After backflipping on his retirement and defecting to One Nation, former Coalition MP George Christensen is now eligible to pocket a taxpayer-funded payment of $105,600 if he loses in the upcoming federal election.
The "resettlement allowance" of $105,600 is only given when the departure from federal politics is involuntary - which includes the loss of an endorsement by a party or loss in an election. Retiring politicians, which not long ago included Mr Christensen, are not eligible for the payment.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson announced on Wednesday she had coaxed Mr Christensen to run for the number three position on the party ticket, after reaching out late last year.
One Nation won a single Senate seat in the 2019 federal election and this year is running for three. But securing that goal is unlikely according to ABC election analyst Antony Green, who that One Nation needs to poll a minimum vote of 28.6 per cent, or more likely 35 per cent for all three seats.
One Nation’s previous highest Queensland vote was 14.8 per cent in 1998, Mr Green added.
Mr Christensen insists that the resettlement allowance is not the reason why he has taken the seat and moved away from his safe seat in North Queensland's Dawson, where he is widely popular with a comfortable margin of over 14.61 per cent. He held this seat for almost 12 years.
Speaking to the Courier Mail, Mr Christensen said it was “highly likely” he would have been entitled to the payment as there was “a recorded motion from the Dawson federal divisional council of the LNP to not proceed with my nomination”.
This is contradictory to news reports from last May which said the outgoing MP sought to be disendorsed by the Liberal National Party, in a move that would have made him eligible for the six-figure payment.
Mr Christensen added that he was happy to campaign even if it only amounted to a seat for Senator Hanson and Raj Guruswamy, a company director and former Adani executive who is second on the ticket.
“If the only job that I do is helping Pauline get back in there in the Senate, and maybe bringing a friend along with her in Raj Guruswamy then that’s the job done, because Pauline has been a warrior for common-sense conservative issues,” Mr Christensen said.
Senator Hanson shut down reporters who questioned Mr Christensen's chances of winning, asking: “Why do you want that negativity? I tell you what if I had your negativity I wouldn’t be where I am today".
Last April, Mr Christensen said he had decided to resign from federal politics for family reasons, while describing the state of politics as “broken”.
Earlier this month he left the LNP, citing his disenchantment with the party's direction, its net-zero climate pledge and "destructive pandemic policies".
In a press conference with Senator Hanson, Mr Christensen said One Nation was the appropriate fit as their view on topics including vaccine mandates were better aligned.
Mr Christensen has long been butting heads with members of the Coalition, with the MP landing himself in hot water late last year and others. He later expressed regret for the comments.
He again faced , where he laughed at one point during the program when the host compared Australian COVID-19 quarantine facilities with a Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz. The appearance resulted in Prime Minister Scott Morrison denouncing some of the comments shared in the interview.
