Crashing question time, backing anti-vax bills: One Nation leader looms large at parliament

NSW Premier Chris Minns has ramped up pressure on One Nation to have its policies costed and argued they risked contributing to inflation, as the populist party’s leader Mike Newman made a surprise visit to parliament where he expressed support for an anti-vaccination bill.

Newman crashed question time briefly on Wednesday before being escorted out by parliament staff. Newman, who is not an MP, said he wasn’t sure why he was escorted out, but said it was probably because of where he was standing, which was an area reserved for opposition staff, rather than the public gallery.

Earlier, he appeared in the Legislative Assembly as Libertarian MP John Ruddick was speaking about his anti-vax bill.

Minns singled out Newman in his first answer in question time on Wednesday, after the parliament this week introduced new legislation to allow One Nation access to the parliamentary budget office to cost their policies ahead of the state election.

Newman questioned the independence of the office, and said earlier this week he would not use it to cost his policies, he would instead use access to inquire into “the total cost of net zero to the NSW budget”.

Minns accused Newman of shortchanging the public by dismissing the work of the Parliamentary Budget Office.

“The bottom line here is that if One Nation and Mike Newman won’t have the costs of their policies released, then they won’t control spending, and if they’re not going to control spending, they will stuff the budget, screw up debt, and add pressure to the Reserve Bank’s task when it comes to inflation,” Minns told the parliament.

In a snap press conference outside parliament, Newman said he was willing to sit down with the budget office.

“I want to understand who are the people behind the machine … from one analyst or former analyst to another, let’s have a debate about how you do things,” Newman said.

Newman said his visit to the Legislative Assembly during the vaccine speech was simply a coincidence – but told reporters he thought Ruddick’s idea, while not official One Nation policy, “has a lot of merit”.

The One Nation leader said he was visiting parliament “to measure the curtains” and to get a sense of how the parliament works, given his party has never been in government. He told reporters he was not on a recruitment drive, and insisted he had not spoken to Ruddick about joining One Nation, as the Libertarian watched the press conference in a vibrant orange tie.

Newman said he had a friendly chat with Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane while in the chamber, but did not say whether he met with any other state MPs.

Newman’s visit comes as the Herald reported on Wednesday a conga line of former Liberal and National politicians were vying to run for One Nation at the next state election, including former Warringah candidate Katherine Deves, and former Liberals Hollie Hughes and Lou Amato.

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