One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has sacked her Senate colleague Brian Burston as the party's registered deputy following a bitter public feud, in a move that likely brings the minor party down to just two seats in the Upper House.
Senator Hanson wrote a letter to Senator Burston's office on Friday, asking him to show "loyalty" and resign his Senate position so it could be filled by another One Nation choice.
"I no longer have confidence in you as an officer of Pauline Hanson's One Nation," she wrote.
"Please consider resigning from the Senate seat and handing it back to the party. It would be the honourable thing to do as you would not be a senator but for your association with me."
But Senator Burston appears determined to keep his Senate seat.
Speaking with 2GB Radio, he said he was "disappointed" by the letter, which was read to him live on air after he revealed he had not seen the document.
He said Senator Hanson would have to cancel his membership.
"That will make me an independent but that is her call," Senator Burston said.
"I will not be resigning from One Nation and I certainly will not ever resign from my Senate position."
"She has a massive dummy spit and I'm very disappointed with her immature and childish reaction to it."
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party earlier backed up One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s claim that her colleague considered defecting to the minor party.
Senator Burston said reports he approached the party were “totally and absolutely false”, as a bitter dispute within One Nation played out in a series of TV interviews on Thursday.
But NSW Shooters party MP Robert Borsak said the senator made an approach via an “intermediary” to the party’s state director to discuss becoming the party’s only federal voice in Canberra.
“The message simply was, would I be prepared to have a meeting with him to discuss him joining us?” he told 2GB Radio.
Mr Borsak said the offer of a federal seat was “tempting” but Senator Burston would not be a good representative of the party.
“To be frank we wouldn’t even consider it, really. It would end up in tears,” he said.
“We don’t want to get involved in the seat swapping and party jumping that goes on in Canberra.
“I’ve had the media chasing me today asking me whether it’s the truth and of course it’s the truth. We’ve got no reason to embellish it, we’ve got no reason to make up stories.
“It’s unfortunate that that happened but it happened.”
The One Nation dispute reached fever pitch late on Thursday when leader in which she accused her colleague of “stabbing her in the back”.
"This hurts me. It hurts me deeply because … It means so much to me what I'm trying to do. And for him to turn around and do this to me … it's hard but I'm going to keep going,” she said.
The dispute was triggered when and vote with the Coalition in favour of company tax cuts.
One Nation Senators Brian Burston and Pauline Hanson. Source: AAP
The Coalition’s bid to gradually lower Australia’s company tax rate from 30 percent to 25 percent was dealt a seemingly fatal blow last week when One Nation leader Pauline Hanson backflipped on a previous deal and indicated her three senators would vote ‘no’.
Brian Burston said he would honour the previous “handshake” deal he made with finance minister Mathias Cormann to support the tax cuts.
Senator Hanson said the policy had not been “well-received” by voters and claimed the government had failed to meet its end of the deal that secured her support.
Treasurer Scott Morrison said the rift within One Nation was proof of the instability of minor parties.
"We always highlighted that, with many of the minor parties, they can be very unstable choices," Mr Morrison said.
"We have seen the splinter of minor parties in the Senate over the years. We have seen this movie before."
The treasurer said the government would continue to negotiate with minor parties and independent senators to secure the passage of its tax plan.
