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James Hunter Ashby (born 1979) is an Australian political advisor and former radio presenter. In 2012, he made allegations of sexual harassment against the former Speaker of the House, Peter Slipper, triggering a political scandal.[1] He is currently the chief of staff for Pauline Hanson, the leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation political party,[2] and the state leader of One Nation Queensland.[3] He led the party in the 2024 Queensland state election.
James Ashby | |
|---|---|
| Leader of One Nation – Queensland | |
| Assumed office 20 September 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Steve Dickson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Hunter Ashby 1979 (age 44–45) Nambour, Queensland, Australia |
| Political party |
|
| Residence(s) | Yeppoon, Queensland |
| Occupation |
|
Prior to being involved in politics, Ashby was a radio presenter, working for commercial radio stations in Roma, Gympie, Sunshine Coast, Rockhampton, Newcastle and Townsville.
He began his career at a community station at Buderim on the Sunshine Coast, before moving to commercial radio. Ashby worked at a commercial radio station in Roma before quitting after six weeks due to the hot weather. He then worked in Gympie and on the Sunshine Coast before moving to Rockhampton.
During 1999 and 2000, he co-hosted the breakfast program on local AM radio station 4RO. In April 2000, Ashby's co-host Olivia Scott became embroiled in controversy when she read a mock apology to the Stolen Generations on air, which was sent in by a listener. Scott was suspended and the station was found to have breached its licence conditions as the content racially vilified Aboriginal Australians. Scott was suspended during the investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Authority and when she was reinstated, she was required to read an on-air apology. Ashby has said that watching Scott endure the media attention associated with the controversy without being able to help her was the lowest point of his radio career.
While he was in Rockhampton, RG Capital, the owners of 4RO were issued with a new FM licence enabling the company to establish a Sea FM station for the area to provide listeners with an FM alternative to 4RO. Ashby was tasked with helping set up the station, and became the new station's first announcer in October 2000, co-hosting the breakfast show with Joanne Spargo. He remained with Sea FM in Rockhampton until October 2001 when he was dismissed by station management. Reasons for his departure remain unclear but local media reported at the time that Ashby was considering taking legal action against the station following his dismissal. Ashby has since admitted he left Sea FM on bad terms, and was told that he would never work in radio again.[4]
After leaving Rockhampton, he worked at Triple M in Brisbane for six months before moving to Newcastle where he was a drive announcer on NXFM. In October 2002, Ashby resigned from NXFM after he was charged with verbally harassing another radio presenter at rival station, NEW FM. It was alleged that Ashby made four offensive phone calls. Ashby said he received a $2060 fine and a three-year good behaviour bond as punishment.[5][6]
He moved to North Queensland in January 2004, he continued his radio work, beginning work for DMG Regional Radio, doing various on air shifts at Townsville radio stations 4TO FM and Hot FM.[7]
Before becoming media advisor for Peter Slipper, Ashby was employed as marketing manager for Gowinta Farms on the Sunshine Coast. In May 2011, Ashby appeared in media coverage, after an attempted poisoning of the crops on the farm, after poison was discovered in a water tank.[8][9]
Media advisor
Ashby rose to prominence when he made allegations that he was sexually harassed by federal MP Peter Slipper. In 2012, Ashby alleged that while working as Slipper's media advisor, he was the victim of sexual harassment which consisted of unwanted sexual advances, hundreds of suggestive text messages and a request to shower with the door open at a Canberra unit.[10]
In December 2012, the Federal Court dismissed the allegations.[11] However, in February 2014, Ashby won an appeal against the decision to dismiss the case.[12][13] Then, in June 2014, Ashby decided to drop the lawsuit entirely less than two weeks before it was due to commence. At the time, Slipper said he viewed Ashby's decision to withdraw the opportunity to have the allegations tested in court as being vindication against any wrongdoing.[14] Several months later, Ashby said in a television interview that he had been promised a job and legal funding by Slipper's former party colleague Christopher Pyne, after telling him of the sexual harassment.[15][16]
In 2015, the Australian Federal Police raided the home of Ashby, and the home of Ashby's parents, during an investigation into allegations that former federal MP Mal Brough illegally obtained copies of diaries belonging to Peter Slipper, ahead of Ashby's sexual harassment case. The search warrants also related to any material associating federal MPs Christopher Pyne and Wyatt Roy, who were both suspected of offering Ashby inducements to complain about Slipper. Following the raids, Ashby agreed to be formally interviewed by police about the allegations of copying diaries belonging to Slipper.[17][18] After the scandal, Ashby retreated to Yeppoon, where he worked as a signwriter and pilot.[19]
When details of Ashby's sexual harassment allegations first became known in 2012, ABC Television's current affairs program 7.30 aired allegations that Ashby had been involved in a relationship with a fifteen-year-old boy in Townsville, Queensland. The program reported that the boy, prompted by media coverage of Ashby's allegations, sent an email to Peter Slipper detailing the relationship he had with Ashby. It also aired contents of a Facebook message that Ashby allegedly sent back to the boy previously, just prior to commencing his role as media advisor. The program also reported that Peter Slipper had encouraged the boy to go to the police, but a few weeks later, Slipper himself wrote to Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson about the allegations, and forwarded on the email and the Facebook message. In a statement, the Queensland Police Service said they were in the process of determining whether any person was wanting to make an official complaint and whether there was enough evidence for prosecution.[20][21]
When his claims drew criticism from politicians, Ashby lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission. His lawyers complained in May 2012 that Senator Bob Carr had tweeted that their client "seems more rehearsed than a kabuki actor", and that Senator Barnaby Joyce told media he was "only slightly less dodgy than Slipper".[22][23]
One Nation (2015–present)
In 2015, Ashby became involved in Pauline Hanson's One Nation political party as media advisor. As Ashby holds a pilot's licence, he also spends time flying Hanson to and from political events and commitments around the country.[19]
In November 2016, the chief of staff for Senator Rod Culleton said that Ashby threw a phone at her after an argument. Hanson said it was an underarm throw and that the incident had been blown out of proportion.[24][25] (In a similar incident years before, Ashby was alleged to have thrown a newspaper reporter's phone.[26]) Also in November, Ashby told journalists not to ask off-topic questions at a press conference held by Senator Malcolm Roberts.[27][28] Former One Nation treasurer, Ian Nelson, has accused Ashby of directing One Nation candidates to use Ashby's printing business for getting campaign materials printed, saying that candidates feared becoming disendorsed if they did not use Ashby's press and that Ashby's rates were "more than the going rate".[29] Following Shan Ju Lin's disendorsement from One Nation, Lin accused Ashby of deciding on Hanson's behalf that Lin should be disendorsed.[30] Hanson has requested that Ashby sit in for her at National Broadband Network committee meetings in April and on other occasions if need be.[31]
In May 2017, an audio recording of Ashby suggesting that One Nation over-inflate prices on campaign material sold to their candidates for financial profit in upcoming state elections was leaked. In response, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull sought advice from the justice minister, Michael Keenan, and the Australian Federal Police while the Labor Party called for a police probe into the matter. Ashby and Hanson denied that the idea had ever been implemented.[32]
In November 2017, Ashby called then One Nation member Stephen Lane, who was an independent candidate for the seat of Thuringowa, and threatened to cancel Lanes's membership if he did not take down a video on his Facebook page explaining to the public that he was a One Nation member but had decided to run for the seat of Thuringowa as an independent because of the lack of transparency in the party. Lane has since received a letter cancelling his membership.[33]
In February 2019, Ashby was involved in a physical altercation with Senator Brian Burston, who had made a sexual harassment claim against Pauline Hanson.[34] The President of the Senate, Scott Ryan, stripped Ashby of his parliamentary pass after the incident, which prohibited Ashby from entering the building until the ban was revoked.[35]
Ashby was appointed One Nation Queensland party leader in September ahead of the 2024 state election.[36] He led the party in the 2024 Queensland state election. He also ran in the seat of Keppel.
2019 One Nation–National Rifle Association scandal
In March 2019, it was revealed that Ashby had been secretly captured on video with Steve Dickson courting the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) seeking funds for Pauline Hanson's One Nation, with the promise to weaken Australia's gun laws if they gained the balance of power in the Australian parliament.[37][38][39] Al Jazeera conducted a three-year long operation to uncover this activity, by having a person called Rodger Muller pose as the head of a fake gun lobby group, Gun Rights Australia, then having Muller record meetings he attended with Ashby and Queensland state leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, Steve Dickson, where strategies to seek support from the National Rifle Association and at least one of their large corporate benefactor were discussed. The footage from these meetings were used to produce an episode for Al Jazeera English, titled How to Sell a Massace.[40] As of 26 March 2019, Al Jazeera said that Part Two would be released shortly. Pauline Hanson and One Nation were criticised for seeking funding from overseas, due to the support the party had given to banning foreign donations to Australian political parties.[41] Although How to Sell a Massacre showed Ashby and Dickson meeting with people that represented the NRA, and openly discussing their plans, the episode did not produce evidence showing that Pauline Hanson's One Nation had received any funding from the NRA or the corporate benefactor approached during the filming.
Speaking to "Rodger Muller", Dickson said that "If they threw ten million dollars at us, we could fucking win a heap of seats. Plus a shitload of seats in the senate. Mate, if you make this shit happen, I'll make sure we open any fucking door you need open." During the meetings with the NRA, Dickson said, "We get the balance of power, very simply that means that we have the testicles of the Government in our hand at every given stage." "If we can get a million dollars fucking U.S. towards social media. I don’t even need the money. I just need the grunt. If we get the grunt of that much social media supporting us, I don't need to touch the money… They [the NRA] are a third party punching this shit in, and we're giving them the stuff that they're punching in - there's the trick - it's experience. I've been a minister in the government. I'm really fortunate because I was on a committee within parliament called the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee. It's bad shit. I'm never going to jail because (Muller interjects, "You've figured it out") because I walk the knife."[37]
During Ashby and Dickson's meeting with the NRA's Public Relations team, Lars Dalseide (NRA Media Liaison), suggests to Dickson tactics to use in the wake of any mass shootings in Australia. In reply to Dalseide's suggested line, "How dare you stand on the graves of those children and put forth your political agenda?" Dickson replies, "I love that." Dalseide: "If your policy isn't good enough to stand on its own, how dare you use their deaths to push that forward?" Ashby: "That's really good. That's really strong."[37]
During the NRA meetings, Dickson expressed anti-Muslim sentiments: "We’ve been importing all these Muslims into Australia. We have about 230,000 people coming in a year. Our population's only 25 million - some really dangerous people. They're just breaking into people's homes with baseball bats and killing people. Basically stealing everything they own. Gangs. Our country is going into chaos." Ashby expressed his views of the Greens Party: "We've got a political party called the Greens. They are fucktards, honestly, they are the worst people. They are Democrats on steroids. Beyond your imagination."[37]
Though both Ashby and Dickson declined Al Jazeera's invitation to comment on the footage, ABC News reported that "In a statement, Mr Ashby has accused Al Jazeera of being 'a state-owned propaganda arm of the Qatari Government that supports Islamic extremist groups and are not a legitimate media organisation. The matter has been referred to ASIO and the Australian Federal Police due to concerns of foreign interference into Australian politics in the lead-up to the imminent federal election. It is understood One Nation was targeted because of its strong approach to reducing immigration numbers and a travel ban on countries with terrorism links. One Nation strongly supports the rights of lawful gun ownership within Australia and have clearly outlined our policy on our website. One Nation members have always complied with the law.'"[38]
A further public statement was made by Ashby and Dickson on 26 March 2019, in which the pair excused themselves on the grounds of being drunk at the time.[42]
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