Politics & Council
11 August, 2026
Early eight on One Nation ticket but country seat wait continues
RURAL and regional electorates could be waiting another month before One Nation names candidates in their seats for the November state election.
RURAL and regional electorates could be waiting another month before One Nation names candidates in their seats for the November state election.
The party of Pauline Hanson on Monday announced its first eight candidates.
Its only current representative in Parliament, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, one of five members for Northern Victoria Region, has been endorsed to seek a second term.
The party’s state president Warren Pickering will contest an outer Melbourne seat in the Legislative Assembly.
Geelong councillor Burson will contest Western Victoria Region taking in southern Loddon communities. But the party has hinted that it will be September before it names a candidate in the key country seat of Ripon held by Labor’s Martha Haylett on a 2.8 per cent margin.
A One Nation candidate could see the vote splinter four ways with the Nationals’ Jo Armstrong and Liberal Megan Read also vying for a sizeable share.
One Nation is also expected to run in Murray Plains where Brett Hosking is hoping to succeed the long-serving Peter Walsh as the Nationals’ MP.
Ms Tyrrell said the eight candidates announced “represent the strongest, most experienced and determined team One Nation has ever fielded in Victoria”.
She said she looked forward to no longer being “the lone voice of common sense in Spring Street”.
Ms Tyrrell said she was cautiously optimistic about the election but the One Nation candidates would never take anything for granted. “We’re not getting carried away with polls – polls aren’t results – but they are relevant because they reflect what we’re all hearing on the ground: Victorians have lost faith in both Labor and the Coalition after more than a decade of mismanagement, debt and waste.”
Senator Hanson is being promoted as the key speaker at a Farmers’ Fightback event in Marnoo later this month.
The group has been campaigning against the State Government’s renewable energy transmission line rollout and threats to future use of agricultural land.
There has been speculation several people linked with Farmers’ Fightback, including anti-VNI West campaigner Ben Duxson, could run for One Nation. Gannawarra mayor Garner Smith has applied to run in Murray Plains.
Read More: Loddon Shire