Pauline Hanson’s daughter Lee working for a NSW One Nation senator remotely from Tasmania without ministerial approval
Guardian AU
•Tue, 15 Sep 2026 15:00:55 GMT
📰 What Happened
Guardian Australia reported on 16 September 2026 that Lee Hanson, the daughter of One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, has been working from Tasmania as a senior adviser to New South Wales One Nation senator Sean Bell without the ministerial approval required for an alternative work base. Under the arrangements that apply to all MPs' staff, a personal adviser may work outside Canberra or the parliamentarian's home base only with approval from the special minister of state, and the report says Sean Bell did not lodge that request. The Department of Finance approved a contract variation reclassifying her from an electorate officer to a personal adviser without the process being followed, with sources describing it as a departmental 'stuff-up'. The role pays between $150,000 and $180,000 a year under the relevant enterprise agreement. Guardian analysis of her social media also suggests she regularly campaigned for One Nation in Tasmania during business hours, which would breach the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act if no leave was taken, and neither One Nation nor Lee Hanson responded to questions.
🔍 The Backstory
Parliamentary staffing rules exist to stop taxpayer-funded staff being used for party political work, and the work base requirement is one of the mechanisms that enforce that separation. Lee Hanson has been central to One Nation's expansion in Tasmania, where the party says it has opened five new branches and recruited thousands of members, and she is also a member of One Nation's federal executive and oversees the party's parliamentary human resources. The revelations are carried in the first episode of The Populist, a new Guardian Australia podcast about One Nation, at a time when the party's polling has lifted it into the centre of national political debate. Members of the Hanson family have been involved in the party's operations for years, and the party's rise has brought its internal governance under closer scrutiny.
🎯 Why It Matters
The story raises questions about whether parliamentary entitlements and taxpayer-funded staffing were used in line with the rules, and about who was accountable when the process was missed. It also feeds a broader argument about standards and transparency in a parliament where One Nation's influence is growing, and it may prompt questions in estimates hearings or from the special minister of state's office. Individual voters in Tasmania, where Lee Hanson has been campaigning to win a Senate seat, are given a concrete example of where party campaigning and publicly funded advisory work may have overlapped. The episode is also the opening instalment of sustained Guardian coverage of One Nation, so further reporting on the party's structures is likely.
Guardian Australia reported on 16 September 2026 that Lee Hanson, the daughter of One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, has been working from Tasmania as a senior adviser to New South Wales One Nation senator Sean Bell without the ministerial approval required for an alternative work base. Under the arrangements that apply to all MPs' staff, a personal adviser may work outside Canberra or the parliamentarian's home base only with approval from the special minister of state, and the report says Sean Bell did not lodge that request. The Department of Finance approved a contract variation reclassifying her from an electorate officer to a personal adviser without the process being followed, with sources describing it as a departmental 'stuff-up'. The role pays between $150,000 and $180,000 a year under the relevant enterprise agreement. Guardian analysis of her social media also suggests she regularly campaigned for One Nation in Tasmania during business hours, which would breach the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act if no leave was taken, and neither One Nation nor Lee Hanson responded to questions.
Parliamentary staffing rules exist to stop taxpayer-funded staff being used for party political work, and the work base requirement is one of the mechanisms that enforce that separation. Lee Hanson has been central to One Nation's expansion in Tasmania, where the party says it has opened five new branches and recruited thousands of members, and she is also a member of One Nation's federal executive and oversees the party's parliamentary human resources. The revelations are carried in the first episode of The Populist, a new Guardian Australia podcast about One Nation, at a time when the party's polling has lifted it into the centre of national political debate. Members of the Hanson family have been involved in the party's operations for years, and the party's rise has brought its internal governance under closer scrutiny.
The story raises questions about whether parliamentary entitlements and taxpayer-funded staffing were used in line with the rules, and about who was accountable when the process was missed. It also feeds a broader argument about standards and transparency in a parliament where One Nation's influence is growing, and it may prompt questions in estimates hearings or from the special minister of state's office. Individual voters in Tasmania, where Lee Hanson has been campaigning to win a Senate seat, are given a concrete example of where party campaigning and publicly funded advisory work may have overlapped. The episode is also the opening instalment of sustained Guardian coverage of One Nation, so further reporting on the party's structures is likely.