By Peter Brown
The dust had barely settled in Canberra after a dramatic leadership spill when former Liberal leader Sussan Ley dropped another political bombshell: her resignation from parliament. The decision has triggered a high-stakes by-election in the sprawling New South Wales electorate of Farrer, setting the stage for what analysts predict will be a complex and crowded contest.
Ms Ley was ousted as Liberal leader on Friday in a secret ballot won by Angus Taylor, who secured 34 votes to her 17. In her concession speech, the member for Farrer since 2001 announced she would be stepping away “completely and comprehensively from public life.” Her departure deprives the new Liberal leader of a seasoned campaigner and immediately presents him with his first major electoral test.
A Seat Transformed
Farrer, a vast rural electorate that hugs the Murray River and includes the cities of Albury and Griffith, was once considered a safe conservative stronghold. Held for 17 years by former Nationals leader Tim Fischer, it was won by Ms Ley in 2001. However, the seat’s political complexion has shifted dramatically in recent years.
At the 2025 federal election, Ms Ley’s once-command margin was slashed from 19.8 per cent to just 6.2 per cent. This was largely due to the rise of community-backed independent Michelle Milthorpe, who secured 20 per cent of the primary vote and finished second. Ms Milthorpe, an educator and advocate from Jindera, has already confirmed she will contest the by-election, presenting a significant challenge to the Coalition once again.
A Crowded Field of Contenders
The by-election is shaping up as a potential six-horse race, with interest from across the political spectrum.
Michelle Milthorpe (Independent)
Backed by the Voices of Farrer movement and the fundraising group Climate 200, Ms Milthorpe is the most immediate threat to the Liberals. Her 2025 campaign proved the community is ready for change, according to Climate 200 co-convener Kate Hook. Ms Milthorpe argues that the Coalition’s internal battles have left it unable to focus on the needs of regional Australians. “Farrer’s future cannot be an afterthought to party politics,” she said on Friday.
Helen Dalton (Independent)
Another formidable independent weighing a run is Helen Dalton, the current NSW state MP for Murray. Her electorate overlaps significantly with the federal seat of Farrer. A former member of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, Ms Dalton has built a reputation as a fierce advocate for water security and rural communities. She was recently awarded the 2025 Uniting Political Courage Award for her principled stance on gambling reform.
Ms Dalton confirmed her phone has been “burning up” since Ms Ley’s announcement. “I understand that the people of my region want their voices to be heard,” she said in a statement, adding that she is consulting with locals before making a final decision.
One Nation
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has confirmed it will run a candidate. The party claims its branch in Farrer is the second-largest in the country, and it sees an opportunity to capitalise on dissatisfaction with the Coalition. One Nation candidate Emma Hicks polled 6.6 per cent in the seat in 2025, and with the party’s national primary vote surging since then, it could prove a major complicating factor for the Liberals .
Coalition Conundrum
The by-election also exposes a fragile dynamic within the Coalition itself. With the seat vacant, both the Liberal and National parties are entitled to run candidates, as they did in 2001 when Ms Ley first won the seat. New Liberal leader Angus Taylor and Nationals leader David Littleproud must now navigate the delicate task of deciding whether to run competing tickets or find a way to unite behind a single candidate, all while a resurgent One Nation and popular independents circle.
Mr Taylor acknowledged the fight for Farrer would “be tough” (paywalled) but declined to divulge the Coalition’s strategy, stating it was a matter for private discussion with Mr Littleproud .
With Ms Ley not resigning immediately, the by-election is not expected to be held until late April, giving all prospective candidates time to build their campaigns. For Angus Taylor, it is an unwanted but immediate distraction; for the people of Farrer, it is a rare opportunity to decide whether to continue a legacy or forge a new, independent path.
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So, there is a vote to be had, and choices include unripe vegetables, rotten maggoty apples, festering flyblown fruit, dodgy mushrooms and a huge crop of dishonesty, vanity, seethes, groans. Disappointment? Hope? Sincerity? Now, how much for that ‘extra’ gigalitre?
So, One Nation says Farrer is their second largest branch in the country. Sounds like double-speak to me, typical of James Ashby who likes to see himself as a Svengali – just how many members does their Farrer branch have?
One Nation are not good with numbers.
Michelle Milthorpe sounds like a good bet to me
@ PP: Nah ….. There are two (2) credible INDEPENDENTS likely to run and either or both of them will be better representatives of the voters than any NOtional$ or LIARBRAL$ candidate.
Certainly your description of any COALition pre-selected candidates is accurate. However, two fly-blown fruit exchanging preferences may be an unsatisfactory for the voters desired local outcomes as too long neglected funding of public infrastructure or an honest MDB water policy (Anybody for an $80 MILLION EMPTY GLASS OF MDB WATER??)
Indeed, I suggest from too long watching the NOtional$ wreck the New England electorate, that the best option for the voters wanting a credible local candidate elected to Feral Parliament may be to vote ”1” and ”2” for any Independents with the Only Nutters in last position.
Beware the ”secret NOtional$ candidate”, a half credible local candidate who runs dead to attract the local sympathy vote.
In all the elections that I have been part of the process, NEVER UNDERESTIMATE the ability of the NOtional$ to come up with a dirty trick or several, especially ”losing” ballot papers in the election hall.
Certainly, Cocky, go any decent independent with known solid policies. I had been fantasising on maggoty Ashby, toxic Ashby, unripe Ashby…
@ Terry Mills: Agreed. Certainly slashing Sus$san’s margin to one-third, (19.2$ down to 6.2%) suggests that the electorate is totally fed up with the LIARBRAL$.
In New England, INDEPENDENT Tony Windsor gained 62% of the primary vote when elected in 2000, defeating the NOtional$ candidate at least three days before polling day.
In the NSW Northern Tablelands electorate (part of the feral New England electorate) INDEPENDENT Richard Torbay defeated the NOtional$ sitting candidate, a former Minister in 1999, with 80+% of the primary vote. NOtional$ own polling showed that their candidate was defeated six weeks before polling day.
INDEPENDENTS GET THINGS DONE FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES.
What do NOtional$ do??
Such cynicism from ones so young.
Always enjoy NEC!!
So, ON want to take over the coalition. I see now this may have been Ley’s issue with it.
scrunch!
The people of Farrer should show Angus Taylor and co, along with the right wing media of 2GB and Sky who collectively undermined Sussan Ley (for all her faults) from the day she became Liberal leader.
The best way to do that is to vote for the Greens or Independents and use their preferences wisely putting Liberals second last and One Nation absolute last.
Angus Taylor is the epitome of what is wrong with the Liberal Party, Dutton revisited.
@ paul walter: Thank you for the kind words.
Pourleen wants to be the Prim Monster taking Australia back to a 19th century White Supremacist, colonist settler country; a third world export economy to a dying empire being by passed by the 21st century.
Contrary to the opinions in the Mainstream Media Manipulation Monopoly, Australia’s future as an independent middle power nation lies with slashing, or quietly divorcing, our too long and too disadvantageous apron strings to both England & the USA (United States of Apartheid) and encouraging local entrepreneurs to develop our extensive natural resources for the benefit of Australians rather than foreign owned multinational corporations.
Our kids deserve more than a future as cannon fodder for wars fought between multinational corporations seeking to steal more natural; resources at their government’s expense.
I think that every politician of the 2PP needs to be removed quite frankly, as they have proven to be sociopaths and interested in only their ‘benefits’ not anyone else’s who they have lied to for decades.
So, here’s to more Independents, and Teals to help shape and rebuild what we, the politic body, wants for the country.
https://michaelwest.com.au/when-politicans-fail-police-go-rogue-justice-fails-to-protect/
We are the leaders we have been looking for.
Leading up to this coming by-election, we will hear, by media compulsion, much from the worthless Taylor and the vacant Hume. That is irritating as they have nothing new, considered, revised, enhanced, honest, solid. To have a dead horse for a show pony is the reality. May they be slaughtererd for the political assassination and get reduced to Blot.
I thought Angus was going to be the new fresh face of the Libs? Instead he and the rest of the demon clown gang are still mired in the same old RRW Lib bullshit that got them kicked out and pretty much reviled. How mnay more elections will they lose and how long before Taylor is knifed by the even more RRWNJ’s in the party?