Former Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes has refused to rule out running for a seat in state or federal parliament after defecting to One Nation in the latest political coup for leader Pauline Hanson.
Ms Hughes and ex-Liberal Vice President Teena McQueen were revealed by Senator Hanson at a pub event in Rydal in the NSW Blue Mountains on Saturday to have joined the right-wing populist party.
Ms Hughes, who was defeated at the 2025 federal election, told Sky News on Sunday her phone had been “blowing up” since the move.
Asked, however, if she was going to run for a seat in parliament a year after leaving politics, Ms Hughes said “I’m not ruling anything in and I’m not ruling anything out”.
“But, there has been absolutely no decision made about what that might look like in the future,” she said.
Pressed on a possible state parliament pivot, Ms Hughes said she was “not trying to play possum”.
“I haven’t made a decision at all. I really don’t know what I’m doing,” she said.
“So, when it comes to what I do moving forward, I may or may not run in the future and it may or may not be state or it may or may not be federal.”
Having resigned from the Liberal Party in November, Ms Hughes said she no longer recognised the centre-right party.
“I don’t think they know what they stand for anymore,” she said.
Ms Hughes said One Nation had “stood for the same thing for decades”.
“(They) stood by their convictions even when they were being dismissed and being quite frankly abused and treated incredibly poorly, and its been something I’ve been talking about with Pauline for quite some time.”
Ms Hughes backed in the Coalition’s plan to strip permanent residents of welfare benefits, and repeatedly sought to draw attention to the closure of the Great Western Hwy.
“I think the most surprising thing to a lot of Australians, and certainly I hear it all the time in our front bar … Most Australians didn’t realise that non-citizens have access to the volume of welfare that they do,” she said.
She went on to state Australia need the “right sort of migrants … not people just making up the numbers and boosting GDP per capita so it doesn’t look like we’re in a recession.”
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor earlier dismissed the defections.
“Oh, that’s their choice,” he told Sky News.
Pressed, he continued: “It’s their choice. I mean, I can, you know, I love the fact in this country we have democracy in choice. It’s a great thing.”
Ms Hughes publicly backed Sussan Ley and has been critical of Mr Taylor after she was dumped from a winnable NSW Senate seat.
Ms McQueen, meanwhile, is a voiceful advocate for US President Donald Trump.
The defection of both women is the latest political coup for Senator Hanson after former Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and former South Australia Senator Cory Bernardi joined One Nation.
