Barnaby Joyce’s media commentator wife Vikki Campion is being whispered about as a potential One Nation candidate as the minor party rolls out a string of high-profile recruits.
Political insiders say Campion has not confirmed whether she will put her hand up to run for a seat, but it’s understood her name is being actively discussed in One Nation circles.
‘Vikki’s views resonate with disaffected Nationals, who One Nation is trying to win over,’ the source said. Campion’s regular News Corp column is regularly focused upon criticising renewable energy and the Chinese Communist Party.
She is not the only Nationals-aligned figure being closely watched – with MP Llew O’Brien provocatively sitting next to Campion’s recent Nationals-to-One Nation defector husband Barnaby Joyce during Question Time on Wednesday.
The pair shared a warm conversation.
Mr O’Brien, the MP for the Queensland seat of Wide Bay, told The Australian newspaper he may quit the Nationals if the Coalition reunites without a firm plan to repeal controversial hate speech laws introduced after the Bondi Beach terror attack.
‘I could only see myself being part of a team that has a plan to repeal that bill,’ O’Brien told the newspaper.
Campion declined to provide the Daily Mail with a detailed response when contacted for comment about her future.
She simply said the ‘premise’ of the Mail’s questions about her political future was ‘incorrect’.
Campion first met Joyce in 2016 when she joined his office as a media adviser.
Their working relationship soon became personal, culminating in a national scandal in 2018 after photos of a pregnant Campion emerged – while Joyce, the then-deputy prime minister, was still married.
The controversy ultimately led to Joyce’s resignation as deputy PM in February that year.
The couple went on to welcome two sons, Sebastian in 2018 and Thomas in 2019.
In November 2023, Campion and Joyce married in a relaxed ‘bush bash’ ceremony on Joyce’s family farm in Woolbrook, NSW.
Campion, a prominent News Corp columnist, has established herself as a forceful voice for populist, anti‑elite and culturally conservative politics, aligning closely with themes often promoted by One Nation.
She routinely takes aim at climate politics. Within One Nation, there is a view that Campion’s involvement – and forceful tone – would strengthen the party’s overall messaging.
Meanwhile, speaking to media on Thursday, Nationals Leader David Littleproud dismissed suggestions that O’Brien was preparing to quit the party.
Littleproud said he had spoken to O’Brien that morning and was ‘comfortable’ he would be staying with the Nationals.
‘The reality is he’s made it very clear to me he’s not leaving,’ Littleproud said.
‘He doesn’t see One Nation as a party that can deliver for the people of Wide Bay in the way the National Party has.’
However, Daily Mail understands other Nationals MPs view O’Brien’s departure as inevitable.
Wide Bay is expected to be a top One Nation target at the next election, with the party securing 12 per cent of the primary vote in 2025 before surging in recent polls.
A Roy Morgan poll released Tuesday put One Nation’s support at 25 per cent nationally – ahead of the combined Nationals and Liberals on 20.5 per cent.
O’Brien did not respond to a request for comment.
On Tuesday the party also unveiled former Liberal senator Cory Bernardi as its lead upper house candidate for South Australia’s state election on March 21.
Former Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles, who now heads Gina Rinehart’s agriculture interests, is also being discussed as a possible One Nation candidate and has openly backed the party.
Giles, Australia’s first Indigenous government leader, urged voters to donate to One Nation and ‘put their active support behind Pauline Hanson’.
He praised the party, saying Hanson and One Nation were the only ones ‘showing the leadership’ needed on immigration and net zero to ‘save our country’.
Giles served as NT Chief Minister from 2013 to 2016 with the Country Liberal Party before taking over as chief executive of Hancock Agriculture and S. Kidman & Co, both owned by Rinehart.
‘Australians have been suffering, and will suffer even more, under left-leaning net zero policies,’ Giles said.
Cre: DailyMail