One Nation MP Luke Herdegen says his party intends to govern in Western Australia in a maiden parliamentary speech loaded with attacks on mainstream politics and the Labor Party.
Herdegen’s 20-minute first speech delivered from the dispatch box in front of his parents and a group of about 30 supporters in the public gallery brimmed with platitudes about patriotism, the Australian spirit and culture alongside criticism of gender-identity politics and mass immigration.
He included a warning to Labor that harked back to leader Pauline Hanson’s infamous 1996 maiden speech where she said Australia was at risk of being “swamped by Asians.”
“We will stand up against mass immigration - if you try to swamp our nation with migrants,” Herdegen said.
Much of his speech involved scolding Labor and warning that his byelection victory was not an anomaly.
“I stand here alone, the sole One Nation member of this assembly, but I don’t feel lonely because I know my friends are coming,” he said.
“I know members across the chamber and even some behind me don’t understand what’s happening, you don’t understand what happened in Secret Harbour, and you’re racking your brains trying to figure out how to stop it from happening again.
“The truth is you can’t stop it
“The people are ready to send an orange wave through this chamber and through every chamber in our nation, and no seat on either side will be safe.”
Herdegen said Labor had no labourers.
“Too many of you have never held a real job in your life,” he said.
South Perth MP Geoff Baker looked back at Scarborough MP Stuart Aubrey after that statement.
Aubrey was a FIFO electrician before entering politics.
Herdegen said his party was “fighting to win and intend to govern.”
“The outer southern suburbs are One Nation heartland now,” he said.
Herdegen also took aim at Labor for its selection of Georgia Tree as his opponent during the campaign.
Tree works as a Woodside lobbyist and lived in inner-city Perth which dogged her the entire campaign.
He accused Labor of using safe electorates as: “job programs for party hacks”
“We all know what happens in a safe government seat: nothing”
“The arrogance to attempt to parachute in yet another party apprentice - that fit your current agenda and factional alliances in the face of struggling families is truly astonishing.”
Herdegen also rejected the claim his party was racist.
“False accusations of bigotry and racism do not scare us and will not stop us,” he said.
Herdegen’s speech was met with a standing ovation from his supporters.
The One Nation MP staged a huge upset when he ousted Labor from the seat of Secret Harbour in a byelection triggered by the retirement of former Labor Minister Paul Papalia.
Herdegen wrested the seat from Labor with a primary vote of 39.1 per cent - a swing of 30.7 per cent from the 2025 election 18 months earlier.
