One Nation selects byelection candidate as Hanson declares Albanese is scared to run

A 69-year-old grandfather and irrigation specialist will represent One Nation at the Farrer byelection, facing off against a popular independent and the Liberal and National parties.

Businessman David Farley was selected by local One Nation members on Saturday morning ahead of the May 9 poll, which was triggered when former opposition leader Sussan Ley announced her resignation last month.

Labor is unlikely to contest the byelection, a move One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was making out of fear.

“Of course he’s not going to put up a candidate because he knows damn well that he’s going to get a lower vote than last time,” Hanson told journalists at a press conference in Albury on Saturday afternoon

“Albanese doesn’t want to put that out to the public, so it makes no difference to him holding majority seats in the lower house. The fact is, he doesn’t want to be shown up to be on the downward slope.

“We are connecting with people. They realise now we’re the only party that is prepared to fight for them on these issues, and that’s what we will do. I just want to say thank you to people around this country who [are] now realising what One Nation stands for. We stand for Australia, we stand for you, and we’ll continue to fight for you.”

Farley, who has a qualification from Harvard University in the US, beat out local businesswoman Leigh Wolki and agribusiness manager Guy Cooper to claim the party’s candidacy.

“What a great step forward for Farrer, a big step forward for One Nation, and a bigger step forward for Australia,” Farley said.

“For Farrer to succeed, it needs political courage, and political tenacity. One Nation’s got that, and I believe I can deliver that.”

One Nation’s primary vote has been rapidly rising in polls, with this masthead’s Resolve Political Monitor finding the minor-party drawing level with the Coalition at 23 per cent. The byelection will be the second major test of the party’s ability to transfer polling into electoral results, after the South Australia state election later this month.

Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Matt Thistlethwaite on Saturday would not confirm whether Labor would run a candidate in Farrer, but criticised One Nation’s stance on multiculturalism.

“One Nation has sought to divide Australians during this difficult time, basically since their inception. One Nation stands against everything that Australia stands for when it comes to our successful multicultural policies,” he said.

With Labor widely expected to forego the poll, it is expected to be a four-cornered contest between Farley, the incumbent Liberal Party, returning independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe, and the Nationals.

Coalition parties typically do not run candidates against each other; however, both claim a right to the now vacant seat. The last time the parties competed in Farrer was in 2001 following the resignation of popular Nationals MP and deputy prime minister Tim Fischer.

Ley won the seat that year by 206 votes, later improving her results and holding it on comfortable margins of up to 20 per cent until she was challenged by Milthorpe at last year’s election and her margin was cut to 6.2 per cent.

A preselection vote for the Liberals has yet to be scheduled as potential candidates undergo vetting by the party.

Addressing the NSW Liberal Party state council on Saturday, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said the byelection was going to be “a tough fight”.

“But with your help, we are going to be putting up a hell of a fight,” he told the party faithful.

National party members will vote on Sunday morning to preselect their candidate from four nominees: former mayor and current Albury councillor Kylie King, former Wodonga mayor and broadcaster Kevin Poulton, cattle farmer Marc Greening and retired army colonel Brad Robertson.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said the party would “go hard” in the campaign, but faced an uphill battle having not had a federal presence in the electorate for 25 years.

“What our role can be is to erode that One Nation vote and to give those people that are thinking of voting One Nation, but can’t bring themselves to vote Liberal, an off-ramp,” Littleproud told this masthead.

“If a Coalition candidate isn’t elected we are one step away from getting rid of Albanese at the next election,” Littleproud said. “Voting for One Nation might give them a warm fuzzy feeling, but it won’t get them further away from Anthony Albanese.”

The Greens, who have never received more than 9.1 per cent of the primary vote in Farrer, are expected to announce their candidate next week. Family First’s Rebecca Scriven, who received 2.2 per cent of the vote in 2025, will run again.

Popular independent MP Helen Dalton has confirmed she will not run, saying she would remain in NSW Parliament and endorse a candidate in the coming weeks.

“I’ll give my endorsement to a candidate that runs strongly on water issues. If they are weak as water, I won’t endorse them,” Dalton said.

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