Ousted duo blame Libs deal

WA’s former One Nation power brokers Ron McLean and Marye Louise Daniels have accused Pauline Hanson and her party of abandoning its supporters and siding with the enemy by doing a preference deal with the WA Liberals.

Mr McLean and Ms Daniels were sacked last month after being restored in December to their former roles as president and secretary of the WA branch of One Nation, in readiness for the March election.

The Newdegate farmers, who Ms Hanson had only months ago described as her most loyal WA supporters, were told to hand over leadership and administrative duties to new party leader Colin Tincknell last month, after just eight weeks in their reappointed roles.

Mr McLean has also been shunted from the party’s No.3 position on its ticket for the Legislative Council’s Agricultural region.

The couple believe Ms Hanson and Mr Tincknell sacked them because of their vocal opposition to the preference deal.

“I told Colin Tincknell the party was out of touch with the electorate by entertaining the deal, after he told me we had to support the Liberals getting returned to power,” he said.

“The widely held view of One Nation members is that Colin Barnett and his government should be turned out to pasture until they learn their errors and correct their ways.”

Mr Tincknell has denied telling Mr McLean and Ms Daniels to support the Liberals.

“I can’t stand the Liberal Party or the Labor Party for that matter, but the facts are that a party without a preference deal will have difficult time getting seats in Parliament,” he said. “Mr McLean and Ms Daniels were not sacked over their views on the preference deal, but rather because their vetting of WA candidates had not turned out very well.”

A source said the couple were gutted, having spent hours interviewing candidates and pouring tens of thousands of dollars of their own money into helping One Nation become a political force in WA.

The couple set up their Kewdale home as the party’s headquarters.