One Nation names investment banker Mike Newman as new NSW leader and first lower house candidate
Has picked investment banker Mike Newman to lead the party in New South Wales and contest the Hunter seat of Cessnock at the. One Nation — full details here.
One Nation has picked investment banker Mike Newman to lead the party in New South Wales and contest the Hunter seat of Cessnock at the March 2027 state election. The announcement gives Pauline Hanson’s party its first lower house candidate in the state — and a new face for a campaign built around culture-war politics.
Party pushes into NSW
Hanson stood beside Newman at a press conference on Friday morning to unveil him as the son of former ABC chair Maurice Newman. She said he knew the issues facing NSW, even though he has lived in Japan for the past 25 years, and argued Premier Chris Minns now had “a fight on his hands”.
Newman confirmed his candidacy in an interview with News24. He is a former trade bureaucrat in Asia as well as an investment banker, a background that gives One Nation a candidate with deep experience in business and public policy — and one who has spent much of his working life outside Australia.
The party had already named former federal candidate Stuart Bonds as its first upper house candidate in NSW. Newman’s move to the lower house fills in another part of the party’s state election plan, months before voters go to the polls.
Culture wars front and centre
Newman said One Nation’s NSW platform includes cutting payroll tax by half and abolishing it completely in regional areas. He also backed the party’s broader pitch to voters who feel alienated by what it calls “wokery”, a term Hanson and her allies have used to attack progressive social policies.
That message fits a familiar pattern in Australian politics, where One Nation has long tried to tap resentment over cost pressures, identity politics and frustration with mainstream parties. The NSW contest, however, gives the party a chance to test that strategy in the country’s most populous state.
Newman also sought to head off questions about the party’s image, saying his wife is Japanese and that he therefore does not believe One Nation is racist. The remark goes to a recurring issue for the party, which has often faced criticism over its stance on race and immigration.
For Hanson, Newman offers both a recognizable surname and a candidate with corporate credentials. For One Nation, the challenge is simpler and tougher at once: turn anti-establishment rhetoric into votes in March, starting with Cessnock.
