Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
ABC News
ABC News
National
Ariel Bogle, Kevin Nguyen and Dunja Karagic

The search for Narelle Seymour, One Nation's invisible candidate for the southern Sydney seat of Hughes

Pauline Hanson's One Nation pick for the seat of Hughes has sparked confusion and intrigue. (AAP: Dan Peled/ABC News: Thomas Brettell)

At this stage of an election campaign, most candidates are champing at the bit for more exposure and attention.

They want to be seen and heard. They want to be noticed. They want your vote.

Not so for Narelle Seymour, One Nation's candidate for the southern Sydney seat of Hughes.

She's become an invisible woman. Never seen, never heard and ever the enigma.

Ms Seymour is one of seven candidates vying for the seat currently held by United Australia Party's Craig Kelly.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is running candidates in most seats across the country. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Five of the seven are due to appear at a forum in the suburb of Sutherland on Wednesday night, but organisers are not confident Ms Seymour will turn up.

"It's very, very strange," said Elizabeth O'Neill, who is organising the candidate forum. "I trawled the web for that woman. There's not a photo or an Instagram or anything."

Her search for Narelle Seymour also hit a dead end on Pauline Hanson's One Nation's (PHON) website, which didn't even name Hughes in its list of contested electorates.

The sitting member, Mr Kelly, who split from the Liberal Party last year over his controversial advocacy of unproven COVID treatments, is not expected to retain the seat.

The electorate is next door to Prime Minister Scott Morrision's seat of Cook.

A One Nation spokesperson confirmed there was a candidate called Narelle Seymour running in Hughes, but did not answer any other questions about her.

The only public document about Narelle Seymour's candidacy is on the Australia Electoral Commission's (AEC) website and confirms she is eligible to run for parliament under section 44 of the constitution. She's also listed as working in the aged care sector.

The AEC declaration form for Narelle Seymour was signed and then submitted on April 21. (Supplied: AEC)

According to an AEC spokesperson, the One Nation candidate for Hughes is enrolled in a suburb of Wagga Wagga in the NSW electorate of Riverina — about 450 kilometres south-west of Sydney.

A search of electoral rolls revealed there are five people with that name in Australia, only two of whom reside in NSW. When contacted by the ABC, both NSW residents said they were not running for One Nation in Hughes.

But whether or not Narelle Seymour makes a belated appearance in the campaign, her name is already on the ballot papers.

The ballot draw, which determines where a candidate appears on a voting card, placed One Nation's Narelle Seymour above an independent named Linda Seymour (no relation).

Independent candidate Linda Seymour said the elusive One Nation candidate has led to confusion in Hughes.  (Supplied)

Linda Seymour described the situation as "outrageous" and says its caused a headache for her campaign.

"People are rightly confused and you can imagine it's very confusing for our campaign too," said Linda Seymour.

"There is going to be natural confusion. We've printed a sticker that says 'Seymour 2022'... now that's largely redundant."

Both Linda Seymour and another independent, Georgia Steele, said their teams have failed to turn up any information about Narelle Seymour.

There are seven candidates running in the key seat of Hughes. (Supplied)

A spokeswoman for the Greens candidate, Pete Thompson, said the One Nation pick had eluded him as well.

"Pete Thompson has not met or spoken to Narelle Seymour and has no awareness of her home base or current location," the Greens spokeswoman said.

"He can't recall seeing her, or any obviously PHON team members at the ballot draw."

Linda Seymour said she was keen to get to the bottom of the mystery.

"The electorate deserves to know who is standing here and if they have absolutely zero connection with our electorate, what does that say about their candidature?" she said.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.