CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
SHORT-TERM ROLE: Early voters have already begun pre-polling in towns like Hay, Griffith, Leeton and Narrandera - as the Farrer by-election edges ever closer.
This rural NSW electorate came up for grabs after the disheartening resignation of former Liberal leader Sussan Ley, who had held the seat safely as a Liberal MP for over two decades... until the 2025 election.
Everything changed last year when a local Independent by the name of Michelle Milthorpe put her hand up to run a grassroots campaign against the ailing Liberal Party. Milthorpe came into last year's race as an unknown contender, focusing on rural health and education gaps, child protection reform, and major overhauls of water policy. Sussan Ley only won by 6%.
Farrer has been a Coalition stronghold for decades. Before Sussan Ley, it was held by Nationals MP and Deputy PM Tim Fischer for two decades.
However, with Sussan Ley quitting the Liberals after being knifed for leadership by the boys club, and with the National Party also playing a major role in her downfall. The Coalition are not even in this race.
Labor, already in power with 96 seats, have chosen to sit this by-election out so they can watch the drama from the sidelines.
Milthorpe is back, and the media is still treating her like an unknown contender, because it would be far better for newspapers sales and website clicks for this seat to be won by David Farley, the 69-year-old One Nation candidate who previously attempted to run as a Labor candidate in 2022.
Currently, Milthorpe and Farley are currently polling neck-and-neck.
The voters, half of whom are fired up regional women who detest the way Sussan Ley was treated, must now choose.
Will they go with the local mum, educator and community leader who is running as an independent?
Or will they pick the man that has attempted to enter Parliament through multiple different parties and will likely leave One Nation the moment he gets the job because Pauline Hanson has a turnover of about 85% when it comes to the long list of angry old men that she has gotten elected and then subsequently booted from the party when they start stealing her thunder.
