Pauline Hanson remains in damage control after she appeared to suggest on a hidden camera that the Port Arthur massacre was an inside job.
Asked plainly on The Bolt Report last night who was responsible for the 1996 tragedy, the One Nation leader said: “Martin Bryant. I have no doubt about that whatsoever.”
But when pressed further about why she spoke of “precision shots” and alluded to conspiracy theories in the hidden footage, Ms Hanson appeared to reiterate her suggestion in the footage that the Port Arthur massacre was not what it seemed, pointing to a conspiracy book she read on the subject.
“The whole fact is that people were angry about their heirlooms — their guns — being taken away from them. People were telling me their own stories and had their own conspiracy theories,” she told host Andrew Bolt. “I had the book sent to me. It was years later that I actually read that book, and thought well, I want to know about Port Arthur, so I read the book. The precision shots, and the MP, that was all in the book.”
“But precision shots? There were no precision shots,” replied Bolt. “Martin Bryant walked up to people laying there and shot them in the head. That’s not a precision shot.”
Ms Hanson then echoed one of the main conspiracy theories again, responding: “I saw some pictures of him also, that he was standing … it’s only what I saw and what I remember at the time, there were a couple of photos in the book, he wasn’t up close to all these people. It’s what I read in the book Andrew.”
Ms Hanson appears to be referring to a theory among Port Arthur “truthers” that the killer was a trained professional who was employed to commit the massacre as an excuse to change the nation’s gun laws.
Several Port Arthur “truther” websites and articles have claimed that Bryant — who was intellectually disabled and had an IQ lower than most 11-year-olds — couldn’t have killed 35 people from a distance with no firearms experience.
When Bolt said the name and author of the suspected book and asked Ms Hanson to clarify if it was the same one, she only said: “It was a blue book. It wasn’t real thick.”
Asked how Al Jazeera undercover reporter Rodger Muller managed to dupe her and her party members, Ms Hanson said she was “gobsmacked”.
“Even people that knew Muller believed he was involved with a gun rights associate,” she said. “How can this man be around for three years purporting to be something he’s not?
“I apologise to the Australian people if they feel I’ve let them down, but I’m telling you I haven’t. My interest is in the Australian people and I always try to be upfront and honest.”
Before this interview, Ms Hanson gave a press conference responding to the damning documentary, claiming her staffers James Ashby and Steve Dickson were “stitched up” by a “foreign agent”.
She said the comments captured on camera by Al Jazeera had been taken “completely out of context”, called Al Jazeera an “Islamist” organisation and claimed the Qatari government was involved.
“This is Australia’s first case of severe political interference from a foreign government,” Ms Hanson said.
“Qatar is a government that enforces sharia law, public floggings, genital mutilation and suppression of women.
“This is a political attack by Al Jazeera, in co-operation with the ABC.”
She also confirmed Mr Dickson and Mr Ashby would remain in her party, adding that One Nation would “never” accept foreign donations.
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