Farrer By-Election: Taylor Struggles To Find One Farmer In The NSW Riverina Whose Family Migrated From A Liberal Democracy

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT

When Sussan Ley MP got knifed as the Liberal leader late last year, events were put into motion that could very well cause irreversible damage to the Federal Opposition over the next few months.

Sussan Ley, the member for Farrer - a vast rural electorate stretching from Albury to the outskirts of Broken Hill - immediately resigned from Federal Politics.

This means her electorate is now up for grabs at a May 9 by-election. It's become a test for just about every political party except Labor, who are sitting this one out.

Ley had won the seat in the 2001 as a Liberal, and held it safely for 23 years - that was until a previously unknown 'Pocock-style' Independent candidate by the name of Michelle Milthorpe ran at her from the back fence - and snatched up over 25% of the first preferences.

The final result in 2025 was 43.81% to Milthorpe, 56.19% to Ley. It is generally acknowledged that Ley would have lost the seat if the voters weren't so certain that she would become the next leader of the Liberal Party.

But her leadership has come and gone since then. She's been replaced by Angus Taylor. And while Tay-Tay is also a Liberal from rural NSW - he speaks with the Kings English... and doesn't look like he'd be too comfortable drinking in the Murrumbidgee Hotel.

Before Ley it was held by the National Party for nearly decades under former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer. As it stands, the TAB has the Nats paying 34 bucks. The Liberals are paying 15 bucks.

Milthorpe, who has not enjoyed any media coverage whatsoever, is sitting at 2 bucks.

The media darlings that are Pauline Hanson's One Nation are sitting at $1.75.

Nobody knows which way the preferences are going to go, but this could be very embarrasing for everyone involved.

It will also determine whether Liberal voters are really shifting towards One Nation, or if Taylor has truly fucked up his pitch by blowing dog whistles about immigration.

Standing in the streets of the agricultural epicentre of Griffith today, Taylor is really starting to regret the comments he made about only accepting migrants from 'Liberal democracies'.

Because from memory, Mussolini's National Fascist Party (PNF) wasn't that well known for fair and transparent elections.

And neither are any of the subcontinental one-party states that half these fruit-pickers migrated from.