Hanson scoffs at Albanese’s scepticism of One Nation fundraising, releases audit

Pauline Hanson has weaponised the prime minister’s scepticism of her fundraising success to accuse Anthony Albanese of lying again as she released an audit that said the money brought in by her attack campaign was legitimate.

The One Nation leader posted the report to social media on Thursday night, taking aim at the prime minister for suggesting there was no evidence the massive sums raised through her Fire the Liar fundraiser, which on Friday morning had rocketed to almost $3 million in donations, were real.

Hanson said the audit “proves the site and money is ridgy didge”, scoffing at suggestions the donations were illegitimate and challenging the prime minister to demonstrate his own fundraising success.

“Why would I call out the liar, fire the liar, then go and do something like that myself? It would destroy me,” she said on Thursday during a campaign-style national tour of One Nation fundraisers. She flew to Melbourne on Friday morning after sold-out events in Western Australia.

Independent contractor and software engineer Daryl Monnink said a review of the website’s data and consultation with the donation code engineer had shown all payments were verified, and the progress bar displayed on the website was accurate.

“I am satisfied that the fundraising total calculation currently includes only successfully received and validated donation payments,” Monnink wrote in his audit, which was an informal review of the website commissioned by the party, as opposed to official declarations made to the electoral commission.

One Nation senator Sean Bell said on Friday that his party had been “quite excited” to hear Albanese’s barb because they knew tens of thousands of people had donated to the fundraiser.

“What occurred yesterday was a prime minister in denial. He was clearly rattled when he was asked about this, and he questioned the veracity. He’s sort of fallen back on conspiracy theories,” Bell told Sky News.

“We hired an independent auditor just to verify those claims because they are real, and the people who donated are real, and they’re mad. They’re mad at a terrible government, a bad prime minister.”

Australian Labor Party president Wayne Swan remained unconvinced, telling Nine’s Today show he doubted the success of the fundraiser because Labor had not raised similar sums.

Asked how much his own party’s social media campaign – which appealed for donations to stop the rise of One Nation and spurred Hanson to launch her own fundraiser in retaliation – had made, Swan said: “I haven’t the faintest idea, but I can tell you it won’t be $2 million, and I doubt very much whether One Nation has raised $2 million.”

Swan labelled the campaign a “complete farce” and accused the minor party of using it to portray donations from wealthy sponsors as grassroots support.

“That’s a complete smoke screen to cover up the fact that they’re getting huge donations from the top end of town,” Swan said.

“One Nation are the billionaires’ party. They’re pretending they’re running small donations, and they’re running money from Gina Rinehart and many other wealthy individuals.”

The details of the millions in donations will not be made public until the Australian Electoral Commission publishes its declaration data on February 1. Even then, donations of less than $17,300 will remain anonymous. That threshold will be lowered to $5000 next year as part of an overhaul of laws that will also cap donors giving more than $50,000 to a party.

Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie said Albanese had scored “a huge own goal”.

“He sought to raise funds against his political opponents by trying to put them down, and they returned fire. And it turns out Australians don’t like the Labor Party’s budget,” the Nationals senator told Sky News on Friday.

Labor frontbencher Mark Butler sought to downplay the significance of the One Nation fundraiser and turn it into an attack, casting the minor party’s surge in popularity as a reshaping of conservative politics in Australia.

“These online fundraising campaigns are pretty common, and this will probably pale in comparison to the money that One Nation receives from a billionaire like Gina Reinhart,” Butler told Seven’s Sunrise.

Appearing alongside Butler was deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume, who, after accusing Butler of being rattled by One Nation, deviated from the party line and ruled out a preference deal with the minor party.

Asked whether the Coalition would preference One Nation – a prospect entertained by party leader Angus Taylor and president Tony Abbott earlier this week – Hume said: “No, that’s not on the cards.”

Asked about Abbott’s openness to the proposal, Hume said: “Angus Taylor said yesterday, we are not carving up seats, we are not talking about preferences.”

Taylor on Thursday ruled out seat-sharing with One Nation after frontbencher Tony Pasin suggested that the parties make a deal so they would not run against each other in the same electorate, making it difficult for the Coalition to govern in its own right.

But asked about preferences on Tuesday, Taylor said he would “work with others to get rid of this rotten Labor government”.