A One Nation staffer in her 60s was left with a broken rib after she was allegedly punched and spat on while running the party's stall at the Ekka in Brisbane, One Nation chief of staff James Ashby says.
The woman, who One Nation says is a grandmother, was wearing One Nation branded clothing at the Brisbane Showgrounds at Bowen Hills when she was allegedly confronted by four people.
"There were three females and one male involved in the attack," a One Nation spokesperson said. "It was the male who reportedly grabbed her and swung her around and punched her."
The spokesperson said one of the women spat on the staffer, and Ashby said she was sworn at as well. Queensland Police say they're aware of an altercation at the showgrounds.
James Ashby says the staffer had to strip in front of police so her injuries could be photographed
Ashby, chief of staff to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, told 4BC on Monday that the woman was taken to hospital.
"She now has one broken rib, she's got enormous bruising, and she's had to go through the unedifying process of having to strip down in front of police so that they can take photographs of her injuries," he said.
Ashby said the woman was discharged from hospital over the weekend.
A One Nation spokesperson said the staffer had been with the party a long time. "We're completely appalled," the spokesperson said. "No one warrants being assaulted just because of who they work for, the political party that they support. It's got our whole staff very rattled."
Barnaby Joyce ties the alleged attack to the students who walked out on Pauline Hanson
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce raised the incident on 2GB's Ben Fordham Live on Monday and connected it to the school and university walkouts held against Hanson the week before.
"She was wearing a One Nation T-shirt... She was spat at, punched, they broke a rib," Joyce told Fordham.
"This is the wondrous, enlightened people like you saw at those demonstrations the other day. The peace-loving people. The reason they do that is they absolutely hate One Nation; they had chants the other day that they wanted to murder Pauline Hanson."
The walkouts Joyce is referring to were called by the National Union of Students for Thursday 13 August across eight cities. One News reported that Socialist Alternative organised the campaign, that none of the six speakers at the Sydney rally were school students, and that at the Melbourne walkout adult marshals in hi vis vests and keffiyehs controlled crowd and media access while a masked protester snatched a reporter's microphone during a live cross.
Police haven't linked any protester to the alleged assault at the showgrounds, and no charges have been laid over it. Ashby said the party has changed how its staff dress outside work as a result of the alleged attack.
"We've had to take the same precautionary effort that obviously the defence force have taken because of threats against their personnel outside of work hours," he said.
"Our people are not allowed to wear uniforms anymore outside of their work conditions."
Riot police and the mounted branch escorted Pauline Hanson into a Hawthorn pub this month
One Nation has needed a police presence at its own events through the Victorian campaign. Victoria Police sent Public Order Response officers, the state's riot squad, and the mounted branch to the Tower Hotel in Hawthorn earlier this month so the party could hold its campaign launch, closing the streets around the pub. As many as 100 protesters turned up, and a dozen or so got past the police blockade to reach the One Nation supporters queueing to get in. Hanson walked in behind the police line.
At a One Nation fundraiser in Melbourne, footage broadcast by News24 showed masked protesters holding a banner reading "DEATH TO ONE NATION" outside the venue, and police arrested and removed one man. The restaurant originally booked for the dinner cancelled it on the day, telling customers in a window sign that the decision was made "due to the safety of our community". Victoria Police said the cancellation was the venue's own decision and that they were aware of no threats against it.
At the Melbourne walkout on 13 August, a protester snatched News24 reporter Georgie Dickerson's microphone out of her hands during a live cross and ran. No police officer was in frame, and a private security team working for Rebel News chased the protester down and recovered the equipment.
James Ashby warned a Cabinet Minister in May that it only takes one crazy person
Ashby has been putting the party's security concerns to the federal government since well before the Ekka. In correspondence reported by The Nightly, he wrote to a Cabinet Minister in early May warning that "it only takes one crazy person" to physically harm the One Nation leader, and pressed for her Australian Federal Police protection to be upgraded.
The Nightly reported that a man carrying several knives was later detained by police outside Hanson's hotel in Albury, on the eve of the Farrer poll that One Nation won on 9 May.
Hanson's daughter Lee Hanson, One Nation's Senate candidate in Tasmania, has since gone public over the threats, saying they now reach three generations of the family and that she and her own children have received death threats as well. She's called on the Albanese government to lift the protection around her mother.
One Nation says two Victorian candidates have quit over safety before the November election
One Nation is running 76 candidates at the Victorian state election in November, a field it unveiled this month alongside its Victorian team, and the spokesperson said two of them are no longer standing.
"We've seen some threats to kill people or harm people at those protests," the One Nation spokesperson said. "Two female candidates that we had lined up to run in the Victorian state election have pulled out because of safety concerns; they don't want their lives being threatened or at risk."
One News reported earlier this month on the Hawthorn protest that drew riot police to a One Nation campaign event in Melbourne.
"This is Australia. We don't resolve political differences with violence, that's not what happens in this country," the spokesperson said.
Queensland Police say no formal complaint has been made about the Ekka incident
"Police are aware of an altercation at Brisbane Showgrounds, Bowen Hills on 14 August," a police spokesperson said. "No formal complaints have been made to police at this stage."
The date police have given is a Friday, while One Nation and reporting of the incident have placed it on the Thursday, 13 August, which was the day of the national walkouts.
