Australia aims to push Hanson off 'Asia stage'

Australia aims to push Hanson off 'Asia stage'

CANBERRA (Reuter): Australia has set up a special diplomatic unit to counter race row politician Pauline Hanson's negative impact in Asia and to push her off the domestic and international political stage.

Acting prime minister Tim Fischer said Australia's future lay in the region, and his conservative government would not allow anyone to sabotage the country's lucrative trade relationships with its booming Asian neighbors.

The elite Images of Australia unit, headed by senior diplomats, will target Asian media and international news agencies to combat the negative image of Australia fueled by Hanson's rising prominence.

It is the latest move in the foreign ministry's campaign to discredit Hanson and counter her high profile in the region.

Fischer said Canberra's regional diplomatic moves, such as its recent talks with Japan, were aimed at "not only boosting our relations but dealing with those elements who would sabotage and divide and destroy those trading relations".

The latest move follows a secret campaign by the foreign affairs department to actively discredit Hanson, an independent politician, throughout the region.

Department sources told Reuters in June that the department had been ordered to run an anti-Hanson campaign, translating speeches and other information discrediting her and giving it to foreign governments and media.

Prime Minister John Howard and his Liberal-National government initially ignored Hanson after she sparked a divisive national race row last year, believing she would quickly return to obscurity.

But her anti-immigration, anti-foreign investment and anti- Aboriginal welfare policies have struck a chord with voters worried by high unemployment and sluggish growth.

Leading polls show support for her One Nation party at between 7 percent and 8 percent -- enough to make her the third force in domestic politics and deliver an influential bloc in parliament if that is maintained to the next election, due by mid-1999.

She has also gained a high regional profile, with some polls showing she is better known than Howard among Asian executives.

In Japan, popular comic strips have drawn the Hanson phenomenon into their story lines, painting her as a racist damaging Australia's reputation and accusing Howard of reviving racism in domestic politics.