One Nation’s New South Wales (NSW) state executive has been disbanded by federal leader Pauline Hanson.
Ms. Hanson announced the surprise move in a letter to the leadership team citing the NSW branch’s failure to pick up any extra seats at the most recent election.
The move leaves the party in NSW without a state leader, despite having three upper house members in the Legislative Assembly—Mark Latham, Rod Roberts, and Tania Mahailuk (recently elected).
A replacement executive is currently in place and the position of state leader remains vacant, Senator Hanson’s office told AAP on Aug. 14.
“Nobody has been sacked from the party as such,” a spokesperson said.
Buy a Mirror Pauline: Latham’s Response
Mr. Latham has responded strongly to the move saying it was done “without consultation or due process,” accusing Ms. Hanson and the national executive of taking over the branch.“She has installed her own new state executive with people from Queensland and Tasmania who did not lift a finger to help us during the March election campaign,” he wrote on Facebook on Aug. 14.
“[Ms.] Hanson’s sole justification for this takeover is our upper house vote, which fell by one percent in March. Yet our six percent result was still two percent ahead of the NSW Senate result last year in a campaign Hanson herself headed,” he said.
“In Queensland, Hanson’s [federal] Senate vote fell by three percent and she only just scraped in for re-election. If she is worried about underperformance, her best solution is to buy a mirror.”
Mr. Latham said the federal branch should not interfere in the processes of the NSW branch and also accused it of attempting to misuse funds—a claim Ms. Hanson’s office has rejected.
“The Queensland takeover is not about performance. It is about money. As NSW’s One Nation Leader I have stood in the way of attempts to misuse our funds, especially the administration money contributed by NSW taxpayers through the Electoral Commission. I will continue to fight for the proper, ethical use of this money,” Mr. Latham said.
He also clarified he was “never” a member of the NSW state executive, but noted the body controlled the finances of the branch.
“I’ll have more to say on this money matter when the NSW Parliament sits next week,” he foreshadowed.
Latham Fighting Defamation Action
It comes as Mr. Latham prepares to contest a defamation charge from Independent NSW MP Alex Greenwich over a Twitter (now known as X) post describing a gratuitous sexual act—the post has since been deleted.The action also encompasses additional comments in The Daily Telegraph newspaper where he accused Mr. Greenwich of being a “disgusting human being who goes to schools to groom children to become homosexual.”
Mr. Latham’s X post was condemned across the political spectrum with Senator Hanson calling on the MP to apologise.
“I want you to know I don’t condone them [Mr. Latham’s words] and neither do my members of Parliament or party associates,” she told supporters in March.
The former NSW leader’s lawyers will argue that Mr. Greenwich’s reputation did not suffer serious harm.
Further, they will rely on the defence of “honest opinion,” according to court documents.
