One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has been thrown after her freshly unveiled NSW leader began speaking Japanese during his inaugural press conference.

Senator Hanson trekked to coal country in NSW’s Hunter Valley to spruik Mike Newman – a former finance industry executive who lived in Japan for 25 years and served as NSW’s trade envoy to the country.

Now Sydney-based, Mr Newman will run for the Labor-held seat of Cessnock in next year’s state election.

Mr Newman was taking questions in Singleton with Senator Hanson when a reporter flagged him down with a question in Japanese.

As he started responding in Japanese, Senator Hanson cut him off.

“Excuse me, I think everyone else might like to know,” she said.

Mr Newman apologised before summarising the question.

“The question was basically that Japanese large businesses have lost a lot of confidence because of the lack of predictability (in government policy), all right?” he said.

He then went on to respond in Japanese, translating his answer afterwards.

“So basically what I’ve told her is that what One Nation will be doing is providing predictability, which is the one thing the Japanese investors crave, and make sure they invest in this state,” he said.

“They are not going to be jacked up with new royalties to help pay for governments that can’t stop their spending addiction.”

Mr Newman’s links to Japan cropped up again at the end of the press conference when another reporter asked how he could understand local issues if he lived 200km away in Sydney.

He responded that he had been “living in Japan for the last 25 years, so … I’ve probably been living in Japan longer than Sydney”.

He could not name any specific issues but said he was “meeting with the locals”.

“I’m not working just for the seat of Cessnock – I’m working for the whole of New South Wales,” Mr Newman said.

“And rest assured … we are going to bring prosperity to these regions by rational, sensible economics.”

Before swiftly ending the press conference, Senator Hanson chimed in to play down Mr Newman’s stint abroad.

“He’s right across the issues of New South Wales regardless of the fact that he’s been living in Japan for the last 25 years,” she said.

“He knows the issues here, and he’s always kept his eye on politics here in Australia, constantly, all the time.”

She added that NSW Premier Chris Minns had “really got a fight on his hands”.

‘Extraordinary’ claim

Labor Cessnock MP Clayton Barr addressed the media later on Friday.

He accused Mr Newman of using some of his first remarks as a candidate to advocate for sending manufacturing jobs overseas.

“I find it just extraordinary that a candidate would be nominated anywhere in the Hunter and one of the first things that they might say is, ‘We want to send those manufacturing jobs back offshore’,” he said.

“We have a long history of being fantastic at what we do. We should be proud of what we do, and we should lean into it as part of our future.”

Maitland-based Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison, who was in Kurri Kurri with Mr Barr, said she had run against One Nation before when asked if she was concerned.

She said she was “concerned” about plans to “get rid” of investment in the Hunter.

“That concerns me,” she said.

“I listen to our community, I converse with them all the time. They want the future for the local businesses that rely on domestic manufacturing.

“We’re providing certainty about jobs in our region, which was ignored under the former Liberal and National government, and that’s exactly what One Nation will do too.”

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