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One Nation's Malcom Roberts To Run In Queensland After High Court Dismissal

Pauline Hanson is mourning the loss of her "unique" colleague and "backbone" from federal parliament.
Senator Malcolm Roberts during a Senate hearing at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday 27 October 2017, just ahead of the high court ruling.
Andrew Meares
Senator Malcolm Roberts during a Senate hearing at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday 27 October 2017, just ahead of the high court ruling.

Malcolm Roberts will make a bid for Pauline Hanson's old Queensland stomping ground of Ipswich, after the High Court ruled the One Nation Senator was invalidly elected to parliament.

Describing Roberts as her backbone, Senator Hanson announced the man who entered parliament on preferences with 77 primary votes will run in Ipswich -- the heart of One Nation -- at the next Queensland state election.

"I've lost a great man in Malcolm Roberts," Hanson said.

"I'm devastated. Absolutely devastated with losing Malcom. I tell you what, it will take a mighty person to fill this man's shoes because I think he's unique."

"Federal Parliament may have lost Malcolm Roberts, but Queensland has not lost Malcolm Roberts.

Roberts declined to apologise for insisting he was a sole citizen of Australia when the high court ruled he was wrong.

"I don't apologise. I express my regret because I was wrong, but it was genuinely my belief -- and the high court has confirmed that," he said.

Queensland is on the brink of a state election, with a recent Newspoll showing a bump in support for One Nation.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has downplayed chance of an early election, which isn't due until next year, but it could be called for late November.

"This is the heart of One Nation," Hanson said of Roberts running in Ipswich, west of Brisbane.

"Ipswich is where I ran my fish and chip shop, it's where my politics started, it's where I won the seat of Oxley in 1996."

The High Court had previously found, under cross examination, that Roberts -- who was born in India in 1955 to a Welsh father and an Australian mother -- was a dual-British citizen when he nominated and was elected in 2016.

The One Nation Senator had argued the anti-immigration dual citizenship case against him and his possible breach of the Constitution was "un-Australian".

He tested the patience of the High Court in stating he was "entitled to put out of his mind that he was a British citizen".

The High Court on Friday also struck out four other MPs over dual citizenship -- Fiona Nash, Barnaby Joyce, Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam. Nick Xenophon and Matt Canavan are safe.

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