South Australian One Nation MP Sarah Game has decided to move away from the party and serve the remainder of her term as an independent.
Game became the first One Nation candidate to be elected to the South Australian Parliament when she won her Upper House seat in 2022.
In a post to X, Game said she made the decision as she believed her constituency and herself were no longer aligned with the One Nation “brand”.
“I have tried to evolve the brand to the place it needs to be, but I have come to the position that it is not possible and is limiting my ability to advocate for the people of South Australia,” she said.
“I appreciate there are people who still align with One Nation, [but] it is my view that most of my constituency do not.”
A Facebook post by Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party said that party members were “blindsided” by Game’s decision.
“Sarah Game's excuse for leaving One Nation is false and lacks the accountability and transparency she promotes on her website,” the post said.
“If Sarah Game is confident that she could win a seat in her own right as an independent, she should do the honourable thing and step down from parliament and run in next year's state election under her own name.”
One Nation cited internal tensions after it chose not to replace Game with her mother, Jennifer Game in the top pre-selection ahead of South Australia’s 2026 election.
“One Nation expressed to Sarah Game that we would not be held to ransom by her mother (Jennifer) and informed them both of this decision,” the statement said.
The party has called for legislative changes to stop elected members from leaving a party during their term.
“Yesterday's announcement by Sarah again shines a light on a very serious and growing problem in Australian politics, whereby a person can walk away from a political party that has invested time, money and resources into having them elected,” the statement said.
“Every political party within Australia has been impacted by similar acts of treachery. It’s time for all state and federal parliaments to end the practice through legislative change.”
This is the second South Australian Upper House member to quit their party in a week.
The first was Tammy Franks ML, who resigned from the Greens on Tuesday to sit as a “progressive independent", leaving the party with just one MP.
