Farrer By-election 2026

Sussan Ley's retirement from federal parliament sparks a by-election in western New South Wales that is likely to be fiercely fought, with both the Liberals and Nationals contesting along with One Nation and possibly independent candidates.

It will be watched closely as the first electoral test of new Liberal leader Angus Taylor and as a gauge on One Nation support in regional New South Wales.

Farrer was one of the new electorates created on the expansion of the House of Representatives in 1949. It is named after William James Farrer, noted wheat breeder and experimentalist. Farrer has been a safe conservative seat since its creation and has had only four members in the seven decades since its first contest. It was held by former Liberal ministers David Fairbairn 1949-75 and Wal Fife 1975-84, and former National Party Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer 1984-2001.

Fife was a former state MP for Wagga Wagga, and when that city was transferred out of Farrer into Hume at the 1984 election, Fife chose to follow his home base. That opened an opportunity for a state National MP Tim Fischer to win Farrar at the 1984 election.

Fischer was to surprise most observers by winning the National Party Leadership after the National Party's reverses at the 1990 election. With a bumbling speaking style that masked a smart political brain, Fischer had to defend the new gun laws introduced in the first term of the Howard government, and withstand the insurgency of Pauline Hanson's One Nation.

Fischer retired from Parliament at the 2001 election, when the National Party's older male candidate lost Farrer to Sussan Ley, the Liberal Party's younger female candidate. Ley won the seat with a majority of just 0.1% over the National Party, but a much safer 16.4% versus Labor. Without a National Party challenger at subsequent elections, Ley has had little difficulty retaining this seat.

Ley was labelled a farmer's wife and shearer's cook when she ran for this seat in 2001, but her background was slightly more complex. Born in Nigeria, Ley spent her childhood in the Middle East with her British parents before they migrated to Australia. Ley was working as an air-traffic controller and pilot before she met and married her husband, who was a farmer and itinerant shearer. She had been unable to get work as a commercial pilot (not a job women got in those days) and had a job mustering sheep from the air.

For a number of years after marrying, the pair travelled around in a caravan, John shearing and Sussan cooking for the shearers. She later studied economics and worked for the tax office in Canberra. The shearing van came in useful in the 2001 election campaign, Ley using it to campaign the length of the electorate, sleeping in it overnight at caravan parks. Ley was appointed assistant minister for education when the Abbott government came to office, before taking on the higher profile health portfolio in the December 2014.

Ley was forced to resign from the ministry in early 2017 after a travel expenses row. She was environment minister between 2019 and 2022 and was deputy leader of the Liberal Party under Peter Dutton from 2022 to 2025.

After her party's 2025 defeat, Ley won a tight leadership ballot against Angus Taylor. Nine months later, with the party losing significant support in opinion polls to One Nation, a spill was called and the vote went the other way. While brief, her time as leader was filled with significant events, including two brief separations of the Liberal-National Coalition.

(Victories by the party that formed government are underlined)

Raissa Butkowski

Liberal Party

Butkowski was elected as an independent Albury City councillor in October 2024. She also serves as a board member of the Murray-Darling Association and works as a Senior Lawyer for Hume Riverina Community Legal Service. Prior to her law career she worked as a lab technician and a tennis coach.

Website

David Farley

One Nation

Farley is an agribusiness and irrigation professional from Narrandera. The 69-year-old has worked in the United States, Africa and the former Soviet Union and is interested in water reform in the Murray-Darling basin. He is a former chief executive of the Australian Agricultural Company.

Richard Hendrie

The Greens

Hendrie is a mental health and disability advocate and was the 2025 Albury Citizen of the Year. He holds senior roles representing lived experience perspectives to state government and national boards, and has qualifications in social work, arts, and psychology. He is a resident of Lavington and was the Greens candidate for Farrer at the 2025 federal election.

Michelle Milthorpe

Independent

Milthorpe is an educator and child sexual assault advocate based in Jindera. She holds an education degree from the Australian Catholic University. She contested this seat in the 2025 federal election, polling 20 per cent of the primary vote and finishing second after preferences with 43.8 per cent of the vote.

Website

Jordi Queiruga

Independent

Queiruga is a research economist with the Productivity Commission. He attended local schools in the Albury area and has worked in several local businesses. He says his priorities will be regional development and health, easing cost of living pressures, and ensuring sensible policy on water and the environment.  

Website

Brad Robertson

The Nationals

Robertson had a 29 year career in the Australian Army, including senior roles in Canberra and an overseas posting to the Australian embassy to Saudi Arabia in Riyadh. He is currently chair of the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre Trust Fund and chair of Manufacturing BRIDGE, advocating for stronger regional manufacturing, local jobs and economic growth across the region. Robertson is chairperson of the NSW Nationals.

Rebecca Scriven

Family First

Scriven is originally from South Australia but now lives just north of Albury and works at an independent Christian school.

Website

Information on candidates and how-to-vote material can be sent to