<\/p>\n
Pauline Hanson and her chief of staff, James Ashby, flew to Florida on Gina Rinehart\u2019s private jet in October and stayed at the mining magnate\u2019s Palm Beach mansion, close to US President Donald Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort.<\/p>\n
Guardian Australia can reveal the One Nation senator and her staffer travelled with Rinehart on the mining magnate\u2019s Gulfstream 700 on 27 October, with publicly available flight tracking data showing that the aircraft travelled from Brisbane to Perth before flying via Osaka to Palm Beach.<\/p>\n
The trio arrived in the United States on 29 October.<\/p>\n
After Guardian Australia published details of Hanson\u2019s flight, her office lodged an amendment to the Registrar of Senators\u2019 Interests properly declaring the sponsored travel.<\/p>\n
Hanson declared she had received return flights from Hancock Prospecting between Brisbane and Florida, returning to Australia on 11 November and \u201chospitality\u201d from Rinehart. It is understood the pair returned to Australia on commercial flights. One Nation confirmed to Guardian Australia that the hospitality referred to accommodation at Rinehart\u2019s US$66m Palm Beach mansion.<\/p>\n
The party said it submitted what is known as a Form A on December 16 \u2013 some 35 days after the return flight \u2013 but was advised by the registrar the following day that it had been knocked back as it was not administratively correct. The form was correctly lodged as an alteration on 30 October following the Guardian\u2019s report.<\/p>\n
The declaration does not mention Ashby\u2019s sponsored travel. When asked about Rinehart\u2019s possible financial support for the party earlier this month, Ashby told Nine Newspapers<\/a>: \u201cI haven\u2019t seen any money from her.\u201d<\/p>\n While in the US, Rinehart and Hanson attended CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference) where the One Nation leader criticised both of Australia\u2019s major parties<\/a> and praised the Trump administration for deporting immigrants, bombing alleged drug cartel boats and supercharging mining projects.<\/p>\n It is unclear whether the trip was gifted to the One Nation senator from Hancock Prospecting or from Rinehart personally.<\/p>\n Under parliamentary rules for senators\u2019 interests<\/a>, a declaration must be made of any sponsored travel or hospitality received where the value of the sponsorship or hospitality exceeds $300.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/sub><\/a><\/p>\n The rules state that any change in a senator\u2019s interests should be notified to the registrar within 35 days of that alteration occurring.<\/p>\n During the trip, Rinehart and Hanson attended Donald Trump\u2019s Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago<\/a>. It is unclear if Ashby also attended what Hanson described as a \u201clovely\u201d event at the president\u2019s Florida home.<\/p>\n Rinehart is a known supporter of Trump and his policies, having been a member of his US-based female support network, the Trumpettes, since 2016.<\/p>\n She has also invested heavily in US stocks, with a $4.7bn portfolio<\/a> including investments in Trump Media & Technology and the government-backed MP Materials.<\/p>\n It is understood that Hanson also attended a separate party at Rinehart\u2019s Palm Beach mansion, held in support of the conservative lobby group Moms of America.<\/p>\n In a Sky News interview<\/a> with Andrew Bolt on 2 November, the Queensland senator said she had been invited to speak at the CPAC Florida event \u2013 tickets for which cost between $5,000 and $25,000. Hanson and Rinehart were pictured seated next to each other at one of the conference\u2019s events.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be my first speech overseas. I\u2019m very pleased to have been invited to speak at it because I think it\u2019s very well attended,\u201d Hanson told Sky News.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very important to me to be there on behalf of Australians, speaking on behalf of many Australians at this conference.\u201d<\/p>\n Bolt said Hanson\u2019s US visit suggested her success had received \u201cinternational attention\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking about her boost in the recent Newspoll, which showed her picking up about four percentage points in voter support, Hanson said this was due to the major parties failing to commit to policies addressing migration and climate change.<\/p>\n She called for Australia to withdraw from the Paris agreement and criticised the ambition to meet a target of net zero carbon emissions \u2013 views that closely align with those of Rinehart.<\/p>\n \u201cMy concern is for the Australian people, their lifestyle, their standard of living, their way of life. I want to see our country prosper and we cannot do it under net zero.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanson also warned that there was a risk that \u201cwe\u2019re going to lose our biggest \u2026 employer of people in this country and what gives us revenue into the country is the mining sector\u201d.<\/p>\n The private flights for Hanson and Ashby coincided with one of Rinehart\u2019s most senior executives, the former NT chief minister Adam Giles, publicly backing One Nation.<\/p>\n In comments<\/a> made to the Weekly Times, Giles, who heads Rinehart\u2019s agricultural business, said he had donated to One Nation and was \u201cencouraging my friends to be donating all they can \u2026 to support One Nation\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAustralians have been suffering and will increasingly do, under the left-leaning policies of net zero, we have been living under the immigration ponzi scheme trying to hold our economy together without fixing the problems, excess government tape, regulation and taxes and big, wasteful government,\u201d said Giles, who led the Country Liberals from 2013 to 2016.<\/p>\n Rinehart\u2019s longtime friend Barnaby Joyce recently defected to One Nation from the National party.<\/p>\n Hanson and Joyce marked the new alliance by cooking Wagyu steak from Hancock Agriculture\u2019s beef company 2GR on a sandwich press in Hanson\u2019s Parliament House office.<\/p>\n After the landslide defeat of the Liberals under Peter Dutton at the last election, Rinehart suggested the party had not followed Trump\u2019s lead enthusiastically enough, declaring there was a need to return to \u201ccommon sense and truth\u201d.<\/p>\n Her company, Hancock Prospecting, has formerly offered considerable financial support for the Liberal and Nationals. Before the last election, Hancock Prospecting donated $500,000 to the Liberal party.<\/p>\n Under financial disclosure laws governed by the Australian Electoral Commission, Hancock Prospecting or Rinehart personally would be required to declare<\/a> any in-kind financial support provided to the senator or the party if the value exceeded $17,300.<\/p>\n Rinehart has been critical of the Liberal party under Sussan Ley\u2019s leadership , but is also known to oppose the party\u2019s rising conservative warrior Andrew Hastie, given he testified in defamation proceedings against the SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith.<\/p>\n Rinehart has criticised the \u201crelentless attack\u201d on Roberts-Smith, who in 2023 was found, on the balance of probabilities, to have committed war crimes while deployed in Afghanistan. Roberts-Smith has always denied the allegations.<\/p>\n Neither Rinehart nor Hancock Prospecting responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n This article was amended on 30 December 2025 after One Nation responded to questions post-publication.<\/p>\n