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Dear Pauline: The secret One Nation email that fell into our inbox · 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 Thursday, September 3, 2026. One Nation is so hot
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: right now, imagine how they'd be going if they could
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  Speaker 1: hang on to candidates and avoid behind-the-scenes melodrama. Today, our
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Margin Call columnist Max Aitchison joins us with one of
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: those stories that journos dream about. when a confidential update
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  Speaker 1: intended for Pauline Hanson found its way to the Australian
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  Speaker 1: by mistake. Max is here in just a moment. One
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  Speaker 1: of the most relatable political stories of the moment has
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  Speaker 1: been broken by our Margin Call columnist, Max Aitchison. Max,
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  Speaker 1: have you ever sent anyone an email in error or
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  Speaker 1: a text message?
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  Speaker 2: Many times. It's often when you're bitching about someone. And
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  Speaker 2: they're on your mind and you end up sending the
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  Speaker 2: message to them.
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  Speaker 1: Someone once called me thinking that they were calling someone
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  Speaker 1: else so that they could bitch about me and we
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  Speaker 1: started talking. It was great. But this is happening for
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  Speaker 1: real life in politics now by a lawyer. What has happened?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So Pauline Hanson's lawyer, a guy called Anthony Jeffries,
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  Speaker 2: yesterday afternoon accidentally copied in the editor of The Australian,
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  Speaker 2: Kelvin Healy, into an email that he was sending his client,
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  Speaker 2: Pauline Hanson. So he was writing to the One Nation
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  Speaker 2: founder with some good news to quote his email and
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  Speaker 2: it's a kind of long-running case involving Hansen and an
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  Speaker 2: ex-New South Wales senator called Brian Burstyn. The pair have
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  Speaker 2: a kind of long and very unhappy history, accusations flying
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  Speaker 2: on either side, accusations of sexual harassment. Burstyn, believe it
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  Speaker 2: or not, accused Hansen of sexually harassing him. She claimed
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  Speaker 2: that he was a sex pest. He sued her for defamation.
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  Speaker 2: He won the case. She was ordered to pay, I
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  Speaker 2: think it was $ 250, 000 to him.
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  Speaker 3: Appearing on Paul Murray Live, Senator Hanson dismissed the allegations.
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  Speaker 4: If I wanted to rub my hands up someone, a
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  Speaker 4: man's back, I'm sure it wouldn't be on the stage
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  Speaker 4: with federal police and 2,000 people there in the room.
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  Speaker 4: So it's a load of rubbish, Paul. I might be 64, Paul,
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  Speaker 4: but I tell you what, I'm not that desperate.
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  Speaker 2: She appealed, won the case on appeal, and so she
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  Speaker 2: didn't have to pay him the money, and she's been
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  Speaker 2: pursuing him ever since, as this email attests.
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  Speaker 1: We've used a voice actor.
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  Speaker 3: Service of the bankruptcy notice is the initial step that
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  Speaker 3: starts the clock now running for him. Burstyn now has
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  Speaker 3: 21 days to pay the amount claimed or come to
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  Speaker 3: an arrangement with you or apply to the court to
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  Speaker 3: set the notice aside. That period expires on 17 September 2026.
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  Speaker 2: So this email mistakenly lands in Kelvin Healy, who's, as
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  Speaker 2: I said, the editor of the Australians.
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  Speaker 1: Our boss.
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  Speaker 3: Our boss.
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  Speaker 2: In his inbox, 32 minutes later, there's a follow-up email
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  Speaker 2: from Mr. Jeffries where he says, email sent in error,
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  Speaker 2: please delete.
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  Speaker 3: Confidential and privileged.
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  Speaker 2: And he sends this thunderous email full of legalese and threats,
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  Speaker 2: basically saying, you know, don't share this email with anyone.
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  Speaker 3: You must not read further, copy, publish, disclose, or otherwise
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  Speaker 3: use the email or its contents. Our client... reserves all
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  Speaker 3: rights in respect of any use or disclosure of the email,
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  Speaker 3: including the right to seek urgent injunctive relief.
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  Speaker 2: And to give Kelvin his credit where credit's due, he
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  Speaker 2: was like, this is hilarious, let's just write a story
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  Speaker 2: about it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, if only I had a gossip columnist to give
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  Speaker 1: this to.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: And for you, I mean, writing Margin Call, which is
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: a business and politics column, is really hard work. You
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: and your colleague Will Glasgow every day have to break stories.
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  Speaker 1: But they have to also be entertaining.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: It's very rare for a story to just fall from
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  Speaker 1: heaven like this for you, isn't it?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. It was a gift from heaven. And actually,
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  Speaker 2: it came at a brilliant time. Yesterday afternoon, something had
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  Speaker 2: fallen over. I wasn't sure about something else. The story
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  Speaker 2: cupboard was looking pretty dry. And then Kelvin taps me
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  Speaker 2: on the shoulder and says, yeah, look at this. And yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's quite a funny piece. I mean, I think people
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  Speaker 2: can empathize because we've all been in that situation. It's
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  Speaker 2: very easy. to copy someone in when you don't mean to.
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  Speaker 1: It's odd in this case, though, because, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: can imagine if this was about Kelvin or they were
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  Speaker 1: thinking about him, you could easily put his name in.
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  Speaker 1: But they must have been trying to send it to
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  Speaker 1: Kevin or Helen or, you know, there must have been
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  Speaker 1: someone similar to Kelvin's name who they were trying to
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  Speaker 1: send it to.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, a really good point. I mean, and so CC'd
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  Speaker 2: in the email was Alex Jones, who's the One Nation treasurer,
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  Speaker 2: and then also Kelvin. So yeah, that's an unanswered question.
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  Speaker 2: Who was the name beginning with K or H who
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  Speaker 2: he was trying to copy in instead?
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  Speaker 1: One of my favorite kind of emails to get, apart
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  Speaker 1: from the mistaken email that's about you, is the email
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  Speaker 1: from someone who thinks they're a lawyer or who is
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  Speaker 1: a lawyer and he's trying to intimidate you into doing something.
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  Speaker 1: They often start with phrases like, without prejudice.
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  Speaker 2: Not for publication.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds impressive. I mean, off the record is, in
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  Speaker 1: my view, a two-way street. And unless you enter an
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  Speaker 1: off-the-record undertaking with someone where you say, you tell me
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  Speaker 1: the truth or tell me frankly what you think and
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  Speaker 1: I won't identify you, that has to be agreed first.
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  Speaker 1: You can't tell someone something and then retrospectively take it back.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. And myself, Will, based in Canberra, colleagues across
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  Speaker 2: Australia and spend our professional lives dealing with threats from
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  Speaker 2: lawyers or stern emails warning us against doing certain things. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: there was a bit of schadenfreude, shall I say, to
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  Speaker 2: borrow a word from German and just being able to
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  Speaker 2: report what he said and report on his mistake. And
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  Speaker 2: no doubt he'll be red-faced. And I'm sure Hanson will
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  Speaker 2: be annoyed, but, you know, it's a mistake. We've done
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  Speaker 2: the story. Like, hopefully that'll be the end of it.
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  Speaker 1: The substance of us tells us that One Nation is
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  Speaker 1: going after Brian Burstyn to make him bankrupt because Hanson
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  Speaker 1: has been awarded her costs in his federal court appeal win.
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  Speaker 1: And it's emblematic of the issue, the big issue that
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  Speaker 1: One Nation has, isn't it? It's discipline over their candidates. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: The sexual harassment scandal that Brian Burstyn got himself into
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  Speaker 1: with Pauline Hanson, hilariously involving the Rooty Hill RSL, my
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  Speaker 1: favourite destination in Australia.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: You know, that has been repeated, not in quite such
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  Speaker 1: colourful terms, but with numerous other candidates. Mark Latham, Fraser Anning,
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  Speaker 1: Rod Culleton, and now One Nation's kind of new star candidate,
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  Speaker 1: David Farley, in the seat of Pharaoh of New South Wales,
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  Speaker 1: is reportedly considering leaving the party.
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  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 1: It's like the fatal flaw for One Nation, isn't it?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a real feature of Hansen's political career
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  Speaker 2: that she has these spectacular bust-ups, often with male candidates,
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  Speaker 2: and the Brian Burstyn case is a particularly colourful one,
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  Speaker 2: shall we say.
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  Speaker 1: The One Nation leaders demanded Brian Burstyn quit the party
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  Speaker 1: and the Senate. He won't, but the way's now clear
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  Speaker 1: for Senator Hansen to sack him.
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  Speaker 2: So she... In pursuing him for bankruptcy, I think the cost,
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  Speaker 2: or at least I understand, it's about $ 317, 000. So he's
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  Speaker 2: obviously got the option. He could pay up or he
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  Speaker 2: could challenge it. When I spoke to him yesterday, he
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  Speaker 2: was in quite a bullish mood and said that he
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  Speaker 2: didn't feel threatened and he would be fighting it. So
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  Speaker 2: I guess it's a case of we'll keep an eye
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  Speaker 2: on this one and see how the story develops.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up, why aren't One Nation's behind-the-scenes brains out in front?
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  Speaker 1: The other intriguing character in every One Nation story is
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  Speaker 1: James Ashby. He's the man behind the scenes, Pauline Hanson's
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  Speaker 1: chief of staff and kind of the operations manager, I suppose,
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  Speaker 1: of the party since the beginning. And let's not forget,
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  Speaker 1: she was the OG rogue candidate. The Liberals disendorsed her
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  Speaker 1: before the 1996 election after she said that she would
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  Speaker 1: represent everyone except the Aboriginal voters in her seat. Then
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  Speaker 1: she made her maiden speech where she said that Australia
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  Speaker 1: was in danger of being swamped by Asians.
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  Speaker 4: Running a fish and chip shop, I won the seat
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  Speaker 4: of Oxley largely on an issue that has resulted in
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  Speaker 4: me being called a racist. That issue related.
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  Speaker 1: James Ashby and Brian Burstyn actually had a fisticuffs or
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  Speaker 1: some sort of physical encounter in the past. What happened there?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so this was back in, I believe, 2019 when
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  Speaker 2: the accusations were flying between Burstyn and Hanson and our colleague,
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  Speaker 2: Jeff Chambers, the political editor based in Canberra, he actually
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  Speaker 2: witnessed and got footage of James Ashby and Brian Burstyn
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  Speaker 2: in a kind of scrap in the corridors of power.
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  Speaker 2: federal police.
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  Speaker 1: What are you doing?
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  Speaker 3: You're harassing me.
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  Speaker 2: And you can watch that and look at the pictures
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  Speaker 2: on our website. It's quite extraordinary. There was also an
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  Speaker 2: allegation that Burstyn subsequently smeared blood on Hansen's door in Parliament,
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  Speaker 2: which is also in the story. And, you know, Ashby
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  Speaker 2: is this Svengali-like figure who's been by Hansen's side through
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  Speaker 2: thick and thin. You can't really understand the One Nation project,
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  Speaker 2: you know, without thinking of Ashby. He's a really interesting character.
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  Speaker 1: It's funny, isn't it? Because he would be the ideal
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  Speaker 1: One Nation candidate. You know, she's now recruited Barnaby Joyce,
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  Speaker 1: who is also famously undisciplined, but he's brilliant and quite intelligent,
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  Speaker 1: very good retail politician. It's those kinds of figures who,
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  Speaker 1: if One Nation had had these kinds of people from
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  Speaker 1: the beginning actually running for parliament, maybe they wouldn't have
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  Speaker 1: had everybody defect to Clive Palmer or.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. It's kind of testament to Hanson
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  Speaker 2: that she's got Barnaby on board. And, you know, I
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  Speaker 2: guess we'll see if that relationship will hold. It certainly
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  Speaker 2: seems to be at the minute. But, you know, if
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  Speaker 2: history is anything to judge by, Hanson does often fall
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  Speaker 2: out with her fellow politicians. I think Ashby is probably
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  Speaker 2: like the fictional Malcolm Tucker. Maybe swears less, but he's
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  Speaker 2: certainly got that power and influence and is a really
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  Speaker 2: interesting character.
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  Speaker 1: Hello, Malcolm.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, you look a bit tired. Yeah, you're looking competent.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I only hope the stories keep raining from the
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  Speaker 1: sky for you. Thanks, Max.
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  Speaker 2: As do I. Thanks.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Max Aitchison and Will Glasgow edit our column Margin Call.
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  Speaker 1: You can check it out anytime at theaustralian.com.au slash business.