Former NSW Labor MP Tania Mihailuk joins One Nation

Former NSW Labor frontbencher Tania Mihailuk will run as a One Nation candidate at the March state election.

NSW MP Tania Mihailuk. Picture: Tim Hunter

Former NSW Labor frontbencher Tania Mihailuk will run as a One Nation candidate at the March state election, following in the footsteps of former federal ALP ­leader Mark Latham.

The member for the seat of Bankstown, in Sydney’s southwest, Ms Mihailuk quit the Labor Party in late October after an ­extraordinary pair of speeches in which she accused Canterbury-Bankstown mayor and Labor ­colleague Khal Asfour of being an “acolyte” of corrupt ex-MP Eddie Obeid.

Elected to an eight-year upper house term in 2019, Mr Latham has decided to recontest the state election just four years in, with Ms Mihailuk second on the One Nation ticket.

“I’m very concerned about a potential Labor government,” Ms Mihailuk told Seven News on Tuesday.

“If that happens, NSW will go woke and broke.”

During her second speech and last act as a Labor member in ­October, Ms Mihailuk said the party had “not cleaned up its act” and was “not ready to govern”.

Established by Pauline ­Hanson federally in 1997, One Nation NSW currently has two MPs in parliament: Mr Latham and Rod Roberts, both in the Legislative Council.

Ms Mihailuk had been sitting as an independent on the crossbench until this point.

Ms Mihailuk, who was facing allegations of bullying staffers during her 11-year tenure as an MP, was already facing the prospect of being left without a seat after the abolition of Labor MP Jihad Dib’s seat of Lakemba meant he was poised to move into her seat of Bankstown.

Opposition Leader Chris Minns dumped his then natural resources spokeswoman from the shadow cabinet after she failed to substantiate her allegations of corruption made under parlia­mentary privilege.

Mr Asfour denied all alle­gations of wrongdoing.

Mr Dib, opposition energy spokesman and Labor’s candidate for Bankstown, accused Ms Mihailuk of abandoning the diverse communities she represented in favour of a political party with “division and fear at its core”.

“Like so many people, I am shocked by Ms Mihailuk’s decision. I never imagined someone who grew up in and represented this community would join a political party known for its lack of acceptance of cultural diversity,” he said.