Liberal Party Loses Vice President to One Nation, Exposing Right-Wing Exodus Risk

Teena McQueen, vice president of Australia's Liberal Party, defected to Pauline Hanson's One Nation in June 2026 before dying weeks later. Her departure from a senior position signals a real hemorrhage on the party's right flank—the institutional Liberal Party has struggled since the Howard era to hold conservative voters without ceding them to One Nation. McQueen's move was no backbench protest. It underscores the party's unresolved tension: how to compete for metropolitan moderates while retaining its own right-wing base.