Pauline Hanson has become a grandmother for the fifth time, holding a baby boy on a day off from the campaign trail.
The One Nation leader welcomed the birth of young Nate on Monday morning, only five days out from the Queensland election where her party is tipped to pick up seats and possibly decide who forms government.
‘Welcome Nate Lee. He was born at 11:30am and weighing in at 3.6kg (7.9 pounds),’ she told her 215,706 Facebook followers.
Pauline Hanson, holding baby boy Nate, has become a grandmother for the fifth time at 63
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s daughter Lee (right) has delivered her second child soon
‘Thanks for everyone’s well wishes. They’ve been lovely.’
Senator Hanson suspended her election campaigning on Sunday to be by her daughter Lee’s side for the birth of her second child.
The 63-year-old grandmother delivered the news about her daughter Lee going into labour as Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Liberal Prime MinisterMalcolm Turnbull launched their party campaigns for the November 25 poll.
‘The Queensland election couldn’t have come at a worse time for me this time around,’ she said in a statement.
The Queensland senator is suspending her campaign appearance on the ‘Battler Bus’ as her daughter goes into labour, and One Nation challenges Labor in Ipswich
Senator Hanson joked that if it was a girl, she would have a campaigner who looked like her.
‘Imagine if it’s a little girl with fiery red hair, I’ll have a little mini me to keep the two major parties on their toes at the next federal election,’ she said.
The Queensland senator was in India on a parliamentary study trip when the election was called three weeks ago.
Pauline Hanson’s daughter Lee, who now lives in Hobart, has become a second-time mum
The One Nation leader is putting her Queensland election campaign plans on hold for love
‘An opportunistic Annastacia Palaszczuk took advantage of me being out of the country when the election was called and unfortunately in this situation, babies wait for no one,’ Senator Hanson said.
Australia’s busiest grandmother has cancelled her scheduled Monday appearance on the One Nation ‘Battler Bus’ through her former home town of Ipswich, south-west of Brisbane, where she ran a fish and chips shop.
It comes as a Newspoll showed former One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts in with an even chance of taking the seat of Ipswich off Labor.
Lee Hanson (pictured in 2003 after visiting her mum in Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre for a later quashed electoral fraud conviction) is a loyal daughter
Pauline Hanson remembered how her daughter handed out for her on a polling booth in 1998
The poll, published in The Weekend Australian, also showed One Nation polling strongly in the Labor-held Townsville seat of Thuringowa, where candidate Mark Thornton owns the Cupids Cabin adult show.
Senator Hanson recalled how her daughter Lee handed out how-to-vote cards for her in 1998, when she ran unsuccessfully for the federal, Ipswich-based seat of Blair.
‘My only daughter sat on a polling booth on her 15th birthday and has been by my side during times when I’ve needed her, I wouldn’t miss this special moment for anything,’ she said.
Lee Hanson was by her mother’s side in 2002 as she faced electoral fraud charges in Brisbane Magistrates Court
‘I’ve always said we need to return to family values, and this is a moment in every mothers life where you want to be apart of your own daughter’s monumental day.’
Senator Hanson, who had won the neighbouring seat of Oxley in 1996 as a disendorsed Liberal candidate, missed out on taking Blair in 1998 despite having the highest primary vote of 36 per cent, as the major parties put One Nation last.
In this year’s Queensland election, Labor is putting One Nation last while the Liberal National Party, led by Tim Nicholls, is putting the Greens last.
It is the first compulsory preferential voting election in the state since 1989.