Australia's populist party vows to fight mass migration after winning first lower house seat

Published 10 May, 2026 11:27am 2 min read

Australia’s right-wing populist One Nation party, which wants to emulate US President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportations, vowed to focus on ending mass ​migration after winning its first seat in the country’s lower ‌house.

Saturday’s by-election win by farmer David Farley in the rural seat of Farrer, some 550km south of Sydney, does not affect the majority of ​centre-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as the seat was previously ​held by a member of the Liberals, the biggest conservative ⁠group.

But it is a significant advance for One Nation, which ​has four Senate seats.

The party is polling second this year to ​Albanese’s Labor Party in opinion surveys, ahead of the mainstream conservative coalition.

One Nation’s leader, Senator Pauline Hanson, has higher approval ratings than Albanese or the Liberal ​leader.

“The people of Australia will not be forgotten. One Nation will ​fight for you on the floor of Parliament,” Hanson posted on X late on ‌Saturday.

“We ⁠will fight to lower the cost of living, end net-zero and stop mass migration.”

Immigration is a growing issue in Australia, where half the country’s 27 million people were either born overseas or have a parent ​who was.

Thousands ​attended anti-immigration marches in ⁠major Australian cities last year.

Liberal shadow treasurer Tim Wilson said One Nation’s victory “showed there’s a lot of ​work we’ve got to do”.

In televised remarks ​on Sunday, ⁠he said: “We need to outline very clearly a bold and confident vision for the country about where we want to take it.”

Albanese’s Labor, which ⁠has ​never held the Farrer seat and did ​not run a candidate in the by-election, has said One Nation is damaging to ​Australia’s social fabric.

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