Campaign Pressure, Contradictions and a Million-Dollar Plane: One Nation’s Farrer Fumble

Imagine politics as a pressure cooker: crank the heat up for a byelection, and suddenly party policy gets flexible enough to fit in a ladle. That’s the line Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce is using after One Nation’s candidate in Farrer, David Farley, suggested Australia’s net overseas migration of 306,000 last year was “probably not” too many — despite his party officially calling for a cap of 130,000 a year.

Farley was at a candidates’ forum when he argued immigration should be matched to housing, health and education capacity and that major projects — including One Nation’s water plans — could require skilled labour quickly. When asked bluntly whether 306,000 was too many, he answered in practical, capacity-led terms rather than reciting the party cap.

Joyce shrugged the mismatch off as “the pressure of a campaign,” stressing the party line is 130,000 and that Farley agreed with it in private. He also reminded people that you can’t keep adding people if there aren’t houses, schools or hospitals to go with them — warning that bringing in 400,000 a year is like adding a Canberra’s worth of people without the infrastructure.

Farrer is shaping up to be a tight contest. Farley is expected to battle independent Michelle Milthorpe for the seat that’s long been a Liberal–Nationals stronghold. Nationals MP Matt Canavan played down the political fallout of possibly losing Farrer, while still taking swipes at both competitors for what he called misleading campaigning and for talking out of both sides of their mouths on migration.

If competing for attention were an Olympic sport, One Nation has some fresh hardware: one of Gina Rinehart’s companies gave Pauline Hanson a private plane valued at more than $1.5m, and a group of close associates chipped in roughly $2m. Joyce waved off concerns that the donation would hurt the party at the ballot box, saying it “won’t really worry” most voters and that the media is far more exercised about expensive gifts than people on the ground.

Joyce leaned into the idea that big donors aren’t inherently bad: if you can’t attract them, he said, your politics might be a “vacuous beige soup.” He pointed out that major parties also have powerful backers — unions and business figures — and argued One Nation simply attracts conservative business support who align with much of the party’s platform.

So: a candidate talking capacity management instead of reciting a cap, a leader blaming campaign stress, a narrowly contested seat, and a plane that costs more than some minor-party budgets. The election swingometer may not be broken, but campaign pressure sure can bend party lines — and sometimes it takes a private jet to distract everyone while that happens.