![\"\u2018All](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/86942fd79b5f55df8239d12ba1a001fc.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nOne Nation candidate David Farley has been urged to\u00a0apologise\u00a0after comments he made about an Albury doctor during a live candidates\u2019 forum triggered backlash just hours before voters headed to the polls in Farrer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The controversy erupted on Friday night during a public forum filmed for The Karl Stefanovic Show\u00a0when Dr Lachlan McKeeman challenged\u00a0Mr\u00a0Farley over the future of the Albury hospital redevelopment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr McKeeman, a prominent advocate for improved health services in the border region, interrupted\u00a0Mr\u00a0Farley after the One Nation candidate defended continuing work on the existing hospital site while a possible greenfield location was explored.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe brownfield is in progress,\u201d\u00a0Mr\u00a0Farley said\u00a0on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not.\u00a0They\u2019ve\u00a0only started the north-east building.\u00a0Don\u2019t\u00a0lie,\u201d Dr\u00a0McKeeman\u00a0responded\u00a0from\u00a0the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Farley then replied: \u201cYou can see why he lost his job, I think.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The comment drew boos from the crowd and quickly became a flashpoint in the final hours of the campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr McKeeman has not worked at Albury Wodonga Health since last year after receiving legal advice that his position had become \u201cuntenable\u201d following his criticism of the health service and the hospital redevelopment project.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The dispute over the future of the hospital has dominated the by-election campaign, with community independent Michelle Milthorpe and Coalition figures\u00a0backing\u00a0a new hospital on a separate site rather than upgrading the current Albury campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nationals\u00a0leader Matt Canavan said the One Nation candidate owed the doctor an apology.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Farley should\u00a0apologise\u00a0to Lachie McKeeman.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0a great doctor,\u201d\u00a0Mr\u00a0Canavan said outside Albury Public School on Saturday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that\u2019s the approach One Nation takes for regional Australia, they\u2019re not going to be able to stand up for regional Australia because our doctors and nurses work so hard with\u00a0limited resources from their capital city masters.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms\u00a0Milthorpe also\u00a0criticised\u00a0the remark, describing it as \u201cignorant\u201d and \u201cinsensitive\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis issue is not a joke for Dr McKeeman, and it is not a joke for the families whose lives have been deeply affected by the ongoing issues with Albury Wodonga Health,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The latest controversy capped off a turbulent campaign for\u00a0Mr\u00a0Farley, who has spent weeks defending his\u00a0previous\u00a0political links after it\u00a0emerged\u00a0he had\u00a0attempted\u00a0to run for Labor in 2022 and previously supported rival candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coalition figures repeatedly targeted the One Nation hopeful over his political history during the campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Farley in 2022 was signing up to Anthony Albanese, signing up to net zero, signing up to water buy-backs, signing up to a doubling of the refugee intake by trying to join the Labor Party,\u201d Mr Canavan said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow is that in any way, real change?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the country really needs, that change we need, is a change of government… And I still think the question mark will be…\u00a0can Pauline Hanson, can One Nation win seats off the Labor party?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters after casting his vote on Saturday morning,\u00a0Mr\u00a0Farley insisted he\u00a0remained\u00a0focused on building support for Pauline Hanson\u2019s party.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to win today, I\u2019ve got to make sure that we\u2019re ready for the next election and I want to help Pauline Hanson and (One Nation\u2019s) team build a powerful political party for Australia,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Farley also brushed off attacks branding him \u201cflight-risk Farley\u201d,\u00a0insisting he was committed to One Nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the nickname involved a \u201cpowerful amount\u201d of\u00a0humour\u00a0but\u00a0maintained\u00a0he was not\u00a0a risk to defect from\u00a0the party.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The One Nation candidate declared the party would \u201cmake history\u201d if it secured the seat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Senator Hanson had earlier described the by-election as a major test for the party\u2019s future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe election is going to be a turning point for Australia, because this will be the first One Nation seat won in the lower house,\u201d she said on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is time for\u00a0change. I want our country back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite expectations Senator Hanson and Barnaby Joyce would appear alongside\u00a0Mr\u00a0Farley on election day, neither high-profile figure was present when the candidate arrived to vote at Albury Public School.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One Nation candidate David Farley has been urged to\u00a0apologise\u00a0after comments he made about an Albury doctor during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,4919,1946,3356,2700,1955,1926],"class_list":{"0":"post-8118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-austrlia","10":"tag-coalition","11":"tag-david-farley","12":"tag-farrer-by-election","13":"tag-matt-canavan","14":"tag-one-nation","15":"tag-pauline-hanson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8118","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=8118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}