One Nation candidates are posting conspiracy theories about QAnon and man-made storms on social media

Three One Nation candidates in the Queensland election have posted conspiracy theories to social media, including one posting about the QAnon movement.

One Nation candidate for the Gold Coast seat of Southport, David Vaughan, posted to Facebook on May 13 with a caption signed off as “Q” and hashtags including “The Great Awakening”, “NCSWIC” and “Future Proves Past”, all terms used by the movement’s followers. 

QAnon followers broadly believe a Satanic paedophilic cabal controls governments, businesses, and the media.

The acronym NCSWIC stands for Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming, referring to the belief the cabal will soon be arrested.

Mr Vaughan has also made posts to Facebook about weather manipulation.

Callum Whatmore, who is running in the seat of Waterford in Logan, has also posted about weather manipulation.

Mr Whatmore posted a video on October 5, which he captioned “Deliberate?”, suggesting Hurricane Helena hit the US state of North Carolina because of human interference to access “billions of dollars of lithium” underground.

“Is this a coincidence that hurricane Helena destroyed all that area? This is the outcome of a well-orchestrated, man-made disaster, weather modification and geoengineering,” part of the video said.

He declined to comment when contacted by the ABC. 

Mr Vaughan shared a video on weather manipulation on Facebook in March 2022, captioning it “War”.

Mr Vaughan did not directly respond to questions about his social media activity.

“I would encourage you to focus on the driving points of this election, in what matters most to the people of Southport and Queensland,” he said.

Scott Philip, One Nation candidate for Bonney on the Gold Coast, has posted about another conspiracy theory known as chemtrails.

Chemtrails refer to vapour trails left in the sky by aircraft, correctly known as contrails, which are not dangerous.

On September 6, Mr Philip shared a YouTube video about a prediction by American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. 

The video, from disgraced Hollywood actor Russell Brand, talks about toxins and heavy metal chemicals in the air resulting from chemtrails causing “curious new conditions” in children.

“US government talking about stratospheric injection (chemtrails) yet another confirmed conspiracy theory. Keep looking up they’ll start here in Queensland again soon,” the caption from Mr Philip read.

All the posts have been deleted or had their viewing permissions changed since the ABC put questions to the party and each candidate.

One Nation declined to comment, and Mr Philip did not respond to questions from the ABC.

When did these conspiracy theories emerge?

Dr Mathew Marques, senior psychology lecturer at La Trobe University, said the QAnon movement became more prominent in the lead-up to the last US election.

“There are these ‘Q drops’, which is information released to the public as cryptic messages, giving some information from the inside about the cabal,” he said. 

“It’s meant to generate followers and this ‘great awakening’ is a call to overthrow these powerful elites who are conducting these horrible things in secret against the public.”

Dr Marques said weather manipulation theories had been around for much longer and had increased in popularity as natural disasters became more frequent and damaging. 

“They allege there’s some sort of secretive plot by government and weather agencies to harm the public through dissemination of these chemical vapour trails from airplanes,” he said.

“Sometimes you might look up and see crystallised water vapour. There are theories these are used to control the public or make them more docile.”

Why are conspiracies dangerous?

Mr Marques says they may sound fantastical but certain elements could appeal to anyone, and consequences can be dangerous.

“People may start to distrust authorities or governments that may have specific public health advice,” he said.

“Studies show exposing people to conspiracy theories can decrease trust in institutions and aspects like democratic citizenship, intentions to vote in the future, or belief that climate change is happening.”