View from The Hill: Hanson announces One Nation Victorian leader, bans major media outlets

Pauline Hanson has begun One Nation’s push for the Victorian election in earnest by announcing the party’s state leader at a news conference from which she banned the ABC, The Guardian and The Age.

Warren Pickering, 43, who has been state president of the party, will, as leader, contest the lower house seat of Pakenham, a Labor electorate held by backbencher Emma Vulin, on a tiny margin of 0.4%. At the 2022 election One Nation received 3.4% in the seat, which includes outer eastern and south eastern suburbs of Melbourne and some rural areas.

Vulin is not recontesting. In 2022 Labor won 33.8% of the primary vote and the Liberals polled 32.4%. Historically, this was a Liberal seat.

In the embargoed press release from One Nation, Pickering was listed as One Nation’s “leading Legislative Council candidate for the Eastern Victorian region”. This was the initial plan.

Colleen Harkin, a former member of the Liberal Party’s state administrative committee before recently defecting to One Nation, will run for the South-Eastern Metropolitan district in the Legislative Council. She works for conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs.

The Victorian election in November will be a major test for One Nation, which has enjoyed surging support this year and won the May Farrer byelection in New South Wales, the first time it has won a House of Representatives seat. (Barnaby Joyce, who holds its other House of Representatives seat, defected from the Nationals.)

Victoria in the past has been seen as hostile territory for One Nation.

Early next year, the New South Wales election will be another big test – and opportunity – for the party, ahead of the federal election in 2028.

The party has also announced key moves nationally. James Ashby, the power behind the Hanson throne, will move from being her chief-of-staff to become the party’s national director. Ashby’s skills as a strategist are recognised even by his political foes.

Hanson said in a statement: “James has built an extraordinary campaign operation with me, including the success of ‘Fire the Liar’. I want him doing that work full-time, working with our campaign teams, strengthening our organisation and taking our message directly to Australians through the elections ahead so we can give Australians a voice.”

Hanson’s new chief-of-staff will be Chris Taylor, who was an advisor to prime minister Scott Morrison.

The latest Newspoll for Victoria, taken late July, had Labor on 28%, the opposition on 31%, One Nation at 19% and the Greens at 13%. The two-party preferred came out at a Liberal-National lead over Labor of 52%-48%.

The poll was taken just before last week’s change of premier, and was credited by some as having some influence on that.

When people were asked, “Which of the following parties would you prefer to govern Victoria after the election?” The results were Labor 41%, Liberal-National 35%; One Nation 18%; Don’t Know 6%.

People were also asked, “If the choice were between the following, which of these would you prefer to govern Victoria after the election? Jess Wilson and the Liberal-Nationals in alliance with One Nation [or] Jacinta Allan and Labor? The result was 48% for the alliance and 42% for Labor under Allan.

Quizzed at Monday’s news conference about excluding three major news outlets, Hanson said of the ABC and Guardian: “I’m not putting up with their rubbish, I am not putting up with their spin, their lies, whatsoever. I want truth and honesty. You get it from me. I expect it back from the media,” she said.

“I’m not putting up with their spin, gotcha moments, wanting to have a go at me or treat us totally different to what you do all the other major political parties, enough is enough.”

Pickering said the party expected a healthy amount of scrutiny of candidates and policies. “However any blatant character assassination attempts based on fabrications of our candidates will be met with swift legal action.”

It is not clear whether the ban will be temporary or operate through the campaign. One Nation sources said this would be up to One Nation in Victoria.

Hanson said how future One Nation members of the Victorian parliament dealt with the media would be up to them. “I’m not going to be in the Victorian parliament […] I have control over this today, my being here, and I have made the decision”.

Pickering said policies would be produced over coming weeks for the November 28 election.

“We are officially putting the major parties on notice. We intend for this to be November to remember, and we are contesting to govern”, he said.

One Nation has announced all but one of its upper house candidates but only one (Pickering) of those it will run in the lower house. It says it will contest all seats.

Legislative Council candidates include Shepparton-based Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell MLC, the first and only One Nation candidate elected to the Victorian parliament.

Others are animator and company director Mark Nicholson (Northern Metropolitan). lawyer Aaron Sanford (Southern Metropolitan), office manager Natalie Adams (North-Eastern Metropolitan), Geelong councillor Chris Burson (Western Victoria) and human resources manager Fiona Lopez (Western Metropolitan).

The Guardian said in a statement about being banned:

Holding public figures to account is the role of a free press and an essential part of the democratic process. It is disappointing that One Nation continues to prevent the Guardian and other news outlets from reporting on its press conferences. Our journalists should be able to ask questions in the public interest and not be deterred from doing their job.“

The Age wrote on its blog:

Pauline Hanson barred The Age, the ABC, and The Guardian from her Melbourne press conference, with the new state leader Warren Pickering threatening legal action against journalists for “character assassination attempts”.

This masthead’s Victorian State Political Editor Chip Le Grand revealed in April that the Nepean byelection campaign committee collapsed under Pickering’s leadership as the state branch’s president, after he advised a candidate to use a personal bank account to accept campaign donations. If acted upon, that would put One Nation in breach of the state’s electoral laws. Pickering disputed the report confirmed by three sources.

The ABC did not comment.

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.