One Nation’s Western Australian by-election win may add an electoral dimension to its dispute with Liberal lawmaker Andrew Hastie, whose federal seat contains most of the state district.
The Western Australian Electoral Commission declared One Nation candidate Luke Herdegen elected on Sept. 9 after the Aug. 29 vote. Herdegen received 57.19% of valid votes in the two-candidate preferred count, against 42.81% for Labor candidate Georgia Tree. The result gave One Nation its first lower-house seat in the state. ABC News, part of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, reported that Secret Harbour lies mostly within Canning, which One Nation is targeting.
Hastie represents Canning and is deputy leader of the opposition in the House of Representatives. In an April statement, he said he was one of 21 Special Air Service veterans subpoenaed in 2022 to give evidence in the civil defamation case brought by former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith against Nine Media. Hastie said he attended a 2012 mission examined by the Federal Court and testified under oath: “I gave testimony under oath.”
One Nation posted its “Don’t Be Hastie” cartoon on Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain YouTube channel on July 23. ABC News reported that the cartoon repeatedly branded Hastie a traitor. One Nation later said it stood by the episode and described it as satire.
National polling offers mixed readings of the party’s support. The Guardian reported that its Essential poll of 1,087 respondents put Labor and One Nation at 28% each, with the Coalition at 23%. A Roy Morgan survey of 2,711 electors, conducted Oct. 12-25, put Labor at 26%, the Liberal-National Coalition at 23.5% and One Nation at 22.5%. Those nationwide surveys and a state by-election do not establish how Canning will vote in a federal contest.
The Federal Court dismissed Roberts-Smith’s civil defamation case in 2023, finding several imputations in media reports substantially true and some other allegations not established. That judgment resolved a civil claim; it was not a criminal verdict. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Office of the Special Investigator charged Roberts-Smith in April 2026 with five alleged war-crime murders relating to the deaths of five Afghan nationals. The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions lists Dec. 8 as the date for the case’s next brief service mention.
