One Nation has until August 18 to produce three years of audited accounts or lose its Queensland legal status
Queensland's Office of Fair Trading says the party's founding division lodged three years of annual returns without the audited statements the law requires.
One Nation's Queensland division has until August 18 to produce three years of audited financial statements or face losing its legal status.
Queensland's Office of Fair Trading asked the party for annual returns covering 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 after all three fell overdue.
One Nation lodged them.
The audited statements required under the Associations Incorporation Act 1981 were not attached.
A spokesman for the office said the returns “did not include the audited financial statements as required”.
If the deadline passes, the office moves to enforcement — an infringement notice, or a show cause motion demanding the division explain why its legal status should not be cancelled.
Pauline Hanson is president of the Queensland division.
Compliance is her responsibility.
A One Nation spokesman told The Australian in June the delay was an oversight caused by high staff turnover at the party's head office.
The last time One Nation's standing in Queensland was in question, Hanson went to jail.
In August 2003 she and co-founder David Ettridge were convicted of fraudulently registering the party in Queensland and each sentenced to three years without parole.
The party had already lost its state registration, and the Electoral Commissioner had moved to make the pair personally liable for nearly $500,000 in public election funding.
Hanson served 11 weeks.
On November 6, 2003 the Queensland Court of Appeal quashed every conviction and entered verdicts of acquittal, finding the people on the disputed membership list had filled in the forms, paid the fees and been issued cards.
She has called it a political witch-hunt ever since.
A 2004 Crime and Misconduct Commission inquiry found no evidence of political pressure behind the prosecution.
The difference this time is the charge sheet — there isn't one.
2003 was a criminal prosecution alleging dishonesty. This is a regulator waiting on paperwork, and nobody has alleged anything beyond that.
What has changed is everything around it.
One Nation is at a high-water mark: four senators, two House seats after Barnaby Joyce defected from the Nationals and David Farley won Farrer, and a primary vote that hit 24 per cent in the April Newspoll — three points clear of the Coalition.
On Tuesday Hanson updated her register of interests to confirm Gina Rinehart paid for her July flights to London, Sicily and Rome, along with an invitation to a Dolce & Gabbana show. She said she covered accommodation and meals herself.
A party polling ahead of the Coalition cannot produce three years of accounts for the branch that started it.