Hanson steps in to mop up Joyce’s ‘train wreck’ housing interview

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has stepped in to clarify her party’s policy on foreign ownership of residential property, after a “train wreck” interview on Thursday evening in which MP Barnaby Joyce had to re-record his response.

However, even after Hanson’s intervention One Nation Senator Sean Bell, who had been sent out to patch up Joyce’s error, was unable to explain the policy in a radio appearance that was cut short so the MP could make his own calls on the policy.

As clarified by Hanson via a Facebook post on Friday morning, One Nation would seek to force foreign owners to sell their residential properties within two years of the policy’s introduction. Permanent residents would not be forced to sell.

“Australian homes should be prioritised for Australians. One Nation makes no apologies for putting Australians first,” Hanson wrote.

Appearing on 2GB on Friday morning, Bell repeatedly failed to explain whether foreign owners would have their property seized after the two-year period.

“That is an excellent question, but what we’re saying, and it is perfectly reasonable to expect that homes in Australia go to Australian citizens,” Bell responded.

“It’s very simple. What happens is that, again, this look, it’s a fair question to ask,” Bell said, before being host Mark Levy said: “So what’s the answer?”

“The answer is that this is going to be, this policy is one that’s being brought forward and investigated.”

Levy said the interview was “turning into a train wreck” and that Bell should “go and get some clarity before this gets worse”.

“You can’t come on the radio and say: ‘We’re going to give people two years to divest their property’ and then not answer the question ... Go back and get an answer, and come back to me,” Levy said.

On Thursday evening, Joyce appeared on Sky News’ program The Bolt Report and was twice asked whether permanent residents were counted as foreign owners, and twice said they did.

Following the interview, Joyce made a series of phone calls before requesting to re-record his answer to the question, ultimately saying that permanent residents would not be barred from holding residential property, or forced to sell their properties.

“This policy is formative,” Joyce said, “but on further investigation and discussions with One Nation, no, we are not going to be kicking permanent residents out of their house,” Joyce said in his second response.

The interview was described as a “train wreck” by deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume, who said this was not out of character for Joyce, a man she described as: “a bag of tricks”.

“It