One Nation candidate wanted in UK courts: Report
A One Nation candidate in Saturday’s South Australian election is reportedly wanted in Britain after failing to attend court while charged with a sexual offence.
Aoi Baxter, also known as Trent Baxter, has a warrant for his arrest in Britain for failing to show up to court after being charged with sexually touching a woman without consent, according to reports.
“Mr Baxter in the UK has a warrant for arrest without bail not attending the court,” a representative from the crime division of the British Courts and Tribunals Service told the ABC.
“Should you know of his location, it would assist the court and relevant authorities.”
The charge relates to allegations from September 2023.
The ABC said Baxter hadn’t responded to multiple requests for comment. One Nation issued a statement after receiving questions from the ABC.
“One Nation has today been made aware by the media of allegations regarding the party’s candidate for Adelaide, Aoi Baxter,” it said.
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“To the best of our understanding, Mr Baxter may have [a] warrant in the United Kingdom for failing to appear at a court hearing. This was not disclosed to One Nation by Mr Baxter. It’s unclear if this relates to the same individual.
“One Nation will cooperate fully with law enforcement regarding this matter.”
Baxter is One Nation’s candidate for the seat of Adelaide.
His candidate profile on the party’s website described him as a 31-year-old “new generation One Nation candidate” with a “career in the Australian Defence Force” and small business. It was reportedly removed from the website shortly after Friday’s statement.
Pauline Hanson’s party is tipped to make inroads in the South Australian election on Saturday.
"The party’s support is surging across the country, with a poll on Friday forecasting the Coalition could end up with as few as nine seats in federal parliament."
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The DemosAU poll of more than 8400 people showed the Coalition could win between nine and 17 seats, while Pauline Hanson’s One Nation would become the official opposition, projected to win between 46 and 55 electorates.
If an election was held imminently, Labor would win a third term in government. It would have a smaller majority, with forecasts of between 77 and 86 seats in the lower house.
The poll, which used modelling to gain predictions for all 150 federal electorates, showed One Nation taking the lead in nearly all electorates held by the Liberals and Nationals, including Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s seat of Hume.
One Nation was also projected to be ahead in some regional electorates held by Labor, such as Gilmore in NSW, Leichhardt in Queensland, Braddon in Tasmania and Hunter in NSW.
DemosAU director of research George Hasanakos said if the results of the poll held true, the Liberals would be relegated to the crossbench.
“We also see One Nation making inroads in the Labor vote in the urban fringes of several capital cities including Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne – places which have many new residents priced out of housing elsewhere,” he said.
“Labor is dominant in the inner to middle rings of capital cities but would have a fight on their hands in those urban fringes and in regional seats on these numbers.”
The polling is the latest round of voter surveys to show a rise in support for One Nation at the expense of the Coalition.
The latest Newspoll showed One Nation with a higher primary vote than the Coalition, forcing the opposition into third place.
Hasanakos said it was too early to tell if the momentum behind One Nation was sustainable until the next election, which does not have to be held until 2028.
“The surge in support has certainly sent a message to the major parties and we can expect the Coalition especially to focus its efforts on winning back the voters it has lost to One Nation,” he said.
“That process has already started with the leadership of the Coalition parties switching to Angus Taylor for the Liberals and Matt Canavan for the Nationals, both of whom could be seen as more appealing to the cohort of voters lost to One Nation than their predecessors.”
–with AAP
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