Hanson plays down comeback

Pauline Hanson's appeal was upheld and her conviction quashed

Australian right-wing politician Pauline Hanson has said she has ruled out a political comeback, after her electoral fraud conviction was quashed.

Ms Hanson, founder of the anti-immigration One Nation party, had seen a surge of public sympathy since she was jailed in August.

But on Friday, a day after being freed, she appeared to dismiss any comeback.

"The last three elections... I've got a kick in the guts, I couldn't go through it again," she said.

But some analysts were unsure she would stay out of politics.

A former adviser, David Oldfield, said she would not be able to resist standing for office now that she had been cleared.

"She won't be able to stay away from politics, it'll happen sooner or later," he said.

Ms Hanson's appeal was upheld unanimously on Thursday by three judges on the Queensland Court of Appeal.

This red-haired, hard-edged, twice-divorced mother of four shook the political establishment Profile of Pauline Hanson

They said her conviction was unsafe.

Ms Hanson's supporters are now demanding a national inquiry into her treatment by the authorities.

"There are questions to be asked at state and federal level about Pauline's investigation, prosecution and incarceration," said Bill Flynn, One Nation leader in the Queensland state parliament.

The party's co-founder, David Ettridge, has also seen his conviction quashed.

Immigration

Ms Hanson had been found guilty of fraudulently registering her One Nation party in the Australian state of Queensland.

Prosecutors said that she had used the names of supporters as genuine members of her party in order to qualify for electoral $300,000 in electoral funding.

She and David Ettridge each spent 78 nights in jail.

Pauline Hanson was a former fish-and-chip shop owner who burst onto Australia's political scene in 1996 when she won a seat as an independent in the federal parliament on a platform opposing immigration and what she saw as handouts to aborigines.

A year later she set up One Nation, along with David Ettridge.

Their party won almost 25% of votes in a state election in 1998, but after that support began to fade, and Ms Hanson lost her own seat in a federal vote in the same year.

Internal rivalries began to pull One Nation apart and Ms Hanson left the party last year to concentrate on her legal difficulties.