Contradictory claims over One Nation role raise vetting questions
A Queensland man who has defended the Hitler Youth organisation and used offensive and racist language about Aboriginal people, migrants and Muslims has sparked fresh scrutiny of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party.
John Drew claims he is working as policy development officer for the party’s Ryan branch in Brisbane, despite the party’s strong denials and its introduction of new vetting measures to prevent extremist infiltration.
John Drew’s Facebook header
Drew, a former One Nation candidate, told Guardian Australia that he has been a party branch official in Brisbane since late last year. On Monday he confirmed he holds the role of policy development officer with the Ryan branch, though he declined to say whether the position was elected or appointed.
He has a long association with the party, saying he has supported Hanson and her policies since the 1990s and previously claimed he was kicked out of One Nation more than 20 years ago for being too radical.
His Facebook account describes him as a radical activist with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. In March he posted that he was proud to be a One Nation branch official. Last December he claimed his position was recruitment secretary of his local party branch.
These assertions directly contradict One Nation’s position. The party did not respond to initial questions from Guardian Australia but stated after the report’s publication that Drew has never been a One Nation party official in any capacity, nor has he ever held a branch committee position.
John Drew (photo: Facebook)
Drew’s recent activities extend beyond social media claims. He attended a function linked to the Lilley branch with Senator Pauline Hanson in October. He volunteered for the 2024 Queensland state election campaign of Richard Henderson, Hanson’s media adviser and the party’s unsuccessful candidate for South Brisbane. Drew said he handed out how to vote cards for Henderson in West End and Highgate Hill.
More recently, on 3 June he was advising on the party’s processing of membership applications. Last week he gave an update on merchandise sales. He has also discussed the popularity of his branch, saying it had more than 200 members and might need to be divided into two separate branches.
The situation highlights potential weaknesses in One Nation’s screening processes. The party has promoted Operation Obsidian as a sophisticated new vetting tool applied to anyone taking up a party role. It has also spoken of using technology such as ONTRACE for branch executive members and secret methods for character and background checks. Hanson has said the party shut down four branches because of concerns about far right infiltration.
Drew has a documented history with far-right groups. He was previously Queensland secretary of the Australia First party and national coordinator of the Patriotic Youth League, which was active in the early 2000s and had links to a US neo-Nazi organisation.
His social media posts include repeated deeply offensive and racist comments. According to Guardian Australia, he described Aboriginal people using terms such as “rapacious bludgers” and “grifters”, “ghastly boongs” and “stone age people”.
He claimed at least fifty percent of Aboriginal people are mentally ill. During the campaign for an Indigenous voice to parliament, he called Olympian Cathy Freeman an “aboriginal flog” and said country people had enough of rapacious aborigines. He also wrote about a film script based on historical events on North Stradbroke Island that would show Aboriginal people being shot and killed.
Drew has praised the former White Australia policy, calling it fabulous and criticising its abandonment in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He has directed racist comments at ethnic minorities, labelling Labor MP Sally Sitou a “sad ethnic lady” and Senator Mehreen Faruqi a “foreign nutter”.
One Nation has faced similar scrutiny before, including over South Australian candidate Tyler Green, whose posts reportedly referred to “Jewish bankster wars” and promoted a Holocaust conspiracy book, and Queensland candidate Gary Williamson, who compared COVID-19 vaccination to the Holocaust according to ABC.
As One Nation experiences a dramatic rise in popularity and expands its national presence, the contradictions between Drew’s detailed claims of involvement and the party’s outright denial raise ongoing questions about the effectiveness of its vetting efforts and branch oversight.
