Lee Hanson, the daughter of Pauline Hanson, is running in this election as a Senate candidate in Tasmania.
There’s no surprises that she’s running for her mother’s party, One Nation. Throughout the campaign, Pauline has downplayed any criticism of nepotism by saying she wouldn’t put one of her three sons on the ticket.
Lee has said she shares similar views to her mother but is not as polarising. If she wins a Senate position on Saturday, the pair would become the first mother-daughter duo to be elected to parliament.
“Mum has actually been asking me for at least 10 years, and the answer is, no, no, not an option. Not me,” Lee told Sky News when she announced her candidacy.
“Why would I, seeing what you’ve been through? You got rocks in your head, not my pathway. But…I’m 41 years of age now. I’ve had more life experience. I’ve got two kids, Tassie born children living here in Tassie. And in the 13 years I’ve been living in Tasmania, I have seen so much change within our community during that time that I feel like I don’t have a choice anymore. I need to stand up.”
Pauline Hanson, now aged 70, has indicated that her time in politics may be drawing to an end in the not-too distant future. Hanson was first elected in 1996 as a member of the Liberal Party, before she was disendorsed. She went on to win again as an independent. In her maiden speech, she famously said: “I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians” and called for the end of multiculturalism.
Lee’s selection as a One Nation candidate comes as the party finds itself in a fight with Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots over its right-wing voter base. So far, polls have indicated that the Coalition may be forced to rely on right-wing minor party preferences to win across a number of seats, putting One Nation in a potenitally powerful position.
The Coalition has preferenced One Nation above Labor on its how-to-vote card in a number of seats. Currently, polling shows One Nation’s primary vote is polling better than it did in 2022 as voters drift away from the major parties.
Up against Jacqui Lambie
In the race for a Tasmanian senate seat, Lee Hanson will be in competition with independent senator Jacqui Lambie, who has been a mainstay in Tasmanian politics for about a decade.
The Hansons say they are taking on Lambie because she often votes with Labor and the Greens and is not in line with “conservative values”.
Recently, Lambie has been critical of the ‘toxic’ Tasmanian salmon industry, which Lee and Pauline are supportive of.
“Get them out of the Macquarie Harbour,” Lambie recently told the Tasmanian Inquirer about salmon farming. “You’ve got waterways everywhere. Go and put them somewhere else … put them out further in the sea. They just don’t want [to do] it, because it costs those salmon companies more money.”
There are five Tasmanian senators facing election on May 3, including Catryna Bilyk and Carol Brown from Labor, Claire Chandler and Richard Colbeck from the Liberal Party, Nick McKim from the Greens, and independent Jacqui Lambie.