With most ballots counted, One-Nation candidate David Farley has won an unassailable 60% of the primary vote in Farrer, a vast regional constituency in New South Wales. Independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe is far behind.
The contest was triggered by the resignation of Sussan Ley, who quit when she was ousted as leader of the opposition conservative Liberal Party.
While the result will not affect the Labor government’s large majority, it is a clear sign that voters are moving away from traditional political parties in Australia.
Saturday’s poll was the first federal test of One Nation’s support after the party recorded the second-highest number of votes out of any political party in the South Australian state election in March.
As news of the party’s victory emerged, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson told supporters this was not just a win for Farrer, but a win for Australia, and said the party was “coming after those other seats”.
Farley – whose background is in agribusiness – told supporters One Nation had “reached the end of its beginning, we’re going through the ceiling”.What are we doing tonight? We’re like a mason, with a chisel, and a hammer and we’re re-carving the letters into the Australian democracy.”
Australia has a preferential voting system where voters rank candidates from their most to least preferred. The final tally is calculated as a challenge between two candidates after preferences are distributed to ensure that the winner is supported by a majority.
One Nation had never won a federal lower house contest before Saturday’s poll. In the late 1990s Hanson initially held her seat as an independent before losing her re-election bid. She has since returned to the parliament as a senator.
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