00:00Let's get some more details now on this historic result and Anthony Bunn is senior political
00:04reporter at the Border Mail, a newspaper serving Albury-Wodonga and surrounding border regions
00:10and Anthony is with us now. Anthony, good morning.
00:13Good morning, Tamara. How are you?
00:15I'm good, thanks. Probably faring a little bit better than you who's had a late night.
00:19Now, what's the feeling on the ground for the people of Farrah once we've found out
00:23One Nation really is getting across the line and has secured victory?
00:27I think there's a degree of surprise at the margin of it. I don't think anybody really
00:33expected it to be that over that quickly on the evening. It just seemed as though it happened
00:41very, very quickly with the count, obviously right across the electorate in favour of One Nation
00:48and that's, yeah, a bit of a surprise. There was speculation that they could be counting
00:53for days, but obviously that's not the case and we've got a decisive result.
00:58Yeah, decisive result there. The ABC had called it at around eight o'clock last night and as
01:03you said, we were expecting days of counting there. And what was the mood like in the electorate
01:08last night when we found out that One Nation and David Farley had secured victory?
01:13I think it was fairly mixed and I guess that reflects particularly in Albury where there
01:18was still a reasonably strong vote for Michelle Milthorpe with her winning a number of booths
01:24in the centre of Albury and the western side of Albury. I think there was probably a bit
01:30of surprise from that camp. But then obviously the Hanson and Farley camp, there was ecstasy
01:38in there in relation to what had unfolded. I was in the room last night and yes, euphoria
01:45would be one word that had sum it up with the people in there just over the moon to think
01:50that they'd won a seat where they'd only had 6% or so last year, 12 months ago, to turn
01:57it around into this victory. It was quite remarkable.
02:00Yeah, absolutely huge numbers that we're seeing coming in. Now, you were in the room from the
02:03outside, it sounded like a rowdy pub party and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson was saying
02:08we're not going to be the forgotten people anymore and Farley was saying we got it done
02:13and there were people cheering in the background there. We got it done behind him. We've heard
02:16a little bit of that this morning. Is there a sense in Farrah, and I know Farrah's a huge
02:22geographic location. We keep saying in Farrah like it's a small town, but it's not. Is there
02:27a sense that people in the regions and the seat of Farrah have been forgotten? Is there that
02:32feeling there? Oh, no doubt. And that's right across the electorate. I think that's probably
02:37one thing that there is unity on and the sentiment that they've been forgotten and that's been
02:43either represented in people going to One Nation or going to the Independent rather than going to the
02:48Liberal Party, even though the Liberal Party had held the seat for 25 years and that frustration
02:54at feeling nothing had been done, even though we'd had an opposition leader or senior minister
02:59in the seats. It was still a feeling that there wasn't a reward for those votes over 25 years for
03:08the Liberal Party and that was reflected in the vote. And certainly from those smaller boosts way out
03:15and Wentworth at the end, at the South Australian end, right through, that people just didn't have
03:21any faith in the Liberal Party as what have been their natural choice over decades.
03:27An incoming MP now, David Farley, says that he'll be focused on water buybacks, net zero and
03:32immigration. And Pauline Hanson mentioned immigration as well in her speech when Farley takes his seat
03:40in federal parliament. Are these the main issues that people in Farrah are concerned about, in particular
03:46the water buybacks and immigration? I think water buybacks is probably, yeah, it's a big issue
03:51particularly around the irrigation areas. Places like Griffith and Genelequin, it's a key issue there
03:58in relation to the backbone of the economies of those places. It's not so much in Albury where there's not
04:05necessarily the reliance on that in the economy. The bigger issue there has been the hospital and
04:11its funding and its development. But certainly I think if Mr Farley's indicated that that's going to
04:20be a focus in agriculture as well, which obviously is a spinoff of the water and what can be done
04:27for
04:27farmers and irrigators.
04:29And in concession speech, Liberal leader Angus Taylor did mention the split between the Liberals and the
04:35Nationals and what had been going on federally. Meanwhile, former member for Farrah and former
04:40Liberal leader Susan Lee had said, please do not reference that split as being the reason why
04:48this by-election has gone the way it's gone. She also echoed what Angus Taylor had said previously,
04:55that the coalition needed to change or die and saying three months later, this result demonstrates
04:59that statement to be far truer today than it ever was then. How did Susan Lee's resignation and really
05:06her absence during this by-election for the Liberals impact the result? Because she was quite popular.
05:14Yeah, well I think there's a sentiment though that she hadn't hung around after her defeat as leader
05:21and obviously she was the trigger for the by-election and I suppose there was a degree of frustration from
05:26some people that the area was going back to the polls less than twelve months after the general
05:32election last year and that now they were having to vote once more and I think that's probably seen in
05:40the result as well that people probably abandoned the Liberal Party to a degree because of her actions
05:47there even though others would say well she's been in there for 25 years so fair enough for her to
05:53have a spell. I just think
05:55speaking to some people they felt that it was a bit selfish they felt and shouldn't have unfolded that way.
06:04Yeah, especially with a federal election coming up I guess in a couple of years time as well.
06:09Well Anthony, thank you so much for letting us know what the mood is on the ground and we'll have
06:14to see how
06:14this first ever MP for One Nation in the Lower House goes, marking history in Australia.
06:22Terrific, thanks for that Tamara.
06:23That is Anthony Bunn who's a senior political reporter at the Border Mail.
06:30Great.
06:30Thank you so much for joining us.
06:30See you soon.
06:31Bye-bye.
06:31Bye-bye.
06:31Bye-bye.
06:31Bye-bye.
06:31Bye-bye.
06:32Bye-bye.
06:32You
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