Tania Mihailuk revealed as One Nation’s new NSW leader after Mark Latham’s shock exit
One Nation’s new state leader in NSW has been revealed months after firebrand upper house MP Mark Latham spectacularly quit the party.
Mark Latham’s One Nation replacement in NSW state parliament has been revealed months after he sensationally quit the party over allegations it had misappropriated taxpayer funds.
Tania Mihailuk, the sole remaining representative for the right-wing populist party in state parliament, was appointed as state leader by the party’s federal leader Pauline Hanson on Thursday.
Ms Mihailuk has sat as an upper house MP in NSW since 2011, serving as a member of the Labor party until late 2022.
She defected to One Nation months ahead of the 2023 state election in March.
The appointment follows a turbulent few months for One Nation after Mark Latham, the former state leader, quit the party to sit as an Independent in August.
Weeks earlier, Ms Hanson had intervened in the party’s NSW executive branch sacked Mr Latham from the top job following vile comments he made about fellow parliamentarian Alex Greenwich.
Mr Greenwich is now suing Mr Latham for defamation over a tweet and comments made to The Daily Telegraph, which he said were “defamatory and homophobic”.
In a speech to parliament on August 22, Mr Latham announced he would be leaving the party, alongside fellow One Nation member Rod Roberts.
He then made shock accusations that the party’s head office had spent up to $270,000 of taxpayer funds provided by the NSW Electoral Commission.
Mr Latham alleged the party’s Brisbane head office had spent $102,000 in payments in September 2021 to purchase “conveyor belts, other fixed equipment and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation merchandise (hats, T-shirts, sun screen etc)”.
The second time involved allegations of the party attempting to purchase 200,000 in electoral merchandise.
Mr Latham claimed it should only have cost $30,000.
However, Ms Hanson fired back at the comments that same day.
“I utterly reject the allegations made by these individuals under the protection of parliamentary privilege,” Ms Hanson said in a statement.
“Ultimately these men (Mr Latham and Mr Roberts) need to accept responsibility for their own actions instead of blaming literally anyone but themselves.”
Ms Hanson accused the pair of “scapegoating” their responsibility for One Nation’s poor performance in the state election and “deflecting blame for their shortcomings onto others who have worked hard to grow our party’s vote in NSW.”
In a statement on Thursday, Ms Mihailuk said she wanted to be a “viable alternative” to NSW voters “left in the wilderness”.
“The Labor Party has irretrievably lost its way to left wing extremists and the Liberal-National Party in NSW have abandoned their traditional voter base, losing touch with them by moving progressively to the Left,” she said.
Ms Mihailuk said she looked forward to championing “the views and concerns of mainstream Australia who don’t like seeing their traditional values being eroded by loud minority voices”.
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