{"id":634455,"date":"2026-05-10T09:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T09:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/634455\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T09:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T09:12:11","slug":"pressure-mounts-on-angus-taylor-as-pauline-hanson-declares-one-nation-here-for-the-long-haul-farrer-byelection-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/634455\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressure mounts on Angus Taylor as Pauline Hanson declares One Nation \u2018here for the long haul\u2019 | Farrer byelection 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

A triumphant Pauline Hanson<\/a> has declared One Nation is \u201chere for the long haul\u201d after a historic Farrer byelection win that has ignited internal rumblings about Angus Taylor\u2019s leadership just three months into his tenure.<\/p>\n

The rightwing populist party won its first federal lower house seat on Saturday night, after David Farley<\/a> defeated the independent, Michelle Milthorpe.<\/p>\n

In a catastrophic result for the Coalition, which had held the seat for its entire 76-year history, the Liberals suffered<\/a> a swing of more than 30%. Its primary vote sank below 13%, amid what the opposition leader on Saturday night said was an \u201cexistential situation for the Coalition\u201d. The Nationals polled just under 10%.<\/p>\n

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The result validates the opinion polls that have shown surging support for One Nation<\/a> since the 2025 federal election, eroding the Liberal and National vote and creating an existential threat for the establishment conservative parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just a win for One Nation or Pauline Hanson \u2013 that\u2019s not the big picture here. What I\u2019m looking at is the win for Australia,\u201d Hanson told Sky News on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now taking on the major political parties. [They] have been so arrogant for too long, disregarding, disrespecting, taking the voters out there for granted and knowing that they run this country into the ground. I want my country back. I want to bring back prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a message to critics who note Hanson\u2019s historically dysfunctional party has unravelled before, the One Nation leader said: \u201cPeople say, you know, you know they won\u2019t last long. I\u2019m telling you now, we\u2019re going to be here for the long haul.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Liberals were expecting to lose Farrer due to One Nation\u2019s popularity and an expected backlash from locals to the ousting of Sussan Ley, who had held the seat for 25 years.<\/p>\n

But the scale of the collapse in the primary vote shocked and alarmed some MPs, who were privately questioning Taylor\u2019s leadership as the postmortem started on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

The opposition leader said the Liberals would take \u201chard lessons\u201d from the result, which he attributed in part to the chaos of the two Coalition splits and a \u201cshift away\u201d from traditional values.<\/p>\n

The comments appeared to pin blame on Ley, who oversaw two breaks with the Nationals during her nine months in the role.<\/p>\n

Ley issued a pointed statement on Saturday night that suggested the Coalition was in a worse position now than when Taylor unseated her.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the day the leadership spilled in February, the new leader said the Liberal Party needed to \u2018change or die\u2019,\u201d Ley\u2019s statement read.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree months later, the result in Farrer demonstrates that statement to be far truer today than it ever was then.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Liberal MP said the Farrer result was the \u201cprice of undermining and destroying the leadership of Sussan Ley\u201d.<\/p>\n

The same MP criticised the party\u2019s decision to preference Farley ahead of Milthorpe on how-to-vote cards as a \u201cbetrayal of Liberal values\u201d that gave permission for supporters to switch to the rightwing party.<\/p>\n

Taylor defended the decision on Saturday night, saying it\u2019s what Liberals in Farrer wanted.<\/p>\n

The defeat has renewed doubts among moderate MPs about Taylor and the direction of the party under his leadership, which appears focused on stemming the exodus to One Nation rather than re-positioning the Liberals in the political centre.<\/p>\n

Liberals fear the party has become \u201creactive\u201d to One Nation\u2019s agenda, including on immigration.<\/p>\n

Two MPs said while there was no immediate threat to Taylor\u2019s leadership, colleagues \u2013 in particular those in the lower house \u2013 would start to get \u201cagitated\u201d if the situation didn\u2019t improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe loss [in Farrer] will fire the starter\u2019s gun on more leadership speculation with the Coalition,\u201d one MP said.<\/p>\n

The former Liberal senator Hollie Hughes \u2013 a supporter of Ley and vocal critic of Taylor \u2013 used social media to mock the opposition leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuess when you knife someone, country people don\u2019t reward you \u2026,\u201d she posted on Facebook.<\/p>\n

The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, who, like Andrew Hastie, has been touted as a future leadership contender, said the Liberals needed to be \u201cbigger, better, bolder\u201d in response to a \u201cserious situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the ABC\u2019s Insiders program, the Liberal moderate did not shut down the prospect of working with One Nation in a minority government after the next election.<\/p>\n

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the Farrer result was a \u201cbloodbath\u201d for the Coalition that casts doubt on Taylor\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAngus Taylor went big on division and lost really badly,\u201d he told Sky News.<\/p>\n

Chalmers said the result showed the Coalition would need to join forces with One Nation if it wanted to return to government, leaving Labor as the only party left in the \u201csensible centre of Australian politics\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A triumphant Pauline Hanson has declared One Nation is \u201chere for the long haul\u201d after a historic Farrer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-634455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}