One Nation Queensland candidate Peter Rogers offers to resign, denies making blog post
Updated
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is yet to decide whether to accept the resignation of a Queensland candidate whose blog contained a post claiming the death of a three-year-old Syrian refugee, along with Tasmania's Port Arthur massacre, were fabricated.
Mr Rogers denies writing the post, and it was deleted along with the entire website on Friday morning.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said Mr Rogers did not make the post and is undecided on whether to accept the resignation, which was emailed in
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Senator Hanson said Mr Rogers was out of the country and "out of his own stupidity he allowed someone to control his website".
"Now that person has put up these comments without Peter's knowledge," Senator Hanson said.
"He has accepted full responsibility.
"He does apologise for those comments, but the fact of the matter is we all make mistakes.
"This will not be trial by media.
"I will make the decision, along with my executives, on whether he will stand in that position or not.
"Sometimes people make wrong decisions, the wrong mistakes, but it doesn't mean you walk away from your mates."
The comments about the Syrian death and the Port Arthur massacre came from an undated article on the far north Queensland candidate's website titled "The drowned boy, the lie that changed the world".
The website said images of Aylan Kurdi's lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach in 2015, amid Europe's migrant crisis, were fabricated and the boy is "alive and well".
The blog also made mention of the Port Arthur massacre.
"The greatest social changes that happen in Australia are founded on total lies and a fabricated incident. Look at Port Arthur," the blog post read.
Shooter Martin Bryant killed 35 people at the popular Port Arthur tourist site in 1996, in the worst mass shooting in Australia's history.
It led to a raft of strict gun reforms and a national buyback scheme from then prime minister John Howard.
Senator Hanson said she was only made aware of the post in the past 24 hours, but said their content was not accurate.
Topics: one-nation, political-parties, government-and-politics, pauline-hanson, social-media, qld
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