Who is Robert Roylance, One Nation’s candidate for Hammond?
With Pauline Hanson’s party on the rise, meet the man from Mannum who hopes to represent the Murraylands in Parliament.
This sponsored story is brought to you by One Nation South Australia.
Perhaps Robert Roylance’s best quality is that he’s not a politician at all.
He is many things – raw, direct, passionate and patriotic – but a polished political operator is not one of them.
You’re more likely to run into him driving the ferry as you cross the River Murray at Walker Flat, or pouring a vodka at his family’s distillery at Mannum, than in the corridors of power.
But that may change.
Robert is One Nation’s candidate for Hammond at this month’s state election.
With the party surging in opinion polls, and plenty of locals behind him, he hopes to make a difference for everyday Australians.
But he also has a unique back story among One Nation candidates: he has lived and worked in China.
“I’ve travelled around the world a little bit, and I lived, worked and studied in China, and learned the language,” he says.
“I got a job as a primary school teacher.
“To go and travel is fun, but to live in a place so completely different was very challenging.”
The experience taught him a lot: about government over-reach, yes, but also about things Australia could do better, like focusing on families, or eliminating pointless fees and charges.
Imagine paying for a driver’s licence once, and having it remain valid for a lifetime.
“I don’t want Australia to become China … but I would like to take the good things I learned and reject the negative values,” he says.
Worldly experiences aside, Robert is as Aussie as they come.
He grew up at Mannum, the grandson of a bloke who helped sandbag the hotel in the ‘56 flood; he trained as a furniture maker, and served for several years as an artillery gunner in the Army Reserve.
But that doesn’t mean he opposes immigration of any kind – after all, he says, One Nation is not full of racists, like its critics might want you to think.
“Their policies make a lot of sense,” he says.
The party’s priorities for Hammond include:
- Housing: “We have to acknowledge the problem of uncontrolled immigration. We have to plan for the future. How many houses can we build, how many hospitals and schools and daycare facilities are available?”
- Cost of living: “I’m not against renewables, but net zero … by hell, it hurts. We need to diversify (our energy sources).”
- Public transport: “We should have had a bus service years ago.”
- Health care: “We need an MRI machine at the Murray Bridge hospital. I’m not against upgrading the maternity ward, but we’re not having an explosion of births. We need to take better care of the elderly.”
- Education: “Our policy is to strip the curriculum of ideological material and emphasise core learning like English, mathematics and the sciences.”
These are the issues people bring up with him every day, he says.
“In my job as a ferry operator, I get chatting to people, and … everyone has similar woes: the cost of energy, everything being so expensive, and the housing issue,” he says.
“I’m not asking for much.
“I just want our services to be better for what we’re paying.”
But if we keep on voting for the red team or the blue team, nothing will ever change, he says.
Could 2026 be the year One Nation shakes things up?
The choice is up to you.
- More information: Visit sa.onenation.org.au/robert-roylance, or follow Robert Roylance for Hammond on Facebook.
Authorised by C. Quaremba, One Nation South Australia, 2/24 Saltash Avenue, Christies Beach SA 5165.
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Peri Strathearn
