimulates our active minds instead of using substances
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  Speaker 1: to stimulate. So as far as you can tell at
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  Speaker 1: the moment, is he denying having ever used these drugs
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  Speaker 1: to you?
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  Speaker 5: Well, again, this is not clear. And we've been going
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  Speaker 5: back and forth with the lawyers for One Nation and
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  Speaker 5: Mr Pickering for the last three weeks, trying to clarify
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  Speaker 5: his language. And remember, this is his language. At no
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  Speaker 5: point has either he or One Nation denied that he
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  Speaker 5: wrote these letters. And this is one point that we
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  Speaker 5: keep going back and forth with Mr Pickering about. And
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  Speaker 5: we continue to invite him to speak to us, but
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  Speaker 5: he won't.
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  Speaker 1: Barnaby Joyce said on the ABC 730 that he was
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  Speaker 1: reassured by the fact that after this alleged behaviour that
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  Speaker 1: Warren Pickering was selected by the Australian Defence Force to
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  Speaker 1: be a soldier and that he has faith in the
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  Speaker 1: Army's vetting processes.
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  Speaker 3: If he's good enough to serve our nation in the
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  Speaker 3: Defence Force, as determined by our nation, then I presume
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  Speaker 3: he's good enough to serve the people of Victoria.
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  Speaker 1: What do you know, if anything, about that vetting process
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  Speaker 1: that he went through with Defence?
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  Speaker 5: Well, we don't know a lot about it, but Miss
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  Speaker 5: Scott says quite clearly that she actually was back with
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  Speaker 5: Mr Pickering at that point when he's going to enlist
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  Speaker 5: in the army. And she gets a phone call from them.
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  Speaker 5: And of course, she gives him a glowing reference. And
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  Speaker 5: she says, well, why wouldn't I? We both looked at
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  Speaker 5: this as a way to start a fresh life. And
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  Speaker 5: good for them. That's what they both appear to have done.
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  Speaker 5: So we don't know a lot. But I must say,
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  Speaker 5: I was quite struck by Senator Hanson and Mr Joyce
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  Speaker 5: yesterday about how incurious they seem to be. What Mr
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  Speaker 5: Joyce said was that he hadn't actually asked Mr Pickering directly,
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  Speaker 5: you know, did you take ice? What he asked him was,
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  Speaker 5: were you vetted by the Australian army when you joined them?
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  Speaker 5: And of course he said, yes. And Barnaby seems to
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  Speaker 5: have said, well, that's good enough for us. And Senator Hanson,
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  Speaker 5: of course, has made the point that it's a personal matter,
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  Speaker 5: nothing to do with her, nothing to see here.
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  Speaker 1: I have nothing more to add to it. I told you,
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  Speaker 1: it is a personal matter and I have nothing more.
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  Speaker 2: To add to it.
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  Speaker 1: Lauren Pickering said, despite the acrimonious separation, I recognise Joanne,
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  Speaker 1: that's Jo Scott, has enormous mental health problems that I
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  Speaker 1: have tried to assist her with. I have attempted to
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  Speaker 1: keep our relationship civil and help Joanne get into fitness
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  Speaker 1: as a means to overcome her challenges. Now, there's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of layers in that statement, but the implication is
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  Speaker 1: very clear that Jo Scott is an unreliable witness and
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  Speaker 1: that she's mad and you can't believe anything she says.
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  Speaker 1: What's your impression of Jo Scott having met and spoken
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  Speaker 1: with her and taken all the steps that a journalist
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  Speaker 1: takes to verify her story?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, she's a woman who's had a lot of
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  Speaker 5: problems in her life. She openly admits that. Now, she
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  Speaker 5: has been addicted to ice. She has had problems with depression.
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  Speaker 5: She has had multiple suicide attempts. She has suffered from
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  Speaker 5: what she describes as PTSD, arising from the death of
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  Speaker 5: her first husband. Now, we have seen extensive documentation regarding
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  Speaker 5: her allegations, a lot of which I can't go into.
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  Speaker 5: So I found her to be consistent and credible, though
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  Speaker 5: of course we put it to her, is this the
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  Speaker 5: actions of a vindictive woman? She says, no, it is not.
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  Speaker 5: It's the actions of someone who thinks that her former
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  Speaker 5: partner needs to tell the truth about his background as
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  Speaker 5: she has told the truth about hers.
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  Speaker 1: He's standing in the public eye and he's wanting people.
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  Speaker 4: To vote for him.
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  Speaker 5: And I'm not sure that.
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  Speaker 4: Someone in their background, unless they can explain it, should
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  Speaker 4: be there standing for the people.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up, Warren Pickering has his say. On Tuesday, Warren
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  Speaker 1: Pickering gave a media conference flanked by two adult children,
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  Speaker 1: his and Joe Scott's daughter, Jet, and Scott's eldest son, Johnny.
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  Speaker 4: I'd like to provide an example to people that intend
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  Speaker 4: to turn their lives around, that have maybe done it
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  Speaker 4: a little rough or made some mistakes when they were younger.
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  Speaker 1: He admitted that he'd used drugs in the past, including ecstasy,
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  Speaker 1: speed and marijuana.
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  Speaker 4: Ice is not on that list. You've never had ice?
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  Speaker 4: Ice is not on that list. You've never had that? Methamphetamines, marijuana, ecstasy.
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  Speaker 1: Methamphetamines, just to be clear though, methamphetamines is.
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  Speaker 4: Speed, the terminology, look... Guys, I'm clearly not as familiar
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  Speaker 4: with the terms as you would like me to be.
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  Speaker 4: Do you not know what you took sometimes?
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  Speaker 2: Was it a bit of a gamble?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I wasn't an experienced drug taker, Paul. That's what
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  Speaker 4: I was implying. One question at a time.
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  Speaker 1: Pickering said allegations made by Joe Scott in The Australian
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  Speaker 1: were incorrect and that her suggestion he'd smoked ice while
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  Speaker 1: there were children in the house was untrue.
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  Speaker 4: It's wrong, the most wrong thing, that I smoked ice
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  Speaker 4: in a house with children.
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  Speaker 1: This is Joe Scott's son, Johnny.
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  Speaker 2: Without Warren there through my young age as the eldest,
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  Speaker 2: our shoulders would have been a lot worse than they were.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I've got great respect for Warren and what
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  Speaker 2: he's done as a person. He has got a past.
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  Speaker 2: He clearly has.
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  Speaker 1: But that's his past.
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  Speaker 4: Now.
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  Speaker 2: My mother has a past and she's stuck in that past.
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  Speaker 2: She's got a vendetta against Warren and has for many years.
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  Speaker 5: This is certainly going to test One Nation's threshold for
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  Speaker 5: political pain. It's incredibly embarrassing. And given the party's history,
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  Speaker 5: you kind of just shake your head and you think,
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  Speaker 5: what on earth was going on? Because they knew about
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  Speaker 5: these allegations and yet it was Senator Hanson's captain pick
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  Speaker 5: that they appointed this guy.
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  Speaker 3: Fair enough.
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  Speaker 5: And I cast no aspersions about Mr Pickering. You know,
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  Speaker 5: I don't know enough about him, but that's kind of
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  Speaker 5: the point, isn't it? We do need to know more
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  Speaker 5: about our potential political leaders and voters are entitled to
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  Speaker 5: some of that information. So let's see where it goes.
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  Speaker 5: I wouldn't like to predict it.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, I think this is just the beginning. Well, thank
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  Speaker 1: you very much, Jamie.
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: You're welcome.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Jamie Walker is an associate editor with The Australian.