Mark Latham has accused Pauline Hanson of staging a Queensland takeover of One Nation’s NSW branch after she dumped him from the state party leadership for poor election results.
The party’s federal executive, led by Senator Hanson, installed a new state executive last week after One Nation failed to replicate its 2019 NSW election successes at the March poll.
The fresh leadership, which includes Senator Hanson, would examine the structure and campaign abilities of the state party, a spokesman for the senator told AAP on Monday.
The federal party had also declared Mr Latham’s position as state parliamentary leader vacant, he said.
“Nobody has been sacked from the party as such,” the spokesman said.
He declined to comment on how Mr Latham took the news.
But in a Facebook post, Mr Latham accused Senator Hanson of mounting a “Queensland takeover” and filling the state executive with interstate people “who did not lift a finger to help” in the NSW campaign.
The firebrand MP also hit out at a “bizarre” attempt to abolish the party’s parliamentary leadership position, saying the role was a matter for him and the party’s two other NSW representatives, Rod Roberts and Tania Mihailuk.
“The Queensland takeover is not about performance, it is about money,” he said.
While One Nation’s statewide upper house vote fell from 6.9 per cent to 5.9 per cent in March, Mr Latham said the figure was well ahead of the Senate result for NSW at the 2022 federal election after a campaign Senator Hanson headed.
“In Queensland, (Senator) Hanson’s Senate vote fell by three per cent and she only just scraped in for re-election,” Mr Latham said.
“If she is worried about under-performance, her best solution is to buy a mirror.”
The move to oust Mr Latham is an escalation of tensions between the former Labor leader and Senator Hanson after his homophobic slur towards a fellow state parliamentarian in March.
The new executive of the NSW branch would conduct a comprehensive review focused on the relationship between the organisation and parliamentary wings of the party, Senator Hanson’s spokesman said.
“When Senator Hanson is confident the organisation and parliamentary wings of the party have established an effective, strong and collaborative working relationship under her leadership, she will consider opening the position of NSW parliamentary leader for nominations,” her spokesman said.
Mr Latham was the face of the party’s state election campaign in March after resigning from the seat he won in 2019 in an attempt to win the party another two positions.
One Nation slightly grew its vote in lower house contests but went backward from its 2019 result in the Legislative Council, its main avenue to influence.
The result was enough to elect Mr Latham to a fresh eight-year term but not an additional MP.
Former Labor MP Tania Mihailuk filled the final four years of the seat Mr Latham won in 2019.
