One Nation struggling to field ‘good candidates’ ahead of WA election: Hanson

The Liberals struck a deal ahead of the 2017 election that put One Nation candidates ahead of Labor on how-to-vote cards in the lower house in exchange for One Nation appearing ahead of the Nationals in the upper house.

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The deal drew widespread criticism of former premier Colin Barnett ahead of his defeat, but was crucial in helping One Nation secure three upper house seats.

Ms Hanson was unfazed about the Liberals ruling out another deal.

“The Liberal party have been like this up and down over the years, the whole fact is last time we did a preference deal with the Liberal party in the lower house I was handing out how to vote tickets at the polling booth and people were angry and said, ‘When you did a preference deal with the Liberal party you lost my vote’,” she said.

“We’re doing split ticket and the voters will decide where they put their preferences. It is not up to the Liberal party, it is up to the voters themselves.”

WA Liberals leader Zak Kirkup said he was pleased where the party had landed and welcomed the decision to not preference One Nation.

“We want to work closely with the National Party, who are our partners in government, and that’s where our focus will be,” he said.

“There’s a lot of commonality there. We both now Labor has ignored the bush and the regions.”

The Liberals’ decision follows a similar decision to rule out any deals with Clive Palmer, which ended in an extraordinary spray from the mining magnate over Mr Kirkup’s fitness to run the party earlier this month.

One Nation gained 4.9 per cent of the primary vote in the 2017 election but its influence in Australian politics has waned over the past year.

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The party recorded a shocking 7 per cent swing away from it in the state election of its home state Queensland in October.

Even without a sweet preference deal and strong candidates, the party will also face an uphill battle in WA to cut through the surge of popularity Labor Premier Mark McGowan has experienced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

To add salt to the wound, Ms Hanson revealed she would not visit the state ahead of the election because of parliamentary commitments and quarantine requirements in WA.

“It’s so unpredictable and I can’t afford that time,” she said.