Entrepreneur David Ettridge has taken action in the Queensland Supreme Court against Tony Abbott and others. If the case succeeds it may end the political career of the Liberal leader who most pundits predict will romp into the Lodge at the September election.
He and Ms Hanson together served 11 weeks of a three-year-jail term for electoral fraud in 2003. The convictions were overturned on appeal.
Mr Ettridge is seeking at least $1.5 million in damages.
The One Nation co-founder filed an application in the Supreme Court last month claiming Mr Abbott acted unlawfully in 1998 and 1999 by allegedly assisting and encouraging litigation against Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.
As first reported in Independent Australia in March, this saga began with the One Nation political party launched in 1997 by Pauline Hanson, David Ettridge and David Oldfield. The right wing splinter group was perceived to be stealing votes from the Liberal Party, which Pauline Hanson had left following speeches regarded as racist.
In response to this threat from the fledgling party, Tony Abbott formed a slush fund in 1998 to bankroll litigation against One Nation. The fund was called “Australians for Honest Politics Trust
