One Nation leader Pauline Hanson failed to disclose nearly half of the party’s campaign expenditures during the October 2024 Queensland state election, an omission corrected only after intervention from the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ). The party’s oversight involved approximately $255,000 in previously unreported spending.
One Nation ran candidates in all 93 seats in the October 2024 poll, securing 8 percent of the primary vote and finishing behind major parties. Initially, Senator Hanson reported campaign spending of $298,784.79, outlined in 132 transactions. However, the ECQ subsequently identified 138 additional transactions worth $255,155.24 in the party’s bank statements that were not disclosed in the original election return.
As the official “agent” for One Nation’s Queensland division, Senator Hanson holds legal responsibility for compliance with electoral and financial disclosure laws. Following the ECQ’s findings, the party updated its election return on June 4, 2026, to address the discrepancies highlighted in an April letter from the commission. An ECQ spokeswoman confirmed the watchdog’s proactive review uncovered inconsistencies between the declared expenditures and bank records and that compliance outcomes would be included in the ECQ’s annual report due later this month.
A One Nation spokesperson clarified that the previously omitted amounts were classified internally as “campaign expenditure” rather than “candidate expenditure” for several electorates and were not recovered from candidates. The party’s accounts and compliance team submitted amendments to the ECQ to incorporate these additional transactions.
In the 2024 election, One Nation received 248,334 primary votes. Under ECQ rules, parties receive public funding based on voter entitlements, capped at the lesser of a party’s maximum funding entitlement or actual declared campaign expenditure. For this election, that translated to a potential entitlement of approximately $1.6 million, with candidate payouts totaling around $776,000.
One Nation has faced ongoing challenges meeting financial disclosure and transparency requirements amid its growth in popularity. The Queensland division narrowly avoided deregistration this year after risking penalties for failing to submit three years of audited financial statements to the Office of Fair Trading. The party met the August 18 deadline, with treasurer Alexander Jones and independent auditor Tony Becis signing off on accounts for 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Additional scrutiny surrounds Senator Hanson’s financial role in the party: earlier this year, she was revealed as the largest individual backer for 2024-25, providing $245,000 in funding to the federal party as a “commercial loan.” Despite previous statements indicating she would reduce her formal responsibilities, Hanson retains her official legal roles for One Nation federally and in multiple states, including Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.
Recently, the party confirmed that Hanson transferred the “registered officer” duties in New South Wales, responsible for management and administration, to Les Wells. Since 2023, One Nation has also engaged Becis Accountants to enhance transparency and boost confidence among party members, donors, and the electoral commission in its financial disclosures.