Hanson says she sacked One Nation aide, leaked text says he resigned

One Nation's general manager Kelvin Morton sent a text to staff in April saying Black made the decision himself, according to the message obtained by this masthead. "Just letting you know that Sean Black resigned today. He felt his personal circumstances were becoming a big distraction and leaving would be in the best interests of the party and its members," Morton wrote. He asked staff to act magnanimously when Black returned for handover sessions.

Hanson defended Black when asked about his sacking in June, arguing he had "paid his time" behind bars. Blaming the pressure on those trying to "destroy One Nation," she said on the Inside Politics podcast that "it was a decision that I had to make" and that "people were saying to me, Look, you can't keep him, I've got to sack him." On Monday, she told the Australian Financial Review she had "sacked him."

Black served two years and three months of a five-year sentence for raping and assaulting his then-partner in a bathroom in 2007. Months after serving two years of a five-year prison term, he was brought back by Hanson to work with her.

The controversy comes alongside broader allegations of internal dysfunction. Insiders, including Black, whom Hanson recently described as "disgruntled," claimed in a series of stories that top officials aimed to enrich themselves and that party patron Gina Rinehart exerted undue policy influence.

Charles Swindon, a former One Nation operative, said it was common inside the party to dismiss Black's conviction. Swindon said he had heard directly and repeatedly from senior officials, including elected officials though not Hanson, that the allegations against Black were made up or exaggerated, even though a jury found them to be true. "We were told Black himself had decided to leave as Hanson didn't want him to go," Swindon said. Swindon, who ran the party's Farrer byelection campaign, was sacked after raising concerns about Black. He claimed Morton downplayed Black's rape conviction by jokingly describing it as "surprise sex." On Saturday, Morton denied ever joking about or downplaying the conviction, saying in a statement: "Rape is a serious crime and not a subject for humour."

One Nation did not respond to a request for comment. This masthead is not suggesting Hanson lied, only that the text and Swindon's statement contradict the way Hanson has described the matter.

Labor minister Murray Watt said the reports "show that One Nation is not up to governing this country" despite its rapid rise in the polls this year. "We've also seen allegations that the convicted sex offender who supposedly was sacked by One Nation, has retained a paid role as a fundraiser for the One Nation party after we were all told that he was sacked," Watt said in Canberra, adding that the Australian Electoral Commission could probe the matter.

Coalition MP Garth Hamilton echoed the criticism, telling ABC TV the reports revealed the party's inner workings to prospective voters. "It's a great opening so everyone can see inside. This is exactly the sort of chaos that we were told they'd put behind them, and in fact it's the same old One Nation."