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Luke Costin

Fired-up Hanson tells Latham to quit NSW Parliament

Mark Latham and another NSW MP have quit One Nation claiming party officials misused taxpayer funds. (Wolter Peeters/AAP PHOTOS)

Pauline Hanson has fobbed off One Nation fraud allegations and called for deserting MPs to return their seats to the party.

NSW upper house MPs Mark Latham and Rod Roberts quit the minor party on Tuesday after claiming under parliamentary privilege that officials had misappropriated taxpayer funds.

Mr Latham alleged more than $270,000 had been moved out of the state party and federal executive in recent years for merchandise and equipment, prompting the start of a NSW Electoral Commission inquiry.

"Bring it on," Senator Hanson said on Wednesday.

"I'm confident One Nation’s finances are in order and in compliance, and we will happily co-operate with any investigation or inquiry.

"It's not our integrity that’s in question."

Senator Hanson said the now-independent Mr Latham and Mr Roberts should resign from parliament.

"Their seats belong to the NSW voters who supported One Nation, and those voters deserve to have One Nation representatives occupying them," she said.

Mr Roberts' term ends in 2027, while earlier this year Mr Latham was re-elected for another term which ends in 2031. 

The unlikely political marriage between the former Labor leader and Senator Hanson has been on the rocks since Mr Latham's derogatory public comments about homosexual sex in March.

That volatile relationship was detonated on Tuesday with claims that funding was misappropriated over a period of several years.

Mr Roberts dubbed Senator Hanson's chief-of-staff James Ashby "a conman, a spiv and a fraudster" for his alleged involvement in improperly shifting money between state and federal branches.

Mr Latham doubled down on Wednesday, making disparaging comments about Mr Ashby under parliamentary privilege and suggesting he was in control of the party matriarch, Senator Hanson.

"She said, 'I can't function without him'," Mr Latham said.

"Well, how pathetic. Here is the Hanson-Ashby disease.

"She's so hopeless, she can't function without a hustling shyster addicted to party and public money scams running her life and now making her media appearances for her."

Mr Ashby has rejected all allegations of impropriety and flagged possible defamation action.

"To walk away like this and to spit in our faces and just completely lie, I hope that the electoral commission in NSW does investigate this," he said.

Premier Chris Minns said the money provided to One Nation's NSW branch was from taxpayers and needed to be protected.

"These allegations are very serious," he said.

"They need to be investigated and I'm sure they will be by ... the electoral commission, (which) has very strong powers both to investigate and prosecute misuse of taxpayer funds."

In a letter to Special Minister of State John Graham tabled in state parliament, Mr Latham said more than $270,000 had been moved out of the state party and federal executive in recent years for various supplies.

In one instance, $102,000 in taxpayer funds paid to NSW One Nation after the 2019 election was allegedly redirected to the party's Brisbane office and used to buy warehouse equipment and merchandise.

The money was later returned to the party, he said.

Senator Hanson said party finances were subjected to regular audits by chartered accountants and state and federal electoral commissions.

One Nation is now solely represented in the state parliament by former Labor MP Tania Mihailuk, who switched allegiances shortly before the March state election.

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