Up at 4.30am to get an early start on the anotd and then straight down to breakfast at 7am to meet the One Nation crew.
It is a short walk from the Park Royal hotel to Parliament but, because of all my computer gear, I had to use my car. The One Nation team had gathered in room 512 on the 5th floor. This committee room is a large, ugly looking room with poor lighting.
The morning session was all about team building and looking at the roles that various MPs wanted to play in the shadow cabinet area. Pauline Hanson spoke about her experiences in government and state director, Peter James, spoke about leadership... four people put their hands up as candidates for the parliamentary leader.
Tomorrow afternoon the four will give ten minute presentations on "why they
should be chosen". And NO... I cannot reveal, at this stage, who they are!
We were joined by the ABC's Four Corners programme for much of the day.
Producer Virgina Moncrieff and reporter Tony Jones posed for me in the hallway outside the committee room.
Footage was taken of the work that I do for Pauline Hanson's One Nation on the Internet and will probably be covered when the programme goes to air.
Some of the pictures captured during the day's proceedings can be seen below.
Left to right: David Oldfield and Bill Feldman; Heather Hill and Charles Rapport; Dorothy Pratt and John Kingston; Heather Hill, Ian Petersen and Dorothy Pratt.
Late in the afternoon we had a most welcome guest Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen who gave a most inspiring hour long speech right off the cuff, much of it being covered by the ABC's Four Corners programme.
Joh told me before his speech that Rob Borbidge, the leader of the Nationals should stand down following the defeat of the Coalition.
"I don't know what Rob Borbidge's attitude is, but people don't like losers. Rob has done a good job in many ways, but I think he's missed the point in a number of others.
"I'm only interested in Queensland... and the lection result has given everybody a shock and pulled everybody up with a jerk that there must be something very, very wrong," Sir Joh said.
"I'm a National member, a life member, and so I won't be joining the One Nation party," he said. "But I think we, all of us... we take a stand... and we outline what we think is good for Queensland and the way we ought to go, the way we ought to operate as a unit, with loyalty to one another.
"When you don't have loyalty or unity, then everything falls apart as it did in my days when the National Party couldn't wait to push me over the cliff. Then everything fell apart. the wheels came off."
In the last two images of the series below the old and the new member for the state seat of Barambah (Sir Joh and Dorothy Pratt). Lady Flo joins Jo in one of these.
Later in the day there was a fair amount of controversy when we discovered that David Oldfield had invited 60 Minutes to cover a presentation that he was making on "Dealing with the media". The famous 60 Minutes letter sent by Executive Producer John Westacott to David Ettridge in 1997 came to mind when Oldfield showed me a similar undertaking by 60 Minutes in securing this coverage.
The letter promised "not to ambush David Oldfield" (who was to be the focus of the segment).
I can tell you now Pauline Hanson looked less than a little amused.
Here are two of the Sixty Minute team. Alan (somebody) doing some weird pre-recording exercise routine and, of course, Paul Lyneham trying to hide behind Ken Turner's white beard...
The One Nation MPs returned to the Park Royal hotel at about 6.30pm and an
hour later we all left for dinner at the
Travel
Lodge near the Brisbane Transit Centre.
Ian Petersen and his wife (right) joined me and Viv in our room for a glass of the good stuff before we met up with the rest of the group in the lobby of the Park Royal hotel.
Before leaving I caught the following One Nation celebrities off guard...
Left to right: Heather and Ken Hill; "Secret Women's Business" - Mrs Petersen, Heather Hill and Pauline Hanson; and Pauline Hanson with David Ettridge.
What a surprise when we arrived at the Travel Lodge! As my wife was later
to call it "Sitting out like a pimple on a bum" was the ex-National MP for
Barambah, trevor Perrett, (displaced by Dorothy Pratt) enjoying an intimate
meal with a lady young enough to be his daughter and then some.
Your roving reporter never shy to ask the question caught Trevor and his lady friend at a moment forever frozen in cyberspace!
Below are some group shots taken at the Travel Lodge diner the "Beef and Grill".
Early to bed at 10pm so that I could get the story and pictures up for the net this morning, Sunday 28th June 1998
Return to One Nation Queensland state MPs gather in Brisbane - June 1998
