State Conference, Hanson accused Oldfield of abusing his authority, usurping power and setting up alternative political parties under his control. His expulsion created even more instability in a party which was constantly embroiled in scandal and internal strife and the party saw a split in its New South Wales division, as well as earlier in Queensland and later in Western Australia. One Nation New South Wales As a result of his expulsion from the original party, Oldfield formed One Nation New South Wales in 2001. The new party took advantage of electoral party registration laws to register itself as a political party under the ‘One Nation’ name with the NSW electoral commission, and achieved registration in April 2002. The effect of this was that the original Pauline Hanson's One Nation was now unable to gain registration for New South Wales state elections, and therefore any candidates which that party chose to represent them at state elections could not use the party name. Consequently, One Nation could only contest federal elections in New South Wales, whilst the Oldfield group could only contest state elections in New South Wales. One Nation NSW encountered some internal ruptures in 2002 and 2003 during the preselection process for the March 2003 New South Wales election. Brian Burston had been preselected by a party conference in December 2002 for 1st place on the party ticket, for the election to the Upper House, the Legislative Council. Oldfield however, had intended that his wife, Lisa, secure this position. He, therefore, summoned a second meeting of party members in January 2003, which saw a reversal of the December decision to give Burston the top spot on the ticket, in favour of Lisa Oldfield. Burston and his supporters filed legal action, and the court upheld the initial party decision of December, which gave Burston the leading position on the ticket. At the March election, One Nation New South Wales achieved only 1.5% of the primary vote, compared to 6.3% for One Nation in the previous 1999 election that saw Oldfield elected. This result was substantially below the 4.55% election quota, and consequently, Burston failed to get elected. Apart from the internal feuding which affected the party's performance, was the fact that Pauline Hanson also ran in the election as a grouped independent, with support from what was left of One Nation, and this fractured the One Nation vote. Hanson polled