Qld: One Nation to battle on despite loss
By Steve Gray03 Apr 2009 3:59 PM
BRISBANE, April 3 AAP - One Nation will have to prove it is a viable political force in Queensland after losing its sole elected representative.
Queensland electoral law prescribes that a political party must have 500 members, or an elected MP in the state's parliament, to remain registered.
The party lost its last MP this week when Rosa Lee Long conceded defeat to her LNP rival, Shane Knuth, in the north Queensland seat of Dalrymple.
The party's registration will be reviewed by the Electoral Commission of Queensland following the March 21 poll.
However state secretary and Queensland branch CEO Rod Evans said on Friday that the party will battle on, despite no longer having any elected representatives in any parliament in Australia.
Mr Evans said the loss of parliamentary representation will have little effect.
"Rosa looked after the parliamentary side, and the party continued on, and that will continue with the exception that Rosa will no longer be representing in parliament on her behalf and One Nation's behalf," he told AAP on Friday.
Mr Evans said One Nation will continue to field candidates at state and federal levels.
"Obviously we didn't gain the election of our representatives, but that's no reason to give up and we don't intend to," he said.
"We will simply consolidate the position as it is and we will work towards the next federal and state elections."
Mr Evans said One Nation still had the required 500 members to meet Queensland's electoral law, which states that a party "must have at least 500 members who are electors or one member who is a member of the Legislative Assembly".
"We're not going to go away," Mr Evans said.
"We believe that our nationalist approach is too important to fold the party up."
One Nation founder Pauline Hanson, who again failed as an independent candidate in the March 21 poll, declined to comment on her old party's future.
