The One Nation members caught on hidden camera talking about getting $20 million from the American gun lobby say they were set up by a Middle Eastern spy and were drunk during the conversation.
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Footage from Qatari TV network Al Jazeera shows Queensland leader Steve Dickson and Pauline Hanson's chief of staff James Ashby meeting with pro-gun groups, including the powerful National Rifle Association.
Mr Dickson is recorded saying that with enough funding, One Nation would get the balance of power and have control over the government and be able to weaken Australia's gun laws.
He also says in one clip that with millions of dollars in funding the party would have Australia's government "by the balls".
Mr Ashby said they only spoke with undercover Al Jazeera reporter Rodger Muller about the potential $20 million in donations.
"We'd arrived in America, we got on the sauce, we'd had a few drinks and that's where those discussions took place, not with any potential donors, no-one but Rodger Muller, Steve Dickson and myself," he told reporters.
Mr Dickson said the the dollar figure was in response to a question from Mr Muller "how much money would it take for One Nation to be successful?"
Mr Muller posed as the head of fake lobby group Guns Rights Australia which was set up by Al Jazeera and initiated the One Nation meetings with the NRA.
"Rodger Muller ... was employed by a Middle Eastern country, Al Jazeera, to come to Australia, as a spy, to infiltrate into Australian politics," Mr Dickson said.
Mr Ashby said it was deliberate set-up by the Qatari government and "skulduggery at its worst."
"This is the very first time Australia has witnessed political interference from a foreign government."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said One Nation was prepared to sell out Australia's gun laws.
"No law should be up to the highest bidder as some part of foreign interference," Mr Morrison told reporters.
"But the fact that they were prepared to do it, if you were ever wondering why you shouldn't be voting One Nation there's a pretty good reason."
Mr Dickson and Mr Ashby met with the NRA and Koch Industries - America's second largest privately held company and major conservative political donor.
One Nation has referred the Al Jazeera report to police over concerns about foreign interference in Australian politics before the May federal election.
The party insists it "strongly supports the rights of lawful gun ownership" and claims Al Jazeera targeted it because of its policies on restricting immigration.
The investigation, broadcast overnight on Monday, features a recording of a meeting in Washington DC last September.
Mr Dickson tells NRA officials that for the world to look to Australia as a model for gun control would be "poison".
"If you had 20 ($US20 million), you would own the lower house and the upper house," says Mr Ashby, who was recently banned from Parliament House in Canberra after a fight with senator Brian Burston.
The NRA meeting was shortly before legislation banning foreign donations cleared parliament in November with One Nation's support.
Australian Associated Press
