Australian right-wing party members claim they were drunk when caught soliciting donations from NRA in undercover footage

One Nation officials say they were ‘on the sauce’ in video discussing funding from US gun lobby

Operatives from an Australian nationalist party claim they were drunk when caught in an undercover sting discussing soliciting donations from the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Representatives from One Nation, a right-wing, anti-Islam party with a handful of seats in the Australian parliament, sought guidance from the NRA on how to relax their country’s strict gun laws.

During part of the covert investigation by Al Jazeera, two senior figures from the party, James Ashby and Steve Dickson, were also caught on camera discussing a potential A$20m (£11m) donation from the organisation.

The pair told Rodger Muller, an undercover reporter posing as a gun rights lobbyist, that financial support from the NRA could be used to win One Nation a “heap of seats” in the House of Representatives.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, Mr Ashby and Mr Dickson blamed the footage on alcohol consumption and “skulduggery” on the behalf of Mr Muller.

They denied attempting to solicit donations from the lobby group, instead claiming the meetings had taken place to learn from the NRA’s “campaign techniques”.

“The conversations that have been recorded where there is talk of 10 and 20 million dollars, I’ll be the first to admit – we’d arrived in America, we’d got on the sauce, we’d had a few drinks.” Mr Ashby said.

“That’s where those discussions took place. Not with any potential donors, no one bar Roger Muller, Steve Dickson and myself.”

Mr Dickson described the conversation caught on camera as “three men, talking together, having scotches for three or four hours”.

The three-year investigation documented a meeting in Washington between One Nation representatives and the NRA, a powerful lobbying organisation with strong ties to the Republican Party.

Video of the meeting showed an NRA official advising the party to smear gun control advocates in the event of a hypothetical school shooting.

“How dare you stand on the graves of those children to put forth your political agenda?” the NRA representative can be heard to telling the party to argue. “Just shame them to the whole idea.”

“I love that,” Mr Dickson is seen to reply.

Mr Dickson was also caught on camera lamenting how Australian women are not allowed to own guns for “self-protection”, warning Muslim immigrants to the country were “really dangerous people”.

“We’re not even allowed to own guns in Australia for self-protection for women, they’re not even allowed to have mace,” he said.

“It’s insane, we’ve been importing all these Muslims into Australia – we have about 230,000 people coming a year. Our population is only 25 million.

“Some really dangerous people. They’re just breaking into people’s homes with baseball bats and killing people.”

One Nation was founded by controversial senator Pauline Hanson in 1997 after she was deselected by the Liberal Party over comments she made about Aboriginal people.

The party stands on a nationalist, anti-immigration platform, but has been dogged throughout its existence by accusations of racism.

Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, expressed concern over the revelations One Nation representatives met with the NRA.

“Reports that senior One Nation officials courted foreign political donations from the US gun lobby to influence our elections and undermine our gun laws that keep us safe are deeply concerning,” he wrote on Twitter.