{"id":478261,"date":"2026-02-13T22:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/478261\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T22:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:55:18","slug":"residents-in-conservative-farrer-eye-future-without-sussan-ley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/478261\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents in conservative Farrer eye future without Sussan Ley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just minutes after long-serving Farrer MP Sussan Ley announced she would resign from parliament, attention in her electorate turned to what would come next.<\/p>\n

Farrer has been considered a safe conservative seat since its creation in 1949, and has only been represented by four MPs in more than seven decades.<\/p>\n

Ms Ley has held the seat since 2001, when she succeeded retiring deputy prime minister Tim Fischer.<\/p>\n

But Friday the 13th turned out to be an ominous day for Ms Ley, a numerology fan from way back.<\/p>\n

Along Albury’s Dean Street, metres from Ms Ley’s electorate office, talk was about the possibility of change.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Mark Davis says he would like to see a change in Farrer’s representation. (ABC Goulburn Murray: Erin Somerville)<\/p>\n

“This is a safe, conservative seat, much to my chagrin,” former Farrer voter Mark Davis said.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to see it go to a more \u2026 ‘small l’ liberal way.”<\/p>\n

Albury resident Jessie Bell said she would welcome a less conservative representative with a stronger focus on local issues.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jessie Bell and Robyn Parker give their thoughts on Sussan Ley’s representation.\u00a0 (ABC News: Erin Somerville)<\/p>\n

“Like the ongoing hospital crisis, like the water crisis, and childcare crisis,” she said.<\/p>\n

“All those things that have been happening for a number of years but perhaps haven’t been addressed by Sussan Ley.”<\/p>\n

Her mother, Robyn Parker, was a bit more reserved.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s a sad day for women, I don’t think she was given a very fair go,” she said.<\/p>\n

But Ms Bell said she was still ready for change.<\/p>\n

“As much as I feel sorry for her being done over by the Liberal Party, I don’t think she did a lot for Farrer,” she said.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of issues that need to be addressed and hopefully someone will be elected in to address those issues that are very important to the people of Farrer.”<\/p>\n

Safety first?<\/p>\n

Oscar Bradbury said whoever replaced Ms Ley should do more to help young people.<\/p>\n

“Stuff’s not easy at the minute,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Well, it’s not hard, but it’s not as easy as our parents had it at our age.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Oscar Bradbury says he would like to see more done for young people. (ABC News: Erin Somerville)<\/p>\n

More than 200 kilometres north, in Griffith, Ms Ley had a fan in Shayne Howard.<\/p>\n

“I thought she was brilliant,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Shayne Howard reacts to Sussan Ley’s resignation.\u00a0 (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

“She’s done what she had to do.<\/p>\n

“It’s disappointing that she’s been voted out and I wish she’d come back.”<\/p>\n

Griffith sales agent Brendan Catanzariti was less complimentary.<\/p>\n

“I think in the Coalition’s case, unfortunately, it’s just like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic at the moment,” he said.<\/p>\n

Ley’s legacy<\/p>\n

With his church often literally overshadowing Ms Ley’s Albury electorate from across the road, Father Peter Macleod-Miller has had a front row seat to her years in parliament.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Father Peter Macleod-Miller has praised Sussan Ley’s legacy. (ABC News: Erin Somerville)<\/p>\n

She also frequents Saint Matthew’s Anglican Church Albury as a parishioner.<\/p>\n

Father Macleod-Miller praised Ms Ley’s values and legacy, and her decision to support marriage equality in 2017.<\/p>\n

“She, in that situation, channelling local people and local support and just humanity, changed her own mind and ran with it, so I am very grateful for that,” he said.<\/p>\n

Gloves already off for Farrer fight<\/p>\n

Michelle Millthorpe once voted consistently for Ms Ley, describing her as a “trailblazer” for women in parliament.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Michelle Millthorpe says she is ready to contest the seat. (ABC News: Erin Somerville)<\/p>\n

But that changed last year when Ms Millthorpe decided to run as an independent for Farrer.<\/p>\n

“I ran as an independent candidate \u2026 because it really felt that we had lost representation,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t feel that we had consistent or relatable representation given the pressures from the party.”<\/p>\n

At the 2025 election, Ms Ley retained Farrer on a 6.2 per cent margin, though Ms Millthorpe won every booth in Albury \u2014 traditionally Ms Ley’s home base.<\/p>\n

Within hours of Ms Ley’s resignation, Ms Millthorpe said the appetite for change was clear.<\/p>\n

“I think the last election certainly showed there’s a need and a want for change,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Helen Dalton has not ruled out running for Farrer.\u00a0 (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

NSW independent MP Helen Dalton has not ruled out contesting the seat.<\/p>\n

“My mobile has been burning up since Sussan announced she was leaving politics,” Mrs Dalton said.<\/p>\n

“I understand that the people of my region want their voices to be heard and whatever I decide to do, I will be doing it to make sure their voices are a lot louder.<\/p>\n

“While the calls for me to run are heartfelt, I need to make sure that whatever I do \u2026 it will give the people of my region the best possible representation.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just minutes after long-serving Farrer MP Sussan Ley announced she would resign from parliament, attention in her electorate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[133798,10807,243233,243238,243236,43,10940,243237,44,243235,2325,41,39,42,40,243234,133799],"class_list":{"0":"post-478261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-albury","9":"tag-candidates","10":"tag-farrer","11":"tag-farrer-mp","12":"tag-griffiths","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-liberal-party","15":"tag-member-for-farrer","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-safe-seat","18":"tag-sussan-ley","19":"tag-top-news","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topnews","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-whats-next","24":"tag-wodonga"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}