One Nation candidate says old money from Sydney and Melbourne is pouring into his byelection campaign

One Nation’s candidate for the Farrer byelection says old money from inner suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne is pouring into his bid to upset the Coalition in May, as new Nationals head Matt Canavan kicks off his campaign in the seat by stepping up attacks against Pauline Hanson’s party.

David Farley, the agricultural businessman who will stand for One Nation, claimed he was part of a vanguard of high-quality candidates joining Hanson’s party, as he admitted he disagreed with her recent comments about Muslims.

“Look at myself, Cory Bernardi, Barnaby Joyce. The quality of candidate is moving over to One Nation. And then look at the change of political conviction among the constituents. Generations of people that have been rusted on to these old parties are moving,” Farley told this masthead.

“That’s not just the mum and dad in the streets, that’s Toorak [in Melbourne] and Woollahra [in Sydney]. And the good thing with Toorak and Woollahra is they bring their purse with them.”

Asked whether he agreed with Hanson’s statement there were no good Muslims – which has been rebuked by Canavan – Farley said: “It was demonstrated there were good Muslims down at Bondi recently.”

The looming four-way race in Farrer – which will include the Liberals and the Climate 200-backed independent Michelle Milthorpe – will test whether One Nation’s rise and the Coalition’s decline in opinion polls is borne out when voters choose former Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s successor on May 9.

Farley also expressed regret for previous comments he had made about former prime minister Julia Gillard, as he positioned himself as a credible alternative to the Nationals and Liberals, who have held Farrer for its 77-year history.

Asked about his comments likening Gillard to a “non-productive old cow” that should be destroyed – which he made as chief executive of the Australian Agricultural Company in 2012 – Farley said: “It was a joke. You know, it’s like all things you say wrong in life. You wish you could grab the words back, but I can’t.”

With the war in the Middle East making petrol prices a fresh flashpoint in farming communities, Farley said One Nation would campaign on halving the fuel excise, which had become a red-hot issue in the electorate as panic buying squeezes supply.

But Canavan warned that Hanson had been unable to achieve policy change in her 30-year political career.

“Tell me, Pauline, what have you delivered for the people of regional Australia through a 30-year career in politics?” the new Nationals leader said in his first visit to Albury, the biggest city in the electorate, alongside candidate Brad Robertson on Friday.

The Liberals have typically dominated Albury, where about half the electorate lives, while the rural and farming lands of the electorate have been considered Nationals strongholds. But with the Coalition polling at historic lows, the contest will probably come down to preference flows.

The Liberals are last to the race, with their preselection due to be held on Sunday evening. The two candidates are Lachlan McIntyre, a former Sussan Ley staffer, and Albury councillor Raissa Butkowski. Party sources said the party will mobilise its campaign from Monday.

Robertson has started door-knocking for the Nationals, campaigning on the local hospital and fuel access, and Canavan urged voters to keep an open mind. “I think the Liberal and National parties are back. They’re back under Angus Taylor and now me as a leader,” he said.

Canavan said that the Coalition parties were committed to dumping net zero emissions targets, bringing down the cost of living, and introducing higher standards in Australia’s migration intake – though the opposition is yet to reveal how it plans to change immigration settings.

“We have the ability to deliver these things through the Australian parliament. I know Barnaby [Joyce] really, really well. And the Barnaby I knew, knew that it took a team to deliver results,” Canavan said.

“The approach of One Nation, traditionally, has been not to co-operate with other people. And if you’re not going to co-operate and build a team, nothing will change in this country.

“I think people should consider their vote strongly … We’ve got a strong track record, the Nationals party, of pragmatically and practically working in a team with people from the city. You’ve got to do that to get the numbers in parliament. That’s the broad, that’s the brutal math.”

But both the Liberals and Nationals will come up against well-resourced campaigns from an ascendant One Nation and Milthorpe, who pushed Ley to preferences in the May election after coming ahead of the Liberals in every booth in Albury.

Milthorpe’s campaign is the most advanced, having sprung into action the afternoon Ley announced her retirement from politics last month, backed by the Climate 200 and Regional Voices fundraising vehicles.

Her volunteers were blitzing campaign events at the weekend, holding street conversations and door-knocking around the electorate. While Milthorpe has already made inroads in Albury, she needs to gain ground elsewhere in the seat to win: the independent has strengthened her message on water policy and new events are being planned for Griffith, Culcairn and Hay.

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