The long list of former Coalition MPs seeking new home in One Nation’s crowded NSW ticket

A conga line of Liberal and National Party defectors is vying to run for One Nation at the NSW election next year, belying the populist party’s anti-establishment narrative and potentially undermining leader Mike Newman’s claim that candidates will come from outside the political class.

While One Nation is yet to confirm most of its candidates for the upcoming election, potential nominees include a growing list of former Liberal and Nationals MPs, as well as one-time political hopefuls.

The long list of familiar faces who have nominated for One Nation’s increasingly crowded upper house ticket include Katherine Deves, the anti-trans campaigner picked by former prime minister Scott Morrison to run for the Liberals for a tilt at the seat of Warringah in 2022, former federal Liberal senator Hollie Hughes and former NSW upper house MP Lou Amato. One or all of them could also run for a spot in the lower house.

They are among a slew of former major party MPs, candidates and officials to join One Nation’s ranks over recent months.

The party’s new registered officer in NSW, Les Wells, is a former Nationals staffer who made an unsuccessful tilt to be the party’s candidate in the seat of Oxley at the 2023 state election.

Sean Gleeson, who ran for the Nationals in the seat of Port Macquarie at a byelection last year, has also held discussions with One Nation about potentially running for the party in 2027. Gleeson remains a member of the Nationals but has stepped down as chair of its local state electoral conference and is weighing up a potential defection. He declined to comment.

Other one-time NSW Coalition figures to jump ship include the ex-Wollondilly Liberal MP Nathaniel Smith and the former Upper Hunter Nationals MP Michael Johnsen. The latter resigned from parliament in 2021 following allegations he raped a sex worker. He later said he had been “vindicated” after the NSW Department of Public Prosecutions recommended there was “insufficient admissible evidence to proceed with charges”.

In a statement, One Nation said only three candidates had been preselected: Newman, and lead upper house candidates Stuart Bonds and Tamworth gun-maker Jeff Bacon.

“We have received more than 800 applications from community leaders, advocates and business people,” a party spokeswoman said. “Candidates for the 2027 election will be announced as we approach March 13th 2027.”

The influx of Coalition defectors into the party’s NSW division presents an emerging tension for the resurgent right-wing party as it tries to maintain its outsider status while seeking to mount a serious challenge against both major parties at the March election. As the Minns government increasingly sharpens its focus on One Nation, figures within the party are keenly aware of the risk of being tagged as Liberal-lite.

Newman, a former investment banker and NSW trade commissioner, has repeatedly said One Nation would field candidates from outside the political mainstream. At a press conference on Tuesday, he said that would be the “palpable difference” between One Nation and the major parties at the election.

“I’ve said before I am not a politician. I don’t have any political background,” he said. “I don’t belong to parties that I’m beholden to internal structures. You are, we’re not, and that is going to be the palpable difference that will be at this election.”

In defending the party’s policy to scrap independent assessment of mining projects and instead hand decision-making powers back to ministers, Newman argued a One Nation government would be less susceptible to corruption because they “are not former politicians”.

But many of those swelling the party’s ranks are. Hughes, for example, was a senator and member of the Liberal Party’s powerful state executive. She is currently “strategic counsel” for Coalition-aligned lobbying firm DPG Advisory, run by former Liberal adviser and Morrison ally David Gazard. She was booted from a winnable spot before the last election. Amato, similarly, was an upper house MP for the former NSW state government before he was bumped from the ticket before the 2023 election.

Deves, a prominent campaigner opposing the inclusion of trans women in women’s sport, was the Liberal Party’s pick to take on Warringah MP Zali Steggall at the 2022 election. Her candidacy prompted a firestorm of criticism, and she issued a series of apologies over social media posts including one in which she compared her anti-trans activism to resistance against the Nazis.

Hughes and Amato did not respond to a request for comment. Deves referred the Herald to One Nation.

With the election less than six months away, Labor has honed in on One Nation as repeated polls show the party leading the Coalition. NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey this week challenged the party to submit its promises to independent budget scrutiny, saying the state couldn’t live in “budget fairy land”.

Labor announced on Tuesday it would introduce a new debt ceiling of 15 per cent of gross state product and cut debt by $10 billion in a further attempt to contrast the government’s fiscal restraint with the Coalition and One Nation.

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