One Nation candidates David Miller and Dane Sorensen furious over WA Liberal preference deal – ABC Online

Updated February 15, 2017 15:15:55

One Nation candidates in the WA election are threatening to disobey their own party on the controversial preference deal struck with the Liberal Party.

"I feel like I have just received a kick in the fangs by our own party," one candidate said in an email seen by 7.30.

"The party is selling me and the constituents out."

Now some of the party's candidates are openly defying the head office directive and threatening to give their own instructions of directing preferences.

Dane Sorensen and David Miller are two candidates who were prepared to go on the record for 7.30.

When they decided to run for One Nation in Western Australia, they did not expect to become bargaining chips.

But that is what the pair, who come from opposite ends of the political spectrum, believe they have become under the controversial deal between Pauline Hanson's One Nation party and the WA Liberals.

Under the deal, the Liberals will preference One Nation in all but one of the Upper House seats and in return will One Nation will preference the Liberals in all the lower house seats it is contesting.

Mr Sorensen, a former mining executive, and Mr Miller, an electrical fitter and traditional Labor voter, are big supporters of Ms Hanson but are united in their opposition to the backroom deal.

"I wasn't told I found out about it in the Sunday Times and reading social media," Mr Miller, candidate for the seat of Collie-Preston, told 7.30.

"How it looks to me, [the deal] is to get people into the Upper House at the expense of people in the Lower House.

"[I'm] less than impressed."

Mr Sorensen, who is running in the seat of North West Central, says they should have been consulted.

"People are perceiving that One Nation are purely trying to get the Liberal Party re-elected and that's not what I joined the party for and it's certainly not what I stand for," he said.

A big point of contention for the Lower House One Nation candidates who are opposed to the deal is the fact that they are funding their own campaigns.

Mr Sorensen estimates his will cost up to $15,000. It's understood the party has agreed to refund 75 per cent of advertising costs after the election.

"I don't mind funding my own campaign as long as I'm not being dictated to as to how I will proceed with that campaign," he said.

"Why would we preference, on a blanket basis, the party that has done an abysmal job of running the state?"

In an email to other disgruntled One Nation candidates, Mr Sorensen said the One Nation party had provided total disorganisation and stupid directives.

"We, the scum, are just cannon fodder. To say I'm not impressed, is an understatement," he said.

"It amazes me that this 'party' expects us to all fund our own campaigns and then find out that they are manipulating us behind the scenes."

Mr Sorensen then goes on to advise the other candidates to do their own "how to vote" cards, a sentiment endorsed by Mr Miller.

"This deal is shambolic," he told other One Nation candidates in an email.

"I, for one, will decide who I preference."

Forty-five candidates are running for One Nation at the March 11 poll.

The WA One Nation leader, Colin Tincknell, declined to be interviewed by 7.30 but in an email he said that the how to vote card is only a recommendation and that the One Nation has always encouraged voters to make up their minds on preferences.

Topics: government-and-politics, elections, state-parliament, one-nation, states-and-territories, bullying, wa

First posted February 15, 2017 13:31:04

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One Nation candidates David Miller and Dane Sorensen furious over WA Liberal preference deal - ABC Online