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August 25, 2026 \u2014 9:53am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n One Nation\u2019s David Farley has been urged to stop talking by former Nationals MP George Christensen, who says the party\u2019s newest recruit is repeatedly undermining Pauline Hanson\u2019s immigration message.<\/p>\n Christensen, a one-time Senate candidate for Hanson\u2019s party who campaigned with Farley during the Farrer byelection, said he warned the new MP more than once during the campaign to \u201cshut up about immigration\u201d.<\/p>\n Hanson, Christensen said, had also delivered the same blunt warning behind closed doors.<\/p>\n Farley again went off message on ABC\u2019s Insiders on Sunday, telling viewers One Nation\u2019s immigration policy could effectively allow net overseas migration of about 230,000 a year<\/a> \u2013 close to the Labor target. The comments forced Hanson to intervene within hours, insisting the party\u2019s target remained 130,000.<\/p>\n Fellow MP Barnaby Joyce was then dispatched to explain the position, dismissing Farley\u2019s comments as a \u201crookie mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n Christensen, a close friend of Joyce, said Farley\u2019s record makes that defence difficult to sustain.<\/p>\n \u201cA rookie mistake is getting a figure wrong in your first interview,\u201d he wrote on his Nation First Substack<\/a>. \u201cFarley had already caused trouble over immigration during the campaign and been spoken to about it. This was the same mistake, only bigger, made on national television after he\u2019d been elected.\u201d<\/p>\n Christensen\u2019s criticism carries extra weight because he says he was part of the effort that helped Farley win Farrer<\/a>. He claimed to have spent weeks advising him on media, messaging and the issues driving voters, and wanted him to win.<\/p>\n But he said he worried even then that Farley would struggle to stick to the party line once elected.<\/p>\n That concern, Christensen wrote, has proven to be justified.<\/p>\n \u201cThis keeps happening,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n The public rift has intensified speculation about how long Farley will last in Hanson\u2019s party and follows news that the MP accidentally walked into a private meeting<\/a> of more than 20 Liberal MPs in Canberra last week and told them he could see himself sitting with them.<\/p>\n Farley dismissed the incident as tongue-in-cheek and has insisted he has Hanson\u2019s full backing.<\/p>\n Related Article Christensen cited several indiscretions since the May byelection win, including Farley being pulled into line by Hanson over plans to display the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags at his electorate offices.<\/p>\n Farley also publicly distanced himself from Hanson\u2019s decision to restrict access to the ABC and The Guardian<\/a>, saying journalists had treated him \u201cequitably\u201d.<\/p>\n Christensen, who represented the seat of Dawson in central Queensland for the LNP from 2010 to 2022, also took a swipe at Farley\u2019s comments about Sydney\u2019s Mardi Gras<\/a>, which Farley described as a \u201cgreat night of entertainment\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPauline said she still didn\u2019t like Mardi Gras. Farley apparently thought that was a good time to reminisce about what a wonderful night he\u2019d had there\u2060,\u201d Christensen wrote.<\/p>\n He said the problem was not that Farley had views of his own but that he kept turning them into public disagreements with his leader.<\/p>\n \u201cPolitical discipline isn\u2019t complicated,\u201d he wrote. \u201cMPs will have personal opinions and occasionally disagree with their colleagues. They just don\u2019t need to blurt out every thought that enters their head while a journalist is holding a microphone.\u201d<\/p>\n Christensen also took aim at Farley\u2019s background in corporate agriculture and his support for migrant labour, writing that the new MP should be putting pressure on labour-hire companies and the supermarkets rather than arguing for more imported workers.<\/p>\n \u201cFarley should start there instead of freelancing on immigration policy,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThe voters of Farrer didn\u2019t choose David Farley because they wanted Labor\u2019s immigration numbers administered by a former agribusiness executive. They backed him as Pauline Hanson\u2019s candidate … For now, the most useful thing he could learn is when to shut up.\u201d<\/p>\n But Farley\u2019s position on immigration has won support from one of his key backers, with Griffith-based winemaker Darren de Bortoli speaking out in favour of his local MP.<\/p>\n Related Article He said there was a failure among political parties to realise each electorate was different, especially when it came to labour needs.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I always remind David Farley, which he fully supports, his first obligation is to the people of Farrer, not to One Nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe the people in Farrer have had enough of brain-dead politics that have sacrificed our region for far too long.\u201d<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"George](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5eb9f437c6086f3d4a73fda7303997414df0539f.jpeg\")
George Christensen, pictured with Pauline Hanson in 2022, has urged MP David Farley to \u201cshut up\u201d and stop undermining the One Nation leader.Nine<\/p>\n![\"Farrer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/d6e1b1651c7a4021fa44c4122c634e1c9c22deba.jpeg\")
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Rob Harris<\/a> is the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 25, 2026 \u2014 9:53am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-867373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867373","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=867373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}