‘Paddock of Despair’: Liberal Party MP Takes Aim at Latest One Nation Defectors

Two former Liberals have been accused of fleeing to the “orange paddock of despair” after defecting to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.

The conservative-leaning party has grown its ranks steadily with the addition of former New South Wales (NSW) Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes and the party’s former Vice President Teena McQueen.

Senator Hanson announced the pair had jumped ship during an event at Hughes’ pub in regional NSW just over a week after the party’s breakthrough win in the Farrer by-election.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor shrugged off the news, but fellow Liberal Tim Wilson was critical of the defections.

“If somebody wants to follow others into the orange paddock of despair, that is their choice,” he told reporters in Sydney.

“They’re not the ones looking to the horizon with optimism and confidence and the spirit of what we can build in this country.”

Hughes, who resigned from the Liberal Party live on air after being bumped to an unwinnable spot on the NSW Senate ticket, said she hadn’t decided whether she would run for parliament again under the One Nation banner.

“I’m not ruling anything in and I’m not ruling anything out,” she told Sky News.

Hughes owns a pub in Rydal, near Lithgow in the Blue Mountains, and she said she was enjoying her new career in hospitality.

She suggested more Liberal rank-and-file members could jump ship to Senator Hanson’s party in the coming months.

Taylor refused to be drawn when asked about the ex-Liberal duo’s moves.

“That’s their choice,” he said before pivoting to an attack on Labor’s tax policy.

One Nation has been growing its ranks since former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce defected to the party in December.

It also had its first lower-house victory earlier in May when it won the seat of Farrer, which had been held by the Coalition since its creation in 1949.

The clear win prompted Joyce to declare One Nation could pick up seats in areas such as western Sydney when Australians next go to the federal poll in 2028.

By Zac de Silva in Canberra.