One Nation James Ashby says ‘fishermen will be raped’ in bizarre Queensland election rant

One Nation’s general secretary James Ashby warned Queensland fishermen will be ‘raped and pillaged’ in a bizarre TV interview following the state election.

Mr Ashby delivered the comments after Labor secured a landslide victory and took home the majority of the vote on Saturday night.

Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk has since become the first woman to win three consecutive terms in office.

One Nation suffered a major blow with polling suggesting Pauline Hanson‘s party will take home just 7.4 per cent of the primary vote – down by six per cent from the 2017 election.

A visibly disappointed Mr Ashby told ABC News the party had suffered a ‘bit of a haircut’ and warned regional Queensland residents would suffer the most because of a Labor win.  

‘The bush is missing out and I tell you what, under this Palaszczuk Government they’re going to miss out even worse and it will be the farmers that will suffer and it will be you down in the southeast corner that will suffer most because your fruit and vegetable prices will go through the roof,’ he said.

‘We will be stung significantly.

‘The fishermen out there will absolutely be raped and pillaged and I tell you what, it will be Labor’s fault. You watch, it’s coming. You’ve got four years to suffer this.’

Mr Ashby blamed the poor voter response on newsroom closures in regional Queensland saying it was difficult to spread a campaign message when a number of local newspapers had been closed.

‘I think also something that needs to also be identified here, we have lost in every single regional market across this state, (the) media,’ he said.

‘And I can’t tell you how many local media have just evaporated from these markets.

‘Rockhampton, Gladstone, Mackay, they’ve all lost their newspapers. So people – the only news they’ve had is from Brisbane and that has just been one massive fear campaign.’ 

Mr Ashby went on to accuse Labor of playing into COVID-19 fears to carry them across the finish line.

‘Labor played that card until the end. And I think, too, that the Liberal-National Party certainly didn’t put forward a very good alternative government in this state.’ 

Despite his frustration Mr Ashby believed One Nation had actually made a ‘net zero gain’ in the election.

He referred to One Nation candidate Stephen Andrew secured the seat of Mirani in central Queensland.  

‘He’s a bloke that’s certainly, with obviously a good reputation in that area. He has retained that seat because of the good work he has done.’ 

One Nation leader Ms Hanson was also forced to fiercely defend her campaigning record following the disastrous result. 

Instead of taking to television screens to share her dividing opinion on controversial topics, Senator Hanson opted for a boots-on-the-ground approach.

She trekked across much of the state to visit as many of the 90 seats One Nation has been contesting.

‘I have actually travelled Queensland quite extensively,’ she told Sky.

‘The difference was you have local media that don’t have the people on the ground to cover when I was there, I didn’t have an entourage to follow me around.’

She continued to take aim at media outlets for not giving her attention while she travelled the state, claiming newspapers ‘did not lean toward One Nation’. 

‘We’ve put out press releases and policies we are pushing but they weren’t interested… the public didn’t have any idea,’ she said.

‘They didn’t give us the coverage that I believe that they should have.’