One Nation (Australia) - Electoral Performance

Electoral Performance

One Nation achieved its peak of support in the 1998 Queensland state election, at which the party won 22.7% of the vote and 11 of the 89 seats. In terms of first-preference votes, One Nation received more than either the Liberals or Nationals. However, since One Nation's vote was spread out across the state, this was only good enough for fourth place in the legislature behind Labor, the Liberals and Nationals. This was still enough to deny Labor a majority, as Liberal preferences resulted in One Nation picking up seven seats that would have otherwise gone Labor. Subsequently, the One Nation contingent in the Queensland Parliament split, with dissident members forming the rival City-Country Alliance in late 1999.

At the 1998 federal election, Hanson contested the new seat of Blair after a redistribution effectively split Oxley in half. Hanson lost to Liberal candidate Cameron Thompson, and the One Nation candidate in Oxley lost the seat to ALP candidate Bernie Ripoll, but One Nation candidate Heather Hill was elected as a senator for Queensland. Hill's eligibility to sit as a senator was successfully challenged under the Australian Constitution on the basis that she had failed to renounce her childhood British citizenship, despite being a naturalised Australian citizen. The seat subsequently went to the party's Len Harris following a recount. At the 1999 New South Wales election, David Oldfield was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council.

In the 2001 Queensland state election, One Nation won only three seats and 8.69% of the primary vote. The City-Country Alliance won no seats.

At the 2001 state election in Western Australia, One Nation won three seats in the state's Legislative Council. One Nation was unable to obtain any seats in state elections in Victoria, South Australia or Tasmania in the following year.

At the 2001 federal election, the party's vote was halved, from nine percent to 5.5 percent. Hanson failed in her bid to win a Senate seat from Queensland, despite polling a strong 10% of the primary vote. This was largely due to the fact that voters of most other parties were unwilling to favourably preference One Nation, under Australia's single transferable vote voting system. Hanson also failed to win a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council at the 2003 state election, where she ran as an independent, with the support of the official One Nation party. She polled less than 2% of the vote and subsequently withdrew from the party's leadership.