15th November 1999
Bruce Whiteside, regarded as a "nutter" by some One Nation executives was the founder of the Pauline Hanson Support Movement (PHSM) back in 1996. Whiteside fondly still refers to PHSM members as Pauline's Army.
He has always claimed that the movement was "stolen" from him by the two Davids - spearheaded by David Ettridge who was later joined by David Oldfield weeks after the launch of Pauline Hanson's One Nation on the 11th April 1997.
The documents at the links shown below reveal, at the very least, an alleged breach in access to confidential documents belonging to the PHSM committee by, then unknown, David Ettridge. Ettridge had absolutely no association with the PHSM when his office allegedly claimed to act in an official capacity in handling the movements financial records when writing to the Australian Electoral Commission.
We are talking about critical times because this was pre-One Nation days, the days when funding and membership were two critical criteria needed by the two Davids and Pauline Hanson to make the vision of the One Nation party become a reality.
The documents (page one and two) linked below are copies of the actual minutes from the PHSM on 13th January 1997 - Bruce Whiteside resigned as President at this meeting - the committee installing Paul Trewartha as President in his place. You will note that Ettridge is not referred to. He was not known at this stage by committee members like founder Whiteside and PHSM Treasurer Lindon Litchfield. It is doubtful whether more than one or two members of the committee knew of his existence at all at this stage. The PHSM membership, numbering several thousand, certainly did not,
Page One
(PHSM January minutes)
Page Two
(PHSM January minutes)
The documents linked below (pages three and four) originated from David Ettridge's office on 14th January 1997 the day after this PHSM meeting. The signatory, Kimberley McLean, worked from One Nation's Manly office for Ettridge's Champion Magazines Pty Ltd and for One Nation after the party was established three months later. The phone number quoted by McLean is that belonging to One Nation's Manly head office today - the office from which David Ettridge works.
In the letter McLean encloses an "Associated Entity Annual Return" for Pauline Hanson's Support Movement.
She explains in the letter that, quote,
"The reason for this is that the Treasurer of the Support
Movement, upon preparing the financial statement with an accountant were
(sic) unaware of the need to record individual amounts received/owed to
individuals greater than $500 and totalling $1500 over the period. They were
also unaware of the need to record and report for this period the debts of
the organisation."
Lindon Litchfield is recorded as the PHSM Treasurer and his address details and phone number are included in the letter. (see page four below). Litchfield confirmed to me yesterday that he had no knowledge of Ettridge or his involvement in PHSM at this time. He says the first time he met Ettridge was in February.
This is interesting because McLean says in the letter, "The treasurer (Litchfield) of the Support Movement has informed me that this information can be obtained, but shall be difficult to obtain in the short period we have left to submit the return."
McLean's letter, linked below, supports the fact that Ettridge was working behind the scenes to "take over" what had been Whiteside's non-political people's support movement. Contacting the Australian Electoral Commission "on behalf of" PHSM raises a number of questions... perhaps the most pertinent is the disclosure that the movement was destined to be transformed into a political party - before Ettridge had even met with any of the movement's committee or members!
Page Three
(McLean letter)
Page Four
(McLean letter)
The mystery is how Ettridge gained access to the PHSM financial records when he had, apparently, no right to them in January 1997, and certainly no right to write letters on behalf of the PHSM committee or its membership at the time the McLean letter was written. Ettridge was only elected as a Vice-President of PHSM in March 1997 two months after his secretary submitted the "Associated Entity Annual Return" from PHSMs financial records. The PHSM committee only met Ettridge after a stormy meeting in early February 1997 at Whiteside's home as reported by him in this brief history of the Pauline Hanson Support Movement. This was several weeks after Ettridge's secretary, McClean, had written the letter seen in links page three and four above.
Through the subsequent take-over of PHSM Ettridge was able to avail of some $12,000 in funds (according to Whiteside) and gain access to the movements mailing list. PHSM funds were used to fund the launch of One Nation.
It is largely due to the mix-up with the Pauline Hanson Support Movement from the start that One Nation in Queensland is now facing deregistration. The person in the firing line because of this is, quite clearly, Pauline Hanson.
I will let you draw your own conclusions but there appears to me to be a clear, pre-meditated and highly irregular plan to take over the PHSM as the vehicle from which to launch One Nation. This would be fine if it has been done in strict accordance with proper conventions and the PHSM membership been approached about the intentions as a matter of principle. They never were. In fact many were "exorcised" by Ettridge in the months that followed for daring to question what had happened. Is this the "democracy" that Ettridge keeps alluding to? The example outlined above seems to demonstrate the manner in which corners have been cut and the methodology used in the past by One Nation's National Director, David Ettridge.
Now I could have put my head in the sand and said "So what?" but if these tactics have been employed in the past what tactics and business principles are being practised by Manly office today?
In a split vote "white ant" Balson was banned from attending One Nation meetings in New South Wales by the state executive on Saturday.
Both David Ettridge and David Oldfield attended the meeting.
