In 1996 she joined the Liberal Party of Australia and was endorsed as the Liberal candidate for the House of Representatives seat of Oxley, based on Ipswich, for the March 1996 Federal election. At the time, the seat was thought of as a Labor stronghold. The Labor incumbent, Les Scott, held it with an almost 15% two-party majority, making it the safest Labor seat in Queensland. Because of this, Hanson was initially dismissed and ignored by the media and the general public, believing that she had no chance of winning the seat. However, Hanson received widespread media attention when, leading up to the election, she advocated the abolition of special government assistance for Aboriginal Australians, and she was disendorsed by the Liberal Party. Ballot papers had already been printed listing Hanson as the Liberal candidate, and the Australian Electoral Commission had closed nominations for the seat. As a result, Hanson was still listed as the Liberal candidate when votes were cast, even though Liberal leader John Howard had declared she would not be allowed to sit with the Liberals if elected. On election night, Hanson took a large lead on the first count and picked up enough Democrat preferences to defeat Scott on the sixth count. Her victory came amid Labor's near-meltdown in Queensland which saw it cut down to only two seats in the state. Hanson won 54 percent of the two-candidate preferred vote. Had she still been running as a Liberal, the 19.3-point swing would have been the largest two-party swing of the election. Due to her disendorsement, she entered parliament as an independent.