Ashby running One Nation: dumped candidate

Tracey Ferrier AAP
A dumped One Nation candidate says Pauline Hanson is not in control of her own party, and her controversial chief-of-staff James Ashby is running the show. Shan Ju Lin had been due to contest the seat of Bundamba at the next Queensland election for One Nation, but has been dumped over social media posts she made about gay people. Ms Lin, who is the second candidate to fall out with the party in the month since it unveiled a team of 36 to contest the next state election, says Mr Ashby advised her via a Facebook message that she'd been disendorsed, and she said she'd been unable to speak directly to Ms Hanson.

"I think Pauline gave him too much power, he is the one running the party, not Pauline," she's told the ABC.
"I should have had a chance to speak to Pauline but James Ashby just decided very quickly."
Ms Lin has since used her Facebook account to post messages of encouragement from One Nation supporters who say Mr Ashby is damaging One Nation and must go.
She also posted a link to an article published in The Australian at the weekend, which quotes former One Nation president Ian Nelson describing Mr Ashby as "the anti-Christ of politicians" with an undue amount of influence in the party.

On Monday, Mr Ashby dismissed Ms Lin's claims about party control.
"We know that's not true," he told AAP, declining to comment further.

Ms Lin believes believes Mr Ashby, who is gay, was more concerned about her comments than One Nation's executive.
"I would suggest that the alleged issue was far more important to Mr Ashby than the membership or executive of One Nation," Ms Lin said on Sunday.
She said she would not be apologising for her posts, including that "gays should be treated as patients" and that "abnormal sex behaviour leads to abnormal crime".

The axed candidate doubled down on the comments on Monday, saying gay people should submit to medical consultations to determine if they were "born like that".
"The gay community always say they are born like that, the best way to know if they're born like that, they at least need to have a medical consultation so they know if they're born like that or not," she told the ABC.

One Nation has been riven with division since Ms Hanson returned to the federal parliament last year, including a bitter dispute with West Australian Senator Rod Culleton who quit the party in December.