One Nation unveils state leader, election candidates

By Melissa Meehan

One Nation has named a Victorian party leader and long-awaited shortlist of candidates four months out from voters heading to the polls.

Army veteran Warren Pickering will lead the party into the November state election, alongside the first One Nation candidate ever elected to Victorian parliament and a Liberal Party defector.

Mr Pickering, 43, is set to join federal leader Pauline Hanson in Melbourne on Monday morning to officially announce lead upper house candidates in each region.

Senator Hanson said Mr Pickering, who previously quit his job over COVID-19 policies, will be an “effective leader” to take the wider team to the election.

“Warren has done a great job as state president of One Nation in Victoria,” she said.

Mr Pickering’s team of leading Legislative Council candidates includes Shepparton-based MP Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell and education expert and commentator Colleen Harkin.

Ms Tyrrell became the first One Nation MP elected to Victorian parliament in 2022, while Ms Harkin quit the Liberal party after she initiated legal action over a $1.55 million loan paid to save former opposition leader John Pesutto from bankruptcy.

Other candidates are animator and company director Mark Nicholson, lawyer Aaron Sanford, office manager Natalie Adams, Geelong councillor Chris Burson and human resources manager Fiona Lopez.

More candidates will be announced soon, Senator Hanson said.

“We’ll be running candidates in every seat at this election,” she said.

“We’ll have a talented team of people intent on restoring Victoria and kicking out the tired and toxic Labor government which has run this state into the ground, getting away with it thanks to a weak Liberal opposition.”

Ms Hanson, who is expected to host a meet the candidates forum on Monday night, pointed to “out of control” violent crime, union corruption and Victoria’s housing crisis as catalysts for a need for change.

“One Nation will go to this election with the policies needed to turn Victoria back in the right direction,” she said.

“Victorians are crying out for change, and for leadership which puts their interests first.”

New premier Ben Carroll and other Labor figures have warned Victoria could be headed for the first minority government in Australia that includes One Nation.

One Nation has moved ahead of Labor again in a federal poll, a month after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s party regained the lead on the primary vote.

Support for One Nation has risen two points to 31 per cent, according to a Redbridge Group/Accent Research poll published by the Australian Financial Review on Monday.

The populist party is not polling as well in Victoria.

The latest Newspoll indicated the coalition was leading on primary vote at 31 per cent, followed by Labor (28 per cent) and One Nation (19 per cent).

It gave Jess Wilson’s Liberal-National coalition the edge over Labor on a two-party-preferred basis, 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

The coalition needs a net gain of 16 seats to form a majority government and end 12 consecutive years of Labor rule in Victoria.

Such a turnaround has not been pulled off since Jeff Kennett led the coalition to a landslide victory in 1992 by picking up an extra 19 seats.