Far-right Australian party snatches seat in election first

The far-right One Nation Party has claimed a historic Lower House seat in Australia. Photo / Hilary Wardhaugh, AFP

Australia’s far-right One Nation Party won its first Lower House election battle by a wide margin on Saturday, snatching a seat held by traditional conservative parties since 1949.

Led by Pauline Hanson, who advocates for big immigration cuts and campaigns against “radical Islam”, One Nation secured the seat of Farrer, a large inland agricultural and mining electorate in New South Wales.

Represented by the conservative Liberal or rural-based National parties since its creation nearly 80 years ago, the seat slipped from the Coalition’s hands at a time of rising prices, unaffordable housing and concern over divisive issues such as immigration.

With nearly half of the byelection votes counted, One Nation candidate David Farley had 42%, far ahead of independent Michelle Milthorpe, his nearest rival, who conceded the race.

“We’re like a mason with a chisel and a hammer and we’re carving the letters into the Australian democracy,” Farley told cheering supporters.

“One Nation is at the end of its beginning – we are going through the ceiling,” he said, promising to tackle the cost of living and fight against Australia’s efforts to curb carbon emissions.

It was the party’s first win at the ballot box for a seat in the powerful Lower House. It already holds one seat there, but only because of a defection from the National Party.

The Liberal Party and National Party, which have governed Australia as the Coalition for much of the post-war period, lagged far behind with just 12% and 9%, respectively, according to the partial count.

“We all copped quite a kicking,” said Liberal Party candidate Raissa Butkowski, who also conceded.

The ruling Labor Party did not contest the seat, which is considered unwinnable for a left-leaning candidate.

Political analysts said the byelection threw into question a long-held notion that Australia’s voting system insulates it from the global rise of populist parties – including in this week’s local elections in England.

‘Yes it’s sexy’

Voting is compulsory in Australian elections.

Voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate gets a majority, votes for the last-placed candidates are redistributed until one person gets more than 50%.

The system made it harder for minor parties to enter the Lower House of parliament, but it is a “speed bump, not a bulwark”, said Benjamin Moffitt, senior lecturer in politics at Monash University.

The seat came up for grabs when former Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley – who held it for 25 years – resigned in February as her party slumped in opinion polls behind One Nation.

The Liberal Party under new leader Angus Taylor is still battling for second place in the polls against One Nation, which has surged since mid-2025.

Both parties remain well behind Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party.

“The Coalition should be hitting the panic button,” Moffitt told AFP.

“This is an absolute repudiation of what they are offering, and an indication that there are very significant shifts taking place on the right of politics.”

One Nation benefited from voters’ suffering in the tough economy, worries about immigration, and concern over an anti-Semitic mass shooting in December that killed 15 people at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Moffitt said.

The party has also been helped by some big donations.

Australia’s richest woman, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, notably donated a Cirrus SR Series G7 single-engine plane to the party late last month, reportedly through one of her companies.

“Yes it’s sexy. Yes I have a pilot,” Hanson, who is one of the party’s four senators in the Upper House, posted on social media at the time.

- AFP