Australian politician Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party apparently created some of its policies by copying sections of text from internet sites including Wikipedia.
Pauline Hanson, in 2011. Photo: AFP
Ms Hanson will this year return to Federal Parliament as a senator for Queensland after nearly two decades in the political wilderness.
During her campaign, Ms Hanson called for a ban on Muslim immigration to Australia, a royal commission into Islam and a ban on new mosques.
One Nation picked up nearly one in 10 Senate votes in Queensland.
The party claimed it could also win Senate seats in several other states.
But chunks of the party's policies on halal certification, sustainable development and medicinal cannabis have been copied, word for word, off the internet.
One part of One Nation's policy on halal food - a policy which links the Islamic blessing of food to terrorism financing - has been lifted from Frontpage Magazine - a right-wing American "battle tank, geared to fight a war" against the political left.
Another section of the policy came from the website of the Q Society - an anti-Islamic group which organised for controversial Dutch MP Geert Wilders to visit Australia in 2012.
Part of the party's position on the Agenda 21 international sustainable development agreement, a UN-based plan for sustainability, is almost identical to a five-year-old pamphlet from far-right US group The John Birch Society.
A section of One Nation's medicinal cannabis plan is also very similar to parts of a user-generated Wikipedia page on the subject.
The Wikipedia entry reads: "The ancient Egyptians used hemp (cannabis) in suppositories for relieving the pain of haemorrhoids."
"Surviving texts from ancient India confirm that cannabis' psychoactive properties were recognized, and doctors used it for treating a variety of illnesses and ailments, including insomnia, headaches, gastrointestinal disorders, and pain, including during childbirth," it says.
The One Nation website reads: "The ancient Egyptians used hemp (cannabis) in suppositories for relieving the pain of haemorrhoids ... In ancient India, doctors used it for treating a variety of illnesses and ailments, including insomnia, headaches, gastrointestinal disorders, and pain, including during childbirth."
One Nation has refused to comment.
- ABC
