PRE-polling has opened in Australia for a critical by-election in Farrer, Victoria. If the One Nation Party candidate David Farley defeats his Independent rival, he will, in ABC’s words, ‘shatter one of the thickest of political glass ceilings of the past three decades’. Farrer has been held by the Liberal and National parties since its inception in 1949.
For all the attention Pauline Hanson and her One Nation Party has garnered over the years, they have never secured a lower house seat in the federal parliament under their own steam. In addition to universally negative legacy media coverage, Australia’s preference voting system has not helped. The Liberals, the nominal conservative party, have in the past always preferred Labor (the left-wing party) ahead of the conservative One Nation.
However, all this appears to be changing under Angus Taylor, the brand new leader of the opposition Liberal Party, and Matt Cavanagh, the equally new leader of its coalition ally, the National Party. Both men have watched One Nation’s dramatic surge in the polls over this last year. The latest Sky News Pulse showed it tying with Labor on a primary vote for the first time in history.
In the 2025 federal election One Nation attracted only 6.4 per cent of the vote. But instead of attacking or dismissing Hanson, as in the past, her new rivals have been taking her lead. Both have doubled down on a harder line immigration policy with Taylor robustly defending his preference for One Nation over the Independent candidate in the Farrer by-election. He has refused to call out Hanson’s hardline stance.
If Farley gets over the line it will be in no small measure due to Taylor’s and Cavanagh’s endorsement of that outcome. Both seem to have decided that a potential backlash from the political right against their parties is more of a threat than a backlash from moderate Liberals and Nationals.
Once considered the ‘barbarians’ of the political right, as ABC put it: ‘One Nation would no longer be hollering through the gate. They would have burst through.’
While Hanson herself is much reported in the legacy broadcast media, invariably negatively, long interviews to explore her views are in shorter supply. This is not the case on social media. Two recent interviews, one with Rebel News and the second with Will Kingston give a proper taste of who Hanson is, what she really stands for and whether she is, as her fellow parliamentarians accuse her, a racist.
First, here’s an incredibly relaxed and engaging interview with Avi Yemini of Rebel News.
Second, Kingston’s GB News Originals show which he describes as ‘a safe space for dangerous conversation’.
