WA MP still wants to run for One Nation, but the party might not want him
Labor-turned-One Nation MP Ben Dawkins has not given up on representing Pauline Hanson’s party next year despite leader Rod Caddies casting doubt over his future with the party and Dawkins failing to secure the party’s endorsement for another tilt at the upper house.
Dawkins said he would remain a member of One Nation, which he joined in February, and expressed interest in running as one of the party’s lower house candidates.
Pauline Hanson announcing MP Ben Dawkins had joined her party in February.
However, Caddies was less clear about Dawkins’ future in the party, saying it would “be discussed”.
Caddies said he had no ill feelings toward Dawkins but that, in his view, he did not meet the expectations required during the preselection process.
“We’ve been accused in the past of our professionalism. I’m here to make sure, as the leader of this party, that I put together the best team I can, and in my view, he wasn’t the best person, so in that process he was eliminated,” he said.
“I don’t believe he had the work ethic I think the people of Western Australia would expect.
“I think he’s made some good contributions on the floor of Parliament. However, that’s just how politics is, you get endorsed, or you don’t.”
Caddies said he would discuss with Dawkins whether he would stay in the party or go independent.
“He’s a member of parliament, so he’s still got things to contribute, and whether that is with One Nation I don’t know,” he said.
A defiant Dawkins said he was still a One Nation MP and had no plans of resigning from the party.
“I’m remaining in the party, and that’s my choice, and I think One Nation’s the right party to break down the two-party monopoly, even by winning lower house seats,” he said.
Dawkins said he respected Caddies’ public remarks about his professionalism but rejected the assertion that he did not work hard.
“I prefer to use the language that I was unsuccessful at the preselection process,” he said.
“It’s probably a discussion I don’t really want to have publicly except I’ll admit that I’m not necessarily the most conventional person, I’ve never intended to be.
“I do my work. I do a lot of work outside the parliament.
“Sometimes your time is best spent by tending to constituent things, and I’m very good at that.”
The 53-year-old lawyer was fifth on Labor’s South West region ticket in the 2021 election and was made an MP after Alannah MacTiernan retired. Labor dumped him after his VRO breaches were made public.
He was fined $2000 and handed a 10-month community order after he pleaded guilty to 35 charges of breaching a VRO, which related to multiple emails he sent to his former partner over several months.