Katherine Deves among four NSW upper house candidates revealed by One Nation

The failed federal Liberal candidate Katherine Deves, who campaigned to exclude transgender women from women’s sport, will stand for One Nation at next year’s New South Wales election.

Deves was among four NSW Legislative Council candidates announced by One Nation’s NSW leader, Mike Newman, on Sunday.

The other candidates were Arnon Wither, a construction worker from the Hunter region who works as an electorate officer for Senator Sean Bell; Manti Steele, a farmer, teacher and mother of eight from Dubbo; and Daniel Hill, a surf lifesaver from the state’s south coast.

The NSW election will be held on 13 March.

Newman said on Sunday the upper house candidates were “authentic”, “people from the real world” and not “career politicians”.

One Nation has only announced a single lower house candidate – Newman, in the electorate of Cessnock – but he said the party would run candidates in all 93 lower house seats.

“We want to make sure that these people bleed orange, and like I said, they’re all from the real world,” he said.

“That’s the that’s the type of person we’re aiming at … people from the real world who understand business, who understand their pinch points and pain points, understand the cost of living, understand cashflow.”

Deves was handpicked by the former prime minister Scott Morrison to run in the federal NSW seat of Warringah in 2022. Her candidacy was marred by controversy, including when she likened anti-trans activism to standing up against the Holocaust.

On Sunday she said she joined One Nation “because I wanted to be a part of the rescue, recovery, and restoration of our nation”.

“We are seeing cost of living skyrocket, whether it’s fuel, housing, energy, and we are watching a government that is so wedded to destructive ideologies like DEI and net zero that they are prepared to impoverish us all,” she said.

If elected, she would look to make changes to state laws regarding “discrimination, hate speech, vilification, birth certificates, etc”.

“Where we can restore clear and accurate language around biological sex, men and women, and ensure that women and girls are safe and have spaces for services, sports, etc, where it’s inappropriate for males to be there.”

One Nation has required candidates at state elections to sign non-disclosure agreements preventing them from discussing their potential candidacy with the media.

News24 reported last month that Deves would run as an upper house candidate in the NSW election. She announced that she joined One Nation in September.

When Guardian Australia contacted Deves about her potential candidacy in October, she directed inquiries to Vikki Campion, the NSW party’s part-time media adviser. The party provided a statement saying it had confirmed only three candidates at that time – Newman, the lead upper house candidate, Stuart Bonds, and a Tamworth firearms manufacturer, Jeff Bacon.