More than half of the One Nation MPs elected to state or federal parliaments have left the party before the end of their term, with 28 of the 51 people elected under Pauline Hanson’s banner either resigning midterm or being expelled.
One Nation, which won 6% of the national vote at the 2025 federal election, is now polling above 30% in some surveys, potentially enough to make the party the official federal opposition or even in a position of minority government.
But Guardian Australia analysis of the party’s colourful candidate history shows the party has a history of chaos and instability.
This chart shows a full timeline of every One Nation MP and how long they were with the party.
Through the various rises and falls of One Nation, a constant theme has been instability in its candidate and member ranks. Hanson herself had a tumultuous entry to federal politics – selected as a Liberal candidate for the seat of Oxley, she was disendorsed just before the election but her name remained on ballot papers as a Liberal. She won the seat as an independent and then formed One Nation. Since then the party’s ranks have been in constant upheaval.
In 1998, One Nation won 11 seats in Queensland parliament, but all 11 members soon either resigned from the party to sit as independents, or resigned from parliament altogether. Hanson even quit her own party, as the organisation splintered among infighting, but later rejoined.
Other high-profile recruits such as Mark Latham and Tania Mihailuk in the New South Wales parliament have quit. After One Nation’s 2016 resurgence at the federal double-dissolution election, with four senators elected including Hanson, a revolving door of controversies and departures followed. Rod Culleton quit the party then was disqualified from parliament; Malcolm Roberts was found to be a dual citizen; Fraser Anning replaced Roberts, then quit One Nation on his first day in parliament; and Brian Burston defected to the United Australia party, followed by an altercation with Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby, in Parliament House.
One Nation has had some long-running members; Rosa Lee Long won several terms in the Queensland parliament in the 2000s, while Roberts has been Hanson’s right-hand man since 2016, rejoining parliament in 2019 and winning re-election in 2025.
The party’s numbers have grown to record levels during its recent resurgence, with six members in federal parliament. David Farley became the first person to win a federal lower house seat as a One Nation candidate at the Farrer byelection in May, joining Nationals defector Barnaby Joyce in parliament.
