One Nation dumps Adelaide candidate on election eve after UK arrest warrant revealed

ADELAIDE — One Nation removed its candidate for Adelaide from the ballot on Friday, hours before South Australians went to the polls.

Aoi Baxter, 31, has a warrant for his arrest in the United Kingdom after failing to appear at Barrow Magistrates' Court in northern England. He was charged in September 2023 with sexually touching a woman without consent.

The party said it learned of the allegations from media inquiries, not from Baxter himself. His disendorsement came less than 24 hours before polling booths opened across the state.

"This was not disclosed to One Nation by Mr Baxter," the party said in a statement. "Mr Baxter is no longer a One Nation candidate as a result of this news."

Name change and recent arrival

Corporate filings show Baxter changed his legal name from Trent Baxter to Aoi Scott Baxter in July 2025. He moved to North Adelaide in mid-2025 and registered as a candidate shortly after.

His candidate profile on the One Nation website described him as a former Australian Defence Force member and small business owner. He had operated companies in both Australia and the UK since 2014, including a creative agency called Aoi Studio.

UK business records link one of his previous companies, The Pressery, to an address associated with a pub in Milnthorpe, a small town in Cumbria. A local newspaper, the Westmorland Gazette, reported the alleged sexual offence occurred in the same town in September 2022.

A manager at the Milnthorpe pub confirmed Baxter had been a previous employee but expressed disbelief at the unfolding situation. The manager said the alleged offence was reported to have occurred at a different venue.

Court confirms warrant

A court officer at Barrow Magistrates' Court confirmed the warrant to journalists on Friday morning. The charges relate to Section 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which covers non-consensual sexual touching of a person aged 16 or over.

The Westmorland Gazette reported in September 2023 that Baxter was due to appear before the court. When he failed to attend, a warrant was issued for his arrest. UK court records show the matter remains unresolved.

When contacted by reporters outside his North Adelaide home on Friday, Baxter declined to answer detailed questions. "I believe in innocent until proven guilty," he said. He indicated he would release a full statement but had not done so by the close of voting on Saturday evening.

One Nation's national media representative, Doug Henderson, initially pushed back on enquiries. After being informed of the arrest warrant, his response shifted: "He's not doing interviews with the ABC over this crap. Forget that."

Vetting questions

The incident raises questions about the party's candidate vetting processes. Baxter was a late addition to the One Nation ticket, having only moved to South Australia months before the election was called.

His LinkedIn profile listed him as a "creative director" with experience across multiple industries. There was no mention of the UK charges or the name change in any of his public materials.

One Nation has faced previous controversies over candidate selection. At the 2019 federal election, the party was forced to dump multiple candidates in various states after background issues emerged during campaigns.

Election context

The disendorsement came at a sensitive moment for the party. Newspoll surveys published this week showed One Nation at 22 per cent primary support in South Australia, ahead of the Liberal Party on 16 per cent, with Labor leading on 40 per cent.

The party had been running candidates in 40 of the 47 lower house seats, its largest-ever South Australian campaign. At the 2022 state election, One Nation ran in just 19 seats and attracted 2.6 per cent of the statewide primary vote.

Federal leader Pauline Hanson spent the final week of the campaign touring regional areas in a plane operated by a company owned by mining magnate Gina Rinehart. The party's surge in the polls has been attributed to voter frustration with both major parties.

One Nation blocked the ABC from attending its election night event after the Baxter story broke. The public broadcaster had been the first outlet to report on the UK warrant.

Candidate page scrubbed

By Friday afternoon, Baxter's profile had been removed from the One Nation website. The link redirected to an error message that read: "Maybe Albo broke the internet (again), or maybe the page you were looking for was just not found on our amazing new website."

Workers were photographed removing Baxter's corflutes from streets in the Adelaide CBD. The orange and white signs bearing his name and the One Nation logo were taken down from lamp posts and street corners across the electorate.

Ballot papers had already been printed before the disendorsement, meaning Baxter's name would still appear alongside the One Nation branding. Voters who cast early ballots for him could not change their vote.

Election results

Polling stations closed at 6pm local time on Saturday. Early counts showed significant swings to One Nation in regional seats, with the party on track to win its first lower house seats in South Australian history.

The seat of Adelaide, which Baxter had been contesting, is held by Labor with a margin of more than 8 per cent. His disendorsement was unlikely to affect the outcome in that electorate, though the broader damage to the party's brand remained unclear on election night.

Premier Peter Malinauskas was widely expected to win a second term. Liberal leader Ashton Hurn faced questions about her party's decision to preference One Nation ahead of Labor in most seats, a strategy that now looks more problematic in light of the Baxter controversy.