Former One Nation NSW leader Mark Latham has launched a blistering attack on his former party, accusing it of financial misconduct and cash laundering. Speaking under parliamentary privilege in the NSW Upper House on Thursday evening, Latham claimed One Nation officials had been siphoning taxpayer-funded administrative money from NSW to Queensland for improper purposes.
Latham alleged that the party's national secretary at the time, Rod Miles, had transferred NSW funds to a Brisbane bank account, which he described as 'the equivalent of theft'. He said he threatened to report the matter to police unless the money was returned, and claimed Miles complied after a heated phone call.
The former One Nation leader also accused the party of using merchandise sales as a vehicle for cash manipulation. 'For what had been a small party, they've got more merchandise than a $2 shop in the main street of Campbelltown,' he said. Latham claimed that cash from these sales was used to pay private legal expenses for Pauline Hanson and her adviser James Ashby, and that he was 'pretty sure that some of the cash gets laundered into their own personal purposes'.
Latham singled out Ashby, calling him 'a faceless crook, obsessed with financial scams'. He referenced the Al Jazeera sting in which Ashby was filmed seeking support from the US National Rifle Association, and claimed Hanson had privately agreed that Ashby should not travel to the US. Latham also criticised Sky News hosts Peta Credlin, Andrew Bolt and Paul Murray for associating with Ashby.
Latham urged stronger legal safeguards to prevent interstate control of NSW party finances, welcoming new government amendments requiring party agents and senior office-holders to be enrolled voters in NSW. He concluded by claiming One Nation has a long history of favouring Queensland with 'financial scams, cash, and even senators'.
