The Queensland MP Steve Dickson has defected from the Liberal National party to join One Nation ahead of the next state election.

On Friday One Nation’s federal leader, Pauline Hanson, announced that Dickson, the member for Buderim, would recontest his seat for her party at the Queensland election, due in or before 2018.

Dickson was the minister for national parks, recreation, sport and racing in Campbell Newman’s government.

She was “very proud” Dickson had joined One Nation, she said, though she offered an apology to anybody disappointed he had switched parties.

She had not approached Dickson to defect and no “deal” was done; he joined out of “sheer frustration” because he didn’t want to be a “yes person” for the major parties.

Dickson will now be the only One Nation MP in the finely balanced Queensland parliament, a crucial crossbench vote in the 89-seat parliament Labor governs with 42 seats.

Hanson said the leader of the Queensland party was yet to be chosen because the party had not finalised its candidates. Nominations continued to roll in, she said, and One Nation was likely to field a candidate in every seat.

Dickson declared he wanted to “put people before politics” and the two major parties had “lost their way”. He said had he met with Hanson in his electorate last October.

Explaining the circumstances of his defection, Dickson said the crucial issue for him was an amnesty for medicinal cannabis users. He had approached Palaszczuk and asked the prime minister’s office for help on Monday but not received a return phone call.

“The only politician in this country that came and offered me any help is standing beside me – Senator Pauline Hanson,” he said. “I am a proud Queenslander but at the moment I am not proud because we are letting children suffer.”

Dickson said Hanson had shown she “cares about the people of this country” because she supported “whole-plant medicinal cannabis, and wanting to save a child’s life instead of sitting back and being a bureaucrat and letting a child die”.

On Tuesday Hanson said on her Facebook page that she had been “working closely” with Dickson on the issue and she would lobby the prime minister to call a medicinal cannabis amnesty.

“Last year Queensland passed a bill to legalise the use of medical cannabis but as of yet there are no licensed suppliers,” she said. “Is it fair to say that medical cannabis has been declared legal because it is an effective medicine and then deny desperate families that medicine? I’m sorry but that fails the commonsense test.”

Dickson said he had reached out to former LNP colleagues to say he was “not the enemy”, would continue to work with them and wanted the parliament to be more bipartisan.

On Friday LNP leader Tim Nicholls said he was disappointed with Dickson’s decision, accusing him of acting out of self-interest.

“This is all about Steve Dickson and Pauline Hanson playing the types of political games that Queenslanders are sick and tired of.

“They didn’t vote for Dickson to change horses midway through a political term.”

Nicholls said the LNP had supported prescription access to medicinal cannabis through pharmacies, laws which will come into effect in March. He accused Dickson of “using the suffering of those poor families and kids” to justify jumping to One Nation.

In 2015 Dickson sponsored a petition seeking legislation to exclude any group which advocates violence, seeks to promote or impose sharia law, or rejects the constitution from the definition of “religion … and places of worship”.

Dickson’s son, Christian Dickson, cut ties with the LNP to run as an independent for Sunshine Coast council and over his involvement in an anti-mosque group.

In a statement the Queensland Greens convenor, Andrew Bartlett, said the defection was a “huge blow to the LNP’s credibility in Queensland, and shows the difference between One Nation and the LNP is smaller than ever”.

“It is virtually certain that the LNP – which once had principles on this issue – will now do a preference deal with One Nation.

“One Nation is voting almost always to back LNP legislation and do political deals with the LNP in the Senate, while more and more LNP members are echoing the socially and economically destructive rhetoric of One Nation.”

Hanson said no decision had been made on preferences and the defection had nothing to do with them.

Queensland One Nation candidates have already sparked controversy, after Guardian Australia reported two had come under fire for promoting anti-gay messages and Port Arthur conspiracy theories.



The Mulgrave candidate, Peter Rogers, is the latest to face criticism after a post on his campaign website claimed that the drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi was “alive and well” and that the Port Arthur massacre was “a fabricated incident”.

Hanson revealed that Rogers had offered his resignation but she accepted his explanation he was not the author of the posts.

“He, his own stupidity, he allowed someone to control his website,” she said. “Now, that person has put up these comments without Peter’s knowledge.”