One Nation has surged to a landslide by-election Victory in the NSW seat of Farrer, making David Farley the first One Nation candidate to be elected to the House of Representatives.
ABC News called the election for Mr Farley just after 8pm on Saturday night, with Mr Farley on about 60% of the vote to Independent Michelle Milthorpe’s 40%, as voters abandoned the Liberal Party.
The by-election was triggered by the resignation of former Liberal leader Sussan Ley, who quit parliament after tanking the Coalition in the polls by abandoning immigration targets and supporting the government’s “hate speech” and “hate groups” laws.
At the time the result was called for One Nation the Liberals had won just 11% of the primary vote, a negative swing of 31.7%. The Nationals were on 9%, Ms Milthorpe on 25%, and Mr Farley on 42%. Legalise Cannabis, the Greens and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers were each on about 2% of the vote.
Labor did not run a candidate in Farrer, which borders Victoria and South Australia in NSW’s southwest, is the second-largest electorate in the state, and was held by Ms Ley from 2021 until February this year.
One Nation’s David Farley has won the seat of Farrer.
Tonight, One Nation has secured a victory not just for Farrer but for all of Australia.
The people of Farrer have not just spoken, they have roared.
The people of Australia will not be forgotten. One Nation will fight for… pic.twitter.com/3rE4GxK97S
— Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 (@PaulineHansonOz) May 9, 2026
Video from inside the One Nation party tonight.
David Farley says it is only the beginning as he declares victory in Farrer, taking the once very safe Liberal seat that was neglected by Sussan Ley. pic.twitter.com/e86UADimne
— Matthew Camenzuli (@Matt_Camenzuli) May 9, 2026
Mr Farley vowed to “hold government accountable” in his victory speech, said immigration should be reduced to ease pressure of the education and health systems, called for food and energy independence, and slammed “net zero”.
“We need to hold government accountable and responsible for how they spend their money, who they let into the country, and more importantly, how they defend the country,” Mr Farley said.
“We want to get the cost of living down and our first target we need to stop this damn net zero price. It’s not what Australia wants and it’s not Australia needs. We’re going to have policy that fits Australia, not the world.”
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce told Sky News disillusioned voters had defected from all of the major parties, and were sick of being ignored and looked down on.
“If you don’t want to stand up for Australia, if you want to bang on about, ‘you’ve got to change the climate, blow up coal fired power stations’,” Mr Joyce said
“You know, they’ve said, ‘No, we’ve had enough of that. And, we gave you a chance’.
“If you keep ridiculing them, if you kept running them down, if you keep saying that the sophisticated world of Canberra is actually the world of Australia … you got your political backside handed to you on a plate.”
Liberal leader Angus Taylor said the result showed his party needed to change.
“This byelection was always going to be a mountain to climb for the Liberal Party,” he said.
“For too long we have been a party of convenience, not of conviction, and that must change. Over the last year or so the Coalition hasn’t done what it should do: been united and stable and strong, with two breakups of the Coalition over that time. Those days are over.”
Header image: Left, right, David Farley and Pauline Hanson (One Nation).
