Here’s a tip for One Nation leader Pauline Hanson: If you don’t want a man’s past conviction for rape to be “dragged out” again, then don’t tempt the media by rehiring the guy back into your office.
Hanson told Sky News on Sunday she has now sacked Sean Black, the man at the centre of rising concerns about female safety in parliament as well as One Nation’s legitimacy on issues like domestic and family violence.
But she blames “gutter politics” for having to do so, with further reports of Black’s employment at One Nation being shared widely in recent weeks, including by News Corp publications and a number of Liberal MPs raising concerns.
Black was convicted of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault occasioning bodily harm of a woman in 2018, and served two years of a five-year jail sentence. He has been working in One Nation’s head office in Brisbane since he was re-hired by the party shortly after he was released from prison in 2020. His role was believed to include advising state and federal candidates.
Hanson called out the actions of Liberal MPs, including James Paterson and Garth Hamilton, for daring to raise questions about Black being re-employed at One Nation headquarters. Paterson said it’s hard to take One Nation seriously on issues like crime and domestic violence, given Black’s reemployment with the party. “They have a pretence of being a serious political party, and they are employing a convicted rapist to work for them,” he said.
Hamilton said that if the convicted rapist enters the parliamentary building, all MPs should be informed.
He wrote to the Senate President, Sue Lines, and the House of Representatives Speaker, Milton Dick, regarding safety.
“I have women employed in my office who regularly attend parliament,” Hamilton wrote, according to the letter cited by The Australian.
“I often have my children, including my teenage daughter, accompany me, and there are a large number of women and vulnerable people working in the building at any given time. I am concerned for their safety.”
To be clear, Hanson said she doesn’t “condone this sort of behaviour whatsoever and what happened” (that is, Black raping and assaulting a woman).
But she said she “had no concerns raised by the other female staff, no concerns by me whatsoever. He’s worked there for three years, he’s done a great job and done it very well. But this is political.”
Hanson added that Black has “done his time”.
“He was trying to get on with his life, with his wife and his two small boys to provide for them. What now? What happens? On the scrap heap? Or should we impose the death penalty for anyone who’s committed a crime? Because that’s what you’ve given this man, the death penalty, because it’s going to be very, very hard for him.”
Hanson has previously called for Lebanese men who rape women to be publicly whipped.
Last month, as One Nation secured more than one-fifth of the lower house primary vote at the South Australian election, the party’s state leader, Cory Bernardi, said there was a “moral case” for the party to be the Opposition in South Australia.
Hanson added that she is going to find a great candidate to stand against Garth Hamilton, while declaring that she hopes the MP fights against “any druggies pushing their drugs” in parliament, just as he fought against Black.
“I hope you go after them with the gusto that you have with this innocent man. Well, he’s not innocent. He did his time… I’m just so upset by this.”