FOUR years after One Nation dumped Stuart Bonds, the party has announced the Hunter Valley coal miner will be its candidate for the seat of Hunter at the federal election.

Mr Bonds told the Newcastle Herald on Wednesday that the rift between him and the party had been mended and that the issue was "dead and buried".

The party's one-time wunderkind had threatened to quit One Nation in 2021 after senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts voted with the government to pass controversial industrial relations legislation that could impact casual miners' class action compensations.

"We had a difference of opinion of the best way of going about things," Mr Bonds said. "The party's idea was to get as many people into fulltime jobs as possible. The policy that has been put in by Labor currently is working ... which is to give people assurances and reliability in their employment.

"I have a guarantee from the party that if the Dutton government is to get in, and they try to wind back those laws, they will not be supported by the party in either house. The issue, to me, is dead and buried. We have bigger fish to fry."

In 2019, Mr Bonds staged a surprise insurgence in the seat of Hunter, taking 21.6 per cent of the vote to finish third behind then-Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon. It was the best result One Nation had claimed in a lower house contest, but the subsequent bitter public falling out in 2021 saw him dropped from the party's ticket. He contested the 2022 poll as an independent, where he failed to garner the same surge in blue-collar support and ultimately lost his bid to Labor's Dan Repacholi.

Mr Bonds said he would focus his 2025 bid for the seat on "a new approach to energy policy" that advocates for more coal and gas mining, cutting government spending on renewable energy transition, and pulling Australia out of the Paris Climate Agreement. In a statement, he said his was the "only party that is opposed to net-zero policies".

"We are miners in this area," Mr Bonds said. "And we need a Trump-like policy - a 'dig, baby, dig' policy. In my opinion, we need to do what we do best, and that's mine the best coal in the world."

Questioned on the US government's tariffs on Australian steel imports, and President Donald Trump's rejection of exemptions for Australia, Mr Bonds said he was not aligning with President Trump but with his policy.

"Steel is not all that we export," he said. "It will affect those industries, and I hope they rethink the tariffs, but ... we need to stick to what we are good at, which is dig."

Mr Bonds has also indicated support for the Coalition's desires to build nuclear power generation around the country, including in the Hunter region, despite a parliamentary inquiry chaired by Mr Bonds' incumbent rival, Mr Repacholi, last month that it would prove a non-starter for the nation's energy transition.

"I think my daughter will thank Peter Dutton in 2045 when the first nuclear power station comes online," Mr Bonds said.

"Between now and then, there is an enormous black hole that I don't think is going to be filled with wind turbines and solar panels."

Renewables were expected to provide 48 per cent of Australia's power generation in 2025, while Mr Repacholi's inquiry found nuclear could take 50 years to come online and cost $600 billion.

Mr Repacholi's office has been contacted for comment.