One Nation policy development officer John Drew posted racist comments about Aboriginal people and migrants on Facebook. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
Guardian Australia revealed that John Drew, who claims he was kicked out of One Nation more than 20 years ago for being "too radical", has been a party branch official in Brisbane since late last year. This is despite One Nation claiming it has introduced a sophisticated new vetting tool – dubbed Operation Obsidian.
Drew called Aboriginal people "rapacious bludgers and grifters", "ghastly boongs" and "stone age people". In one post he said: "It has been estimated that at least fifty percent of aborigines are mentally ill." He called Olympian Cathy Freeman an "aboriginal flog" and claimed "country people have had enough of rapacious aborigines".
In 2022, Drew posted that he was writing a film script based on historical events on North Stradbroke Island in which soldiers fought "the vile savages causing problems". "It will be an action movie which shows aborigines being shot and killed," he wrote.
Drew confirmed he holds the role of "policy development officer" with the Ryan branch in Brisbane. He also advised on the party's processing of membership applications and gave an update on merchandise sales. In March and April he discussed the popularity of his branch, saying it had more than 200 members.
One Nation's new general manager, Kelvin Morton, said Operation Obsidian would apply to "how we vet and assess candidates, employees, and anybody that takes up a role within One Nation". Pauline Hanson said the party had shut down four branches amid concern that far-right members had infiltrated it.
Drew posted in 2023 that "the fabulous White Australia Policy was foolishly abandoned". He also called Labor MP Sally Sitou a "sad ethnic lady" and Senator Mehreen Faruqi a "foreign nutter". He repeated Hanson's comment that Faruqi should "piss off back to Pakistan", which was found to be in breach of the Racial Discrimination Act.