Pauline Hanson

Pauline Hanson married twice and both the marriages ended in a divorce. She ran away from home at the age of 15 and married Walter Zagorski. They had two boys, Tony and Steven. This marriage ended when she was 21 years old.

Her second marriage was to a tradesman named Mark Hanson. They had two children, Adam and Lee. This marriage too ended in divorce.

She and fellow politician David Ettridge found themselves in the midst of a serious criminal investigation on grounds of an electoral fraud in 2003. They were found guilty and sentenced to three years in maximum security prison. However, they were released after 11 weeks.

Pauline Hanson was born on May 27, 1954 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and has six siblings. Her parents owned a fish and chip shop, where all the children worked.

She dropped out of school when she was 15 and also left her home to work in a variety of unskilled clerical and service jobs. In 1978, she started a plumbing and roofing business and finally opened a fish and chips shop in Ipswich in 1987.

Pauline entered politics in 1994 and was elected as the councillor of the City of Ipswich till 1995, when certain administrative changes demanded early elections. She narrowly lost the re-election.

In 1996, she joined the Liberal Party of Australia and was the Liberal candidate for the House of Representatives from Oxley for the federal elections. The party disendorsed her shortly and after winning, she entered the parliament as an independent candidate.

In her maiden speech, she stressed on the issues of race and immigration. She said that other races and cultures are taking over Australia, and are giving nothing back in return. She felt that the lenient immigration laws meant much lesser jobs for Australian nationals.

In April 1997, she co-founded the 'One Nation' political party with senior advisor David Oldfield and professional fundraiser David Ettridge. The party called for zero net immigration and a review of the 1967 constitutional referendum.

The party believed that as the real Australian culture was being diminished, it was time to stop multiculturalism, abolish special Aboriginal funding and native title, and ban foreigners from owning Australian lands.