One Nation Has Printed An Army Of Pauline Hanson Cutouts To Replace The Real Thing
Will anyone be able to tell the difference?
During a week in which one of their former advisers has been jailed for rape and assault, and one of their current candidates is embroiled in a debt scandal, One Nation has devised a novel campaign tactic: making an army of life-sized cardboard cutouts of party leader Pauline Hanson.
One Nation has confirmed that with Hanson on a relaxing cruise around Europe during the crucial Super Saturday by-elections, the turning to the next best thing: Cardboard cutouts of Pauline Hanson. (Will anyone be able to tell the difference?)
But what do you do with 50 Pauline Hanson cutouts once the election is run?
“All I would ask is people in every state that might own a storage shed could get in touch with us,” Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby, told Junkee. “We now need to find a home for them. There are too many to store in Brisbane.”
When asked why One Nation printed out all those cutouts, Ashby said it’s what everyone wanted.
“We finally discovered a way to reproduce Pauline, mate,” he said. “The whole country has been waiting for this.”
The life size cardboard cutouts of Pauline Hanson have arrived at the Morayfield pre polling station in Longman @SkyNewsAust pic.twitter.com/Ju7bdhnhZz
— Jackson Williams (@jacksonw____) July 26, 2018
Ashby said that his printing business, Coastal Signs & Printing, did not make the cardboard cutouts.
The stunt comes one day ahead of a Super Saturday of by-elections around the country. While One Nation has little chance of winning the Longman by-election, their preferences could decide whether Labor’s Susan Lamb or the LNP’s Trevor Ruthenberg wins in a too-close-to-call race.
One Nation’s cardboard cutouts could serve to distract from the scandals plaguing their party.
Longman candidate Matthew Stephen is facing accusations he owes tens of thousands in unpaid subcontracting fees for construction projects dating back to 2014. And One Nation adviser Sean Black was yesterday sentenced to five years’ jail the rape and assault of his former wife.
Hanson has also been copping flack for ditching the campaign trail for a cruise ship off the coast of Scotland.
And as it turns out, it likely would have been cheaper for Hanson to just catch a flight back to Longman, rather than print out 50 life-sized cardboard cutouts. Lifesizecutouts.com.au has their custom cardboard goodies at $115 a piece. Even assuming a killer bulk-buy deal on the order of 50, it’s clear the campaign initiative has nothing on the $2,111 ticket on the Etihad Airways flight out of Edinburgh.