David Ettridge
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David William Ettridge (born in June, 1945) in Adelaide, Australia, is an Australian businessman and former politician who co-founded the One Nation Party (ONP) in 1996 alongside ONP leader Pauline Hanson.
Political career
Ettridge was Pauline Hanson's professional fundraiser and administered and marketed the One nation Party. Leading a small team he helped to set up 350 branches throughout Australia and admitted 17,000 members to the party.
On 20 August 2003, a jury from the District Court of Queensland convicted Hanson and Ettridge of electoral fraud and the Chief Judge sentenced both to three years without parole for fraudulently registering the One Nation Party.
All evidence to the contrary was ignored or misunderstood by the Jury. Defence arguments lodged in pre trial submissions by Ettridge were ignored and later upheld on appeal when they were released from prison 11 weeks later.
However, both Ettridge and Hanson were released from jail 11 weeks after their conviction
On 6 November 2003, the Queensland Court of Appeal) quashed Hanson's and Ettridge's convictions [1].
The Court's unanimous decision was that:
- the (more than) 500 persons on the list were members of the party;
- that even if they had not been, they were members of a "closely related party", which was sufficient under the Electoral Act 1992 to make the registration legal;
- the registration was legal; and
- none of the convictions could stand.
Ettridge released a book in 2004 regarding the fraud conviction and acquital called Consider your verdict (ISBN 174110232-4).
Since his release from prison, Ettridge has written 3 books, invented 2 board games, 1 selling in 9 countries and returned to his native South Australia where he continues to be entrepreneurial in his business activities.
References
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External links
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