Pauline Hanson braces for historic win
Pauline Hanson said she was “on eggshells” ahead of Saturday’s Farrer by-election and warned she will have no tolerance for new MPs who don’t work hard as One Nation approaches a historic breakthrough victory in one of the Coalition’s traditional rural strongholds.
To talk Today The Queensland senator insisted he was not taking the contest for granted despite growing optimism about One Nation candidate David Farley, show host Karl Stefanovic said during a live broadcast of his podcast from Albury’s Beer DeLuxe on Friday.
Farley, a 69-year-old agribusiness consultant from Narrandera, is a frontrunner to claim One Nation’s first win in the House of Representatives in a tight contest against community-backed independent Michelle Milthorpe.
“I’ve been through so many picks where I’ve thought, ‘Right, we look really good here,'” Hanson said.
“I’m on eggshells until the last vote is cast and the counting starts tomorrow night… because it depends on the people out there, on what the voters want.”
The by-election was triggered by the resignation of former Liberal leader Sussan Ley after she was ousted as party leader in February, forcing the Coalition to defend the seat it had long considered safely conservative.
Hanson has also been forced to publicly patch up his differences with Farley after several missteps in the past two weeks, including an appearance during a candidate forum last week that he had diverged from One Nation’s national immigration policy.
Farley said One Nation wants to “match immigration with housing policy, health policy and education policy” and recognizes the region’s dependence on a skilled immigrant workforce.
When asked whether the net migration of 306 thousand people abroad was “too much”, Farley replied: “No, probably not.”
“If we’re successful with One Nation’s water policies, we’re going to need more labor, and we’re going to need more labor, skilled labor, at a faster pace,” Farley said.
When asked about his comments, Hanson emphasized that the party’s official immigration target remains much lower.
“It’s not our policy to say 306,000 is OK,” Hanson said. “Our policy is 130,000.”
But Hanson said Farley was specifically talking about labor shortages in the region, particularly in the agricultural hubs of Griffith and Leeton in the north-west of major electorates in southern NSW.
“A lot of the area here relies on foreign workers, and they need that to keep the business going, to keep the industries here going,” he said.
“So I can understand. He speaks for his constituents. But overall our policy is limited to 130,000. Deport anyone who is in the country illegally.”
Hanson said foreign workers and international students must leave Australia when their visas expire before re-applying through official channels.
“Dave agrees on that, but that goes for all members of parliament. They need to represent their constituents and have a voice,” he said.
“I’m not going to shut him down. He had something to say, but he explained what he meant.”
The One Nation leader also defended his tight grip on party discipline, saying he had previously dismissed MPs who failed to perform, amid long-running criticism about instability in the minor party’s ranks.
“It’s been a battle with the different ones and I have to admit there’s a couple in there that I’ve gotten rid of,” Hanson said, referring to past acrimonious splits with former senators Brian Burston and Fraser Anning.
“One was a senator from NSW. One was a member from Queensland. They did nothing. They sat there and did absolutely nothing.”
“If you don’t work for the people who elected you, you’re not in my party. I don’t reward bad behavior.”
Key issues shaping the campaign include cost of living pressures, water management, access to healthcare and regional services, infrastructure investment and support for agriculture and local industry.
Milthorpe, who narrowed Ley’s lead at last year’s federal election, has had to repeatedly refute claims of independence from Simon Holmes over donations from the Court’s Climate 200.
At the final candidates forum on Friday night, he said he would be prepared to vote against net zero if it harmed regional communities and told the audience he opposed the proposed local wind farm at Table Top.
Hanson framed Saturday’s contest as part of a broader political fight against the major parties, saying: “Can I do this? Yes I can. I want our country back.”
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Rob Harris is a national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Canberra. He is a former European correspondent.Connect via email.
