“Australia has changed, Australia has changed, Australia has changed,” declared One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce to ABC this evening during a celebration in the southern New South Wales district.
“There’s likely a shockwave hitting Canberra right now,” he added.
In the latest developments, One Nation’s David Farley is leading the two candidate-preferred race against popular independent Michelle Milthorpe with approximately 60 percent to her 40 percent. Despite the absence of a Labor candidate and significant protest votes against the Liberals, Farley commented that this marks the dawn of a new chapter for One Nation.
“One Nation has concluded its initial phase; we are now breaking through new barriers,” Farley asserted.
Joyce, who once served as deputy prime minister and led the National Party, remarked that his switch to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation represents a path that many former members of the Nationals, Liberals, and Labor have taken and will continue to take.
His move to One Nation is viewed as pivotal in broadening the party’s appeal, and Joyce anticipates that the success observed in Farrer will be mirrored across the nation.
“The Australian people are not dumb,” he told the ABC.
“What you saw tonight was not just a result for Farrer, it’s a result for Australia ⦠and what we see is the Australian people saying I’m over this, I’m going to change things around, completely change the batting order, and they did it tonight.”
Joyce lashed his former Coalition colleague Angus Taylor, whose success in the Liberal Party leadership spill in February led to the Farrer byelection when his predecessor Sussan Ley quit politics.
The result for the Liberals tonight was catastrophic, attracting about 12 per cent of the vote in a seat that has only ever been held by the Liberal or National parties in its 77-year history.
Taylor blamed divisions within the Coalition as turning voters off.
“For too long we have been a party of convenience, not of conviction, and that must change,” he said.
“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.
Ley, who held the seat for 25 years, released a statement tonight as a warning to Taylor.
“I urge the Liberal leadership to accept this result with humility because the voters never get it wrong,” she said.
“On the day the leadership spilled in February, the new leader said the Liberal Party needed to ‘change or die’.
“Three months later, the result in Farrer demonstrates that statement to be far truer today than it ever was.”
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