One Nation snaring the South Australian seat of MacKillop was emblematic of the voting shift at March 21’s state election.
Coming out of the 2022 election, MacKillop was the Liberal Party’s safest seat and, as a strong rural and farming electorate, considered blue-ribbon territory.
But after a turbulent four years, it now sits in One Nation’s hands.
The party’s Jason Virgo won a tight race against Liberal Rebekah Rosser, who conceded defeat on Monday, more than a week after polls closed.
Rebekah Rosser conceded defeat on Monday. (ABC South East SA: Eugene Boisvert)
Since the election, One Nation has declined requests from the ABC to speak to winning candidates, including Mr Virgo, because of a dispute over an interview that happened before the election.
As a result, not much is known about the current City of Mount Gambier councillor’s plans for representing MacKillop for the next four years.
A change of views
March’s election was not the first time Mr Virgo ran for public office.
The now 35-year-old joined the Australian Labor Party when he was 16, and then the Australian Sex Party when he was 19 or 20, after the latter was formed in 2009.
When he was around 20 years old, Mr Virgo ran as a candidate for the Senate for the Australian Sex Party in 2010.
Three years later in the 2013 federal election, he again ran for the Australian Sex Party.
Mr Virgo also went on to become the secretary of the Australian Labor Party’s Mount Gambier branch.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, which the ABC was also barred from, Mr Virgo said he joined those two parties when he was “16 and 19”.
Jason Virgo’s official candidate headshot for the election campaign. (Supplied: Facebook )
“I was a teenager. Every person when they were 16 and 19 were doing crazier things than joining a political party,” he said.
“I was a kid, basically. We grow up, we learn new things, we change our views as we age and that’s just a reality.
“I’m focused on the things that matter. I’m worried about MacKillop — it’s been taken for granted for too long.”
Former Australian Sex Party leader and former Victorian Legislative Council member Fiona Patten said Mr Virgo seemed “like a nice guy” and wished him luck in parliament.
But she was surprised at his move to One Nation.
Fiona Patten campaigned for the decriminalisation of sex work during her time in Victorian parliament. (ABC News: Rachel Clayton)
“The Australian Sex Party was all for equality,” she said.
“We were at that time still fighting for marriage equality, we were fighting for drug law reform, we were fighting for medicinal cannabis.
“We were fighting against censorship and fighting to keep religion out of politics, taxing the church and freedom of religion and freedom of speech.”
The Australian Sex Party was founded in 2009 to counter conservative Christian minor parties entering the political arena.
It merged with the Australian Cyclists Party in 2017 to form Reason Australia.
One Nation ‘staying together’ and ‘completely united’
The City of Mount Gambier’s elected members register listed Mr Virgo as employed by G4S, the operator of Mount Gambier Prison.
He was also listed as a United Workers Union member.
Mr Virgo clarified on Wednesday he now lived in the electorate and had moved to Kingston South East after living outside MacKillop during the campaign.
Charles Sturt University political scientist Dominic O’Sullivan has studied One Nation throughout its history.
He said newly elected candidates would need to start talking publicly soon.
Dominic O’Sullivan says maintaining a united party will be One Nation’s first challenge. (Supplied: Charles Sturt University)
“The nature of the job is a very public one and he’s not going to be able to hide from people and from scrutiny forever,” he said.
Professor O’Sullivan said the party’s first challenge would be to keep a united front through its first four years.
“The problem for them … which is one that’s beset One Nation at every election that it’s enjoyed a little bit of success [in], is holding themselves together as a coherent parliamentary force,” he said.
Jason Virgo puts his arm around his much-taller leader, Cory Bernardi, at Wednesday’s press conference. (Supplied)
At Wednesday’s press conference, Mr Virgo was upbeat when asked about the chance he, or anyone else, would defect from the party.
He laughed and put his arm around leader Cory Bernardi and said they were “great mates”.
“We are staying together. We are a great team, unlike the Liberal Party and the uni-party, we are completely united,” he said.