Bizarre Claim of O'Neill PM Challenge on 9/10

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A snowball's chance in Oreo By of happening.

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Hanson’s bizarre PNG claim

Blair Price Wednesday, 14 August 2013 AUSTRALIAN politician Pauline Hanson has remarkably claimed that Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Peter O’Neill is facing a leadership challenge on September 10. Pauline Hanson. Image courtesy of the One Nation party. A founding leader of the One Nation party, which peaked in popularity during the 1990s, Hanson decided in June to run as a New South Wales Senate candidate for the party in the looming September federal election. Well known for criticising immigration and multiculturalism, Hanson is not supporting the Australian government’s PNG solution for people trying to reach the country by boat. This morning she told TV show Sunrise that the solution was not going to work, then revealed what she wanted to ask Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: “Is PNG going to vote on September 10 to get rid of Peter O’Neill because they are not happy with the deal that he has done?” “If that be the case then the whole thing is going to fall over and Kevin Rudd is pushing for this election on September 7 because that is a big issue.” Despite Hanson’s claim, which might be an attempt to get publicity, the O’Neill coalition government has already amended the Constitution since the 2012 election to give it a 30-month grace period from any vote of no confidence in Parliament. A no-confidence vote is consequently not possible until 2015, plus there are two other constitutional amendments, which have already passed their first reading, that will make launching a no-confidence vote considerably more difficult. However, there is growing opposition to O’Neill and Rudd’s deal to allow Australia to send all its asylum seekers to PNG too, with the agreements behind it struck without consultation of PNG’s Parliament. In terms of O’Neill’s existing coalition of about 101 of the 111 members of Parliament, Oro Governor Gary Juffa and former PM Sir Michael Somare were relatively quick to publicly condemn Rudd’s PNG solution. Rudd’s election date of September 7 is a week earlier than the September 14 date announced by his predecessor Julia Gillard, who lost a leadership challenge to Rudd in late June. The September 7 date surprised some as it meant that frequent flyer Rudd would miss out on attending the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Russia on September 5-6.