News24.com.au can reveal Katherine Deves, the former Liberal Party candidate for Warringah, will run as a candidate for One Nation at the March 2027 NSW election.
Ms Deves is expected to be preselected to run for an upper house seat as part of One Nation leader Mike Newman’s state team.
It comes after she previously campaigned during the 2022 federal election against transgender athletes competing as women in women’s sports.
The move would mark a significant political shift for Ms Deves, who was handpicked by former prime minister Scott Morrison to contest against Zali Steggall in 2022.
Ms Deves’ federal candidacy became a flashpoint at the time, with her comments about transgender people overshadowing parts of the Coalition’s campaign.
Her expected move to One Nation comes as the party positions itself for a potentially historic breakthrough in NSW.
News24.com.au recently revealed One Nation could win more than 20 seats in New South Wales’ 93-seat lower house, according to internal NSW Labor polling.
Ahead of the March 2027 election, polling indicates One Nation’s NSW leader Mike Newman could be the state opposition leader.
The Coalition’s Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane would be relegated to third, with the Nationals virtually wiped out.
That’s according to polling commissioned by Labor, which believes Premier Chris Minns will win the election.
Senior federal Labor Party sources have also indicated that, were a federal election held on Saturday, One Nation would become the official opposition in federal parliament.
However, there remains a belief within Labor that the Coalition could recover as the next election approaches.
Mr Newman recently told News24.com.au that he would be putting forward One Nation’s agenda over the next six months.
“We want to be a party of less government, lower taxes and people from the private sector running government,” he said.
“We’re often criticised for the fact that we’ve not run government before, but I would argue that the incumbent governments have not been running business very well.”
Mr Newman said his first priorities, if elected, would include cutting payroll tax, addressing youth crime, and prioritising coal and nuclear energy.
“First of all, payroll tax. We want to have it in the metros and abolish it pretty much, or at least cut it to zero in the regions,” he said.
“Obviously, there will be thresholds, but the idea is to stimulate businesses who are bumping up against that payroll threshold and allowing them to go for it.
“To do that, we also want to be very hard on crime, especially around youth crime. We’ve had a lot of issues around that.
“Energy is probably one of the highest things where we want to prioritise coal, coal-fired power, also lift the bans on uranium and nuclear power.”