{"id":7425,"date":"2026-05-08T09:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/7425\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T09:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:09:12","slug":"battle-for-farrer-sees-major-parties-on-the-outer-as-voters-switch-loyalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/7425\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle for Farrer sees major parties on the outer as voters switch loyalties"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most of his life, Narrandera man Jock Wright has been a Coalition voter, but with major-party discontent seemingly rife in the electorate of Farrer, he has made a switch for this weekend’s by-election.<\/p>\n

“This is the very first time I’ve ever cast a vote for One Nation,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Wright said he felt the bigger parties were not representing the interests of rural towns as much as someone like One Nation candidate David Farley would.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s too much talk and not enough action,” he said.<\/p>\n

“In this particular instance, in our local community, there’s lots of talk about poor water quality.<\/p>\n

“I just think the major parties are sometimes overlooking the fact that small rural towns in New South Wales and the whole of Australia get forgotten quite easily.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Graham Nott has decorated his van to support One Nation candidate David Farley. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

The by-election features 12 candidates, with independent Michelle Milthorpe and One Nation’s David Farley considered the frontrunners.<\/p>\n

This is despite the seat being held by the Coalition since its creation in 1949 and by former Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley<\/a> for the last quarter of a century.<\/p>\n

But polling shows many voters are disillusioned with the major parties.<\/p>\n

Narrandera’s Timothy Hills said he had voted Liberal a few times, but he was traditionally a Labor voter.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Timothy Hills says independent Michelle Milthorpe represents his views best. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

But with the Albanese government choosing not to field a candidate, he will be voting for Ms Milthorpe.<\/p>\n

“I like the fact that she’s not actually spending her time trying to blame other parties. She’s talking about what she’s going to do,” Mr Hills said.<\/p>\n

A decision by the Liberals and Nationals to preference One Nation above independents on their how-to-vote cards was also a factor.<\/p>\n

“That totally lost all my respect for the Liberals and Nationals, because that goes against everything politically that I believe in,” Mr Hills said.<\/p>\n

“Narrandera is a small community. We have a lot of Indigenous people, people from the Middle East who are practising Muslims \u2014 it doesn’t seem appropriate.”<\/p>\n

Griffith resident and long-time Greens voter Pamela Gulloni said she was also voting for Ms Milthorpe to avoid the One Nation influence.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Pamela Gulloni says Michelle Milthorpe will best represent Farrer. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

“I feel the battle is so close between Michelle and One Nation, and the Greens really don’t have a chance of winning,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I think the attitude of One Nation, just generally, not necessarily specifically to this town, is abhorrent to me.<\/p>\n

“For example, migration is something I find difficult to grasp in their attitudes.”<\/p>\n

Griffith resident Blake Goudie said he had traditionally been more of a Liberal voter, but current circumstances pushed him towards One Nation.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Blake Goudie says a change in leadership is needed in Farrer. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

“I think we need a bit of an overhaul of the current system, and we just need something different,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think energy issues are some of the worst, energy bills are always quite high, fuel prices is one of the biggest topics at the moment, and I feel like they’re not really addressing those issues as they should be.”<\/p>\n

Discontent has been growing<\/p>\n

Charles Sturt University political scientist Dominic O’Sullivan said those looking to cast a “protest vote” would likely favour One Nation or Ms Milthorpe.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dominic O’Sullivan says disillusion with major parties is rife in this by-election. (Supplied: Charles Sturt University)<\/p>\n

“I imagine Michelle will get almost all of the votes that were cast for the Labor Party at the last federal election, and that adds a little bit to her very good polling,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The polls are showing that the One Nation candidate is doing very well, and he’s benefiting from a national shift towards that party as people on the right of politics look for a party that’s going to give them the voice that they might have once felt the National and Liberal parties gave them.”<\/p>\n

\"Colourful<\/p>\n

The Farrer by-election will be a battle between the One Nation and independent candidates. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

Candidates for the major parties have publicly questioned how effective their front-running rivals could be if elected to parliament.<\/p>\n

Professor O’Sullivan said those on the crossbenches typically had the most influence when the major parties needed support to form government.<\/p>\n

“When Julia Gillard’s government was returned with the support of independent members, those independents were able to extract really significant policy concessions for their electorates,” he said.<\/p>\n

Professor O’Sullivan said the Coalition’s decision to preference One Nation above the independent could come back to haunt it if Mr Farley won.<\/p>\n

“There’s an additional person One Nation has in the parliament with resources, public platform and an ability to campaign against the Liberal and National parties,” he said.<\/p>\n

“One Nation wants to destroy those parties, so to aid and abet in that might be a strategic error on their part.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For most of his life, Narrandera man Jock Wright has been a Coalition voter, but with major-party discontent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,3356,1366,4807,8729,8730,1955,8731,8732,149,8733],"class_list":["post-7425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-farrer-by-election","tag-federal-government","tag-independent","tag-major-parties","tag-minor-parties","tag-one-nation","tag-political-discontent","tag-political-science","tag-politics","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}