Former Federal Liberal Party Vice President Teena McQueen has died just a month after her high-profile defection to One Nation.<\/p>\n
The former Sky News commentator died on Wednesday after a short illness, according to the news organisation. <\/p>\n
Ms McQueen made headlines in May when she announced she was joining Pauline Hanson\u2019s One Nation alongside fellow former Liberal heavyweight Hollie Hughes. <\/p>\n
Speaking on Sky, Liberal frontbencher Julian Leeser said Ms McQueen was a \u201cbig figure\u201d on the NSW Central Coast and in the party.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m obviously sad at her passing. She was always a lively person and engaged in the party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very sad at this news, as Liberals will be generally.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a social media post, NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloane said she was \u201csaddened to hear of the passing of Teena McQueen\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeena was a force of nature in Australian politics \u2013 passionate, outspoken, and utterly committed to the causes and values she believed in,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe dedicated many years to the Liberal Party. My sincere condolences to her family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former prime minister and federal Liberal Party president Tony Abbott took to X to say he had \u201clost a good friend\u201d and the party had lost \u201ca fine servant\u201d.<\/p>\n
He noted Ms McQueen\u2019s \u201cfrustrations\u201d with the party had become public in recent weeks but claimed it was \u201calways the cause of better government for Australia that motivated her\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeena was a long standing branch activist on the NSW central coast, a delegate to federal council and, eventually, a federal vice president of the Liberal Party,\u201d Mr Abbott wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt every level she was a consistent advocate for more internal party democracy and for policy in the tradition of Menzies and Howard. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe sometimes put loyalty ahead of judgment but it was typical of Teena\u2019s large and generous spirit that she would confide in others her plans and then take guidance on their merits. <\/p>\n
\u201cI will miss her as will her many friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson also paid tribute to Ms McQueen, saying her support was \u201cvalued and cherished\u201d while promising to \u201ccontinue the fight she was about to join\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart said Ms McQueen cared \u201cdeeply about our country, its future, and the values that make Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeena had a wonderful ability to see through pretence and pick those who were, \u2018all hat and no cattle\u2019,\u201d Ms Rinehart said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was straightforward and did not pretend to be anyone other than herself. These are just some of the many qualities that she will be long remembered for.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeena gave much of herself to public life, politics, business, media, charity and the causes she believed in.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was a fiercely loyal friend, who brought warmth, conviction and strength to everything she believed in. <\/p>\n
Ms Rinehart continued by calling Ms McQueen a \u201cfiercely loyal friend\u201d who would be greatly missed, along with her \u201cinfectious joie de vie\u201d.<\/p>\n
Read related topics:One Nation<\/a>Pauline Hanson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Federal Liberal Party Vice President Teena McQueen has died just a month after her high-profile defection to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,187436,180257],"class_list":["post-757564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-newswire-news","tag-newswire-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}