One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has revealed her line-up of candidates ahead of the West Australian state election in March.
She expects West Australian voters to get on board and support her party at the March 11 poll and believes that much like voters in the eastern states they are dissatisfied with the major parties.
“I will be, and I am, a threat to their power, their corruption, their lies and treating people in this country like mushrooms," Ms Hanson told reporters in Perth.
"I have so much pride in this country and the people.”
She said she wanted to focus on jobs following the mining boom and ensuring children in WA have a bright future.
“I will not be controlled by political correctness because that needs to be thrown into the rubbish bin where it belongs,” she said.
A few hundred people in WA applied to represent One Nation but Senator Hanson said she did not favor female candidates and made her decisions based on merit.
“I do not believe in putting a person into a seat purely to have a one nation candidate there,” she said.
“I don’t count the numbers of how many women I have, the other political parties can do that. I don’t believe in tokenism, I believe in the best person for the job whether it be male or female.”
Senator Hanson admited some One Nation policies may not be of major importance to West Australian voters, like the party’s call to ban the burqa.
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“I think their concerns here are about jobs, it’s about the escalating crime and I think it’s about the cost of living," she said.
"That’s what West Australian people are actually concerned about. Not about the burqa, that’s a side issue, but it’s something we must be aware of, and prepared to deal with it, if we need to.”
Senator Hanson is on a four day visit to West Australia where her party was only officially registered this week.
The outspoken senator has also denied reports that her One Nation colleague, Malcolm Roberts, lobbied Australian diplomats in Washington for tickets to US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration this week.
She said she was “gifted” an invitation but declined because it clashed with work commitments in Australia.
“The opportunity was there and I turned it down. I said no, thank you but no thank you,” she said.
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