Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has unveiled a new team of Victorian candidates as the party attempts its biggest push yet into state politics, promising to capitalise on voter frustration with Labor, the Liberals and rising concern over crime, debt, cost of living and government integrity.
At a Melbourne media event on Monday, Senator Hanson introduced Warren Pickering as One Nation’s Victorian leader alongside seven upper house candidates who will contest regions across the state at the November election.
Mr Pickering, the party’s Victorian president, had originally been expected to lead the ticket for Eastern Victoria but will instead contest the lower house seat of Pakenham.
The move gives One Nation a named state leader in a direct lower house contest and signals the party wants to do more than simply win representation in the Legislative Council.
Mr Pickering is a former bricklayer, Australian Defence Force member and coal industry worker who became politically active after resigning from his job during the COVID-19 period over government vaccination policies.
He has spent recent months building One Nation branches and recruiting candidates across Victoria. The party has previously said it intends to contest every seat at the November election.
Senator Hanson used the launch to attack what she described as a “tired and toxic Labor government”, arguing Victorians were looking for an alternative after almost 12 years of Labor rule.
One Nation is attempting to position itself as that alternative by campaigning heavily on crime, government debt, taxes, agriculture, education and alleged corruption linked to Victoria’s Big Build.
The party has also backed a royal commission into the construction industry, although new Premier Ben Carroll has now announced his own royal commission following the resignation of Jacinta Allan.
Mr Pickering promised supporters a “November to remember” and said One Nation would campaign to govern in its own right rather than simply act as a preference vehicle for the Coalition.
The candidates announced include incumbent upper house MP Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, who will seek re-election in Northern Victoria.
Ms Tyrrell became One Nation’s first Victorian state MP when she was elected to the Legislative Council in 2022.
Her re-election will be important for the party because she provides One Nation with an established parliamentary presence as it expands its Victorian operation.
Geelong councillor Chris Burson will contest Western Victoria.
Mr Burson is a former Victoria Police officer and Australian Defence Force member who has previously stood for the Angry Victorians Party at the 2022 state election and the Australian Values Party at the 2022 federal election.
He has spoken publicly about working in a protective security detail during the COVID period, including providing security to then-premier Daniel Andrews and his family as threats against political leaders increased.
Former Liberal Party member Colleen Harkin will contest the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region.
Ms Harkin resigned from the Liberals in June and joined One Nation after becoming increasingly critical of the direction of the Victorian Liberal Party.
She previously sought Liberal preselection for the federal seat of Macnamara and later Goldstein.
Ms Harkin is also director of education at the Institute of Public Affairs and was a prominent supporter of former Liberal MP Moira Deeming during internal disputes that consumed the Victorian Liberal Party.
Her move to One Nation illustrates one of the party’s central strategies in Victoria: attracting conservative voters, members and activists who believe the Liberal Party has moved too far towards the political centre.
Animator and small business owner Mark Nicholson will contest the Northern Metropolitan Region.
Mr Nicholson is a co-founder of Stepmates Studios, which produces One Nation’s animated Please Explain series and its satirical feature-length political film.
Northern Metropolitan is traditionally one of Victoria’s more progressive regions, covering parts of Melbourne’s inner and northern suburbs, making his candidacy one of One Nation’s more difficult electoral contests.
Fiona Lopez will contest Western Metropolitan Region, where she will compete for an upper house seat across Melbourne’s rapidly growing western suburbs.
Ms Lopez has been described as a human resources manager and is among several candidates who do not come from conventional political careers.
Natalie Adams will contest North-Eastern Metropolitan Region.
Ms Adams has been described as an office manager and local mother, reflecting One Nation’s stated effort to recruit candidates from outside political and parliamentary circles.
Lawyer Aaron Sanford will contest Southern Metropolitan Region.
The party has not yet announced its replacement candidate for Eastern Victoria after Mr Pickering decided to move into the lower house seat of Pakenham.
The candidate launch comes at an unusually volatile moment in Victorian politics.
Labor has just changed premiers after Ben Carroll replaced Jacinta Allan following a caucus revolt, while the Liberal Party under Jess Wilson is attempting to capitalise on concerns about crime, debt, taxes and alleged corruption.
One Nation is seeking to turn dissatisfaction with both major parties into parliamentary representation.
Polling throughout 2026 has suggested the party is attracting levels of Victorian support well above its historical performance.
A recent Newspoll placed One Nation at 19 per cent of the primary vote, behind the Coalition on 31 per cent and Labor on 28 per cent.
That result was lower than several earlier surveys that had placed One Nation above 20 per cent, and in some cases ahead of both major parties.
A YouGov Pulse poll in April, measuring federal voting intention among Victorians, put One Nation at 26 per cent, compared with Labor on 25 per cent and the Coalition on 21 per cent.
The result did not measure Victorian state voting intention, but it showed the size of the potential pool of voters available to Senator Hanson’s party.
One Nation has previously struggled to establish a durable Victorian organisation despite performing strongly in Queensland and parts of regional Australia.
That has changed significantly over the past year.
The party now has an incumbent Victorian MP, more organised local branches and an increasingly active candidate recruitment program.
It also performed strongly at the recent South Australian election, winning seven parliamentary seats, giving One Nation greater confidence that its support can translate into state representation outside Queensland.
However, translating polling into Victorian lower house seats remains difficult.
Victoria uses compulsory preferential voting in the Legislative Assembly, meaning One Nation candidates generally need either a very strong primary vote or favourable preference flows to survive against Labor and Liberal candidates.
The Legislative Council presents a more achievable pathway because multiple members are elected from each region.
That helps explain why the seven announced upper house candidates are central to the party’s strategy.
One Nation has been campaigning on an agenda that includes cutting state debt, cracking down on crime, protecting farmers, reducing living costs, improving health services and increasing housing affordability.
Its Victorian recruitment material describes those issues as central to the party’s attempt to win the balance of power.
Senator Hanson has also increasingly focused on education.
One Nation has promised to promote patriotism in schools, remove Welcome to Country ceremonies from classrooms and challenge what it calls “woke” teaching.
The party has also flagged reviewing or cancelling the Suburban Rail Loop, one of Labor’s largest and most expensive infrastructure projects.
Agriculture is expected to feature heavily in One Nation’s regional campaign, particularly opposition to renewable energy infrastructure and transmission projects on farming land.
The party has promised stronger protections for landholders and has previously said it would repeal penalties affecting farmers who resist access to their properties for infrastructure projects.
Further policy announcements are expected at a planned “Farmer Fight Back” event later this month.
The Melbourne candidate launch was itself accompanied by controversy after One Nation denied access to journalists from the ABC, The Age and The Guardian.
Senator Hanson accused the outlets of unfair and biased reporting and said she wanted media organisations that would report “truth and honesty” rather than what she described as spin and “gotcha moments”.
Other media organisations were permitted to attend.
The decision drew criticism over media access, particularly because One Nation is seeking greater representation in a state parliament and campaigning on transparency and government accountability.
Senator Hanson defended the decision and compared her approach with criticism of mainstream media made by US political figures.
The media dispute is unlikely to be the final controversy surrounding the campaign.
One Nation’s rapid expansion means the backgrounds, views and previous political affiliations of its candidates will receive increasing scrutiny as the election approaches.
Ms Harkin’s move from the Liberal Party highlights the growing competition between One Nation and the Liberals for conservative voters.
That presents a strategic problem for Ms Wilson.
If the Liberals move too far to the centre, they risk losing voters to One Nation. If they attempt to match Hanson’s positions, they risk alienating moderate voters needed to win marginal metropolitan seats.
Labor faces a different challenge.
One Nation has increasingly targeted outer-suburban and regional voters who historically supported Labor but now cite cost of living, housing, crime and distrust of government as reasons to consider changing their vote.
That makes seats across Melbourne’s west, north and south-east particularly important.
For Senator Hanson, Victoria has historically been difficult political territory.
For much of One Nation’s existence, the party struggled to gain the sort of electoral foothold it enjoyed in Queensland.
The 2026 election will test whether that has fundamentally changed.
One Nation now enters the contest with an incumbent MP, a state leader, candidates across most upper house regions and polling that places it firmly in the mainstream electoral contest.
Whether that translates into a significant parliamentary bloc will depend on candidate quality, preferences and whether voters who tell pollsters they support One Nation ultimately stay with the party on election day.
But one thing is already clear: Victoria’s November election is no longer shaping as a simple contest between Labor and the Coalition.
Pauline Hanson intends One Nation to be a third force, and the candidates unveiled in Melbourne are the team she hopes will make that ambition a reality.
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