Source : Perth Now news
Former Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes has revealed she decided to join Pauline Hanson’s One Nation after Labor and Liberal MPs failed to attend a two-day autism symposium following her final speech in parliament.
The ex-senator was one of two once-high profile Liberals to join One Nation earlier this year in an early coup for Senator Hanson as she rode a since-stalled surge in the polls.
Prior to the split, Ms Hughes — who left parliament and the Liberal Party after she was placed on an unwinnable Senate ticket prior to the 2025 election – said the Liberal Party had “lost its soul”.
Ms Hughes told the ABC on Monday her last speech in parliament had been about her work as co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Autism.
“I was concerned that when I left that no one would care,” she said.
“Then, I attend two days of an autism symposium and not one Labor or Liberal, upper or lower state or federal MP could be bothered to attend.
“That was enough for me. I was proven right no one actually cared about these families that I loved so much and made so much support.”
Ms Hughes also noted a vote brought by Senator Hanson to provide palliative care to babies supposedly born out of failed abortions.
She said a number of MPs did not “have the courage of their convictions to turn up” to the vote.
“That was really the moment for me that I felt the Liberal Party had lost its soul,” she said.
A backer of former Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, Ms Hughes said the number of voters abandoning the party since the leadership spill had only gone up.
As for her new party, which was dealt a blow in the most recent Newspoll, Ms Hughes said the result had “buoyed” Anthony Albanese.
“Perhaps you can man up and provide the staff to the levels that they should provide to a party at the size of One Nation,” she said.
“They are the deliberately being made to fight in parliament with one hand behind their back.
“They’re currently polling second in Victoria, second in NSW – and in NSW, they don’t even have a sitting member. It’s an extraordinary shift in the political landscape.”
Ms Hughes dismissed backlash to Senator Hanson’s National Press Club “monoculture” call, which has been linked to the polling drop.
“Pauline gets a very different run in the media generally than other mainstream parties,” she said.
“They say … but what’s the policy? The Liberals don’t have a policy in these areas. The Nationals don’t have a policy in those areas. Certainly, the Greens don’t have policy in those areas.”
However, Ms Hughes remained coy on whether she would take a run at state or federal parliament.
“I have been working every day since bought the pub,” she said.
“We just had a week away … I told Pauline I’d have a chat to her when I got back about what my future might look like.
“Unfortunately, the day I got back was the day that we Teena McQueen”, who split with Ms Hughes from the Liberals earlier this year.
“So, we’ve all been preparing for her farewell on Friday. But, I’m sure in the next couple weeks we’ll sit down and have a conversation and say what it looks like.”
Ms Hughes served as a senator for NSW from 2019 to 2025, as well as a shadow spokesperson under then-Opposition leader Peter Dutton.
She left Liberal Party in late-2025 after being placed in an unwinnable Senate position following a preselection loss.
Since leaving office, she has bought a pub at Rydal in the NSW central tablelands.
