Pauline Hanson insists One Nation isn't split after senator Brian Burston breaks ranks on company tax cuts
Updated
One Nation's senators are further divided, with Brian Burston telling the Government he will vote for company tax cuts that Pauline Hanson says she will block.
Key points:
- One Nation Senator Brian Burston splits with his two colleagues over company tax cuts
- One Nation's leader Pauline Hanson insists she consulted him and he agreed on the party's move to block the cuts
- Senator Burston's vote will not be enough for the multi-billion dollar corporate tax package to pass
Last week Senator Hanson dumped Senator Burston as One Nation whip, but he insisted he had no intention of quitting the party.
But he has now told the Government he will vote for the company tax changes which are opposed by Senator Hanson, who initially struck a deal with the Governmenr to support them.
Senator Burston told The Australian he had decided to honour the original deal and had been blindsided by Senator Hanson's decision to oppose the cuts.
Senator Burston's decision to support the company tax cuts is not enough for the Government to pass the multi-billion-dollar plan.
But Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said he would keep working with all crossbenchers to try to get their support.
"We welcome Senator Burston's decision to vote with us on those tax reforms," Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck said.
Senator Hanson said she and the only other One Nation senator, Peter Georgiou, would not reverse their position.
"We are still standing strong against the Government's plan to bring in the Government's corporate tax cuts," she said.
And she insisted she consulted her colleague before backflipping on her initial support.
"I have a record on my phone, I had a nine-minute conversation with Brian Burston Monday morning."
She said Senator Burston had agreed One Nation should pull its support for cutting tax for medium and large companies.
She said she has not spoken to her senator since then.
"I know he has not been well, I have actually tried to make contact with him to sit down and talk to him but because of our schedules we have not been able to," Senator Hanson said.
She gave no guarantee Senator Burston would keep his place on the One Nation Senate ticket at the next election.
"It is a pre-selection process that is yet to be finalised," she said.
Senator Hanson insisted One Nation senators were expected to vote together on issues like corporate tax cuts.
"One Nation is not a loose alliance, we are a party and we will form as a bloc," she said.
Despite Senator Burston telling the Government he would vote for the tax cuts and Senator Hanson insisting she would not back them, she would not accept the party was split.
"We are united in our vote with this," she told reporters.
Senator Hanson then walked off, but her colleague Peter Georgiou did not know she had gone and continued to answer reporters' questions until her absence was pointed out to her.
"Actually I did not realise she walked away so I think I will be walking away too, now," he said.
Topics: government-and-politics, political-parties, federal-parliament, tax, one-nation, australia
First posted
