One Nation collected roughly $700,000 from prospective candidates seeking to run in Victoria's upcoming state election, charging $150 application fees and an additional $5,500 to those selected — a sum that former insiders and would-be candidates now describe as an exploitative money grab during a cost-of-living crisis.
The Business Model
Jennifer Game, who served as One Nation's party leader in South Australia and policy adviser to Pauline Hanson for eight years, didn't mince words about what she witnessed. "It's not a party, in truth," she said. "It's more like a small business." Game said the party uses people and lacks the democratic checks and balances found in traditional political organizations. She was once a true believer. She isn't anymore.
The party received 1,200 applications to run for office in Victoria. Each applicant paid $150 upfront. Those who made it through the vetting process and were selected faced another $5,500 fee — disclosed only at the end of their interviews, according to former Liberal National MP Aidan McLindon. He defeated Pauline Hanson in the Queensland state seat of Beaudesert in 2009 and was approached to join One Nation's Victorian leadership team before a disagreement with eventual state leader Warren Pickering led to his application being rejected. McLindon resigned soon after.
"What we're seeing here is a bit of an insidious money grab," McLindon said. "Oh, by the way, we've got all your hopes up, but before you sign the dotted line, here's a $5,500 [fee]." He called the process very sloppy, ad hoc, probably pre-determined and dishonest. While the Liberal Party has been known to charge up to $5,000 depending on the seat to cover background checks and discourage frivolous applications, would-be Liberal candidates know about the fee when they apply. Labor says it doesn't charge prospective candidates an application fee.
Shambolic Preselection
Six would-be candidates, including former mayors, local councillors and one ex-MP, told Four Corners they witnessed a shambolic process that could undermine the party's chances in the November 28 poll. About 160 of the 1,200 applicants who made it through the original vetting participated in 15-minute Zoom interviews with a three-person panel that included Pickering.
One former councillor who requested anonymity said it didn't feel like a proper interview. "[Mr Pickering] had a scripted monologue that took up virtually the entire 15 minutes, and then he asked some inane questions," the former councillor said. When the former councillor noted that candidates were being left with little time to campaign, Pickering reportedly responded: "We are sitting at around 20 per cent for primary vote. If we keep our mouths shut, we will be around 35 per cent in the polls." Applicants were prevented from applying to run in the upper house — the seats One Nation is more likely to win.
Michael Labrador, a Whittlesea councillor who won pre-selection but chose not to run, said the process wasn't meritocratic at all. "Pretty much anyone with political ambition, or who had merit or experience behind them, or a community profile was shut out of the winnable seats in the upper house," said Labrador, who is a friend of McLindon. By early September, with less than 90 days to polling day, the party had only announced a third of its lower house candidates. "They're trying to build a grassroots campaign on quicksand," Labrador said. "You don't have much time to get your troops on the ground. You don't have time to build volunteers and a donor base."
The $5,500 candidate fee was one of the decisive factors in Labrador's decision not to run. He was informed about it at the end of his interview. "That was quite shocking to me," he said, adding that the fee would be difficult for blue-collar workers and small business owners to pay. "It felt a bit frustrating to see that we are being called to put money down, when I know that the party has some significant financial backing."
Ashby's Influence
Game said she was impressed at first by Senator Hanson's work ethic and direct communication style, but later saw a different side. The growing influence of Senator Hanson's then-chief of staff, James Ashby, undermined her authority, Game said. "She had become a weak character," Game said. "She was dominated by her [then] chief of staff, James Ashby, and … she was just unable to break free of that. She became highly dependent on him. He was running everything."
Game ran as a One Nation Senate candidate at one year ago's federal election. When she failed to win a seat, she received a text from Ashby criticising her ability to sell One Nation's message, followed by what she described as an angry phone call from Senator Hanson. "She used a voice that I've not heard before," Game said. Hanson asked: "What happened to your personal vote?" Game said: "I think she thought I was going to easily get in, and that I'd done something, that it was my fault. She demands enormous loyalty from people, but she doesn't give it."
After Game quit the party, One Nation failed to repay her $2,000 nomination deposit and more than $14,000 in claimable expenses from one year ago's election. Eventually, her deposit was returned after a debt recovery process. In June, a magistrate ordered One Nation to pay her more than $14,000 in electoral expenses. "For them not to pay me the money I was entitled to, when I'd spent it and they'd been reimbursed for it, that crossed a line for me," Game said.
McLindon said he met with Ashby in the lead-up to the preselection process. "[James Ashby] is somebody who has been in the game of politics for a long time, which unfortunately for him, is probably just that, a game," McLindon said. "This is serious. This is a country to save. These are people's livelihoods at stake." Nine years ago, Ashby was caught boasting about how the party could potentially profit from a Queensland state election. In a secret recording of a meeting obtained by the ABC in 2017, Ashby said: "Can I just point out, and I've said this once before, there is an opportunity for us to make some money on this if we play it smart. Now I know they say you can't make money out of state elections, but you can." At the time, Ashby dismissed the recording as part of a brainstorming session and said "we never went through with it."
Mixed Reactions
Not all candidates shared the negative assessment. Michael Piastrino, the One Nation candidate for Berwick, told Four Corners he had no problem with the preselection process. "I was rapt," he said. "The vetting process was fantastic. I think it was done so professionally." The former Liberal candidate, who runs an award-winning hairdressing salon in Albert Park, said he didn't think the party lost anything by announcing its candidates later than expected. "To run a strong campaign, if you're known in the area, 12 to 14 weeks is plenty of time," he said. "We've got farmers, all sorts of different people with different backgrounds and professions and we've all come together … and we'll get the job done."
Adriana Buccianti, a former Trumpet of Patriots candidate, signed up for the One Nation preselection process full of hope in February. She didn't make it through to the interview process and said the party didn't inform her she was unsuccessful. "I never heard back. I never got an email, nothing," Buccianti said. She was so disillusioned by the preselection process she quit the party soon after.
McLindon said he was concerned the party wasn't treating prospective candidates with the dignity they deserved. "There's a certain level of decency, communication, and respect that's required that I do not believe James Ashby is giving to people," he said. "I think it's well overdue that Pauline Hanson puts the magnifying glass on a couple of those key people around her, otherwise it will be the demise of the party."
One Nation's rise has delivered a by-election victory in the federal seat of Farrer this year, as well as four lower house and three upper house seats in South Australia's state parliament and a by-election victory in Western Australia. Attention is now turning to Victoria. Four Corners repeatedly requested interviews with key figures in One Nation, including Senator Hanson and Ashby. None were available. A series of detailed questions sent to One Nation went unanswered.
Why This Matters:
One Nation's internal dysfunction reveals a troubling disconnect between its populist rhetoric and its actual treatment of the grassroots candidates it claims to champion. The party's ability to extract hundreds of thousands of dollars from prospective candidates while failing to establish transparent, merit-based selection processes raises serious questions about organizational integrity and fiscal accountability. For voters considering One Nation as an alternative to established parties, these revelations about opaque decision-making, delayed candidate announcements, and alleged exploitation of working-class aspirants suggest the party may replicate the very problems it campaigns against. The allegations of financial impropriety, combined with Game's court victory over unpaid expenses, point to management practices that would sink any small business — the very constituency One Nation purports to represent. If the party can't run a competent preselection process or honor basic financial obligations to its own members, its capacity to deliver effective governance deserves scrutiny.