Updated ,first published
Two Labor heavyweights have urged the party to take the fight directly to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation in the looming Farrer byelection, warning that preferences would shape not only the contest in regional NSW, but the next federal election.
Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie and former NSW premier Bob Carr said Labor should run a candidate in Farrer and direct preferences to the Liberals ahead of One Nation, in a bid to block Hanson from claiming the seat.
The byelection was triggered by the resignation of Sussan Ley, who was ousted as Liberal leader last week after one of the shortest tenures in the party’s history. The contest will provide a critical first electoral test for new Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and comes amid record high polling for One Nation across the country.
Beattie, who as Labor leader in 1998 lost six seats to One Nation on Liberal and National preferences, said the stakes extended well beyond one rural electorate.
“Preferences are always important, but now they are crucial to Australia’s future,” Beattie told this masthead. “The ALP should run in Farrer and preference the Liberals ahead of One Nation. One Nation cannot win Farrer if all parties and independents preference One Nation last.”
Beattie said, in return, if the Liberals didn’t preference One Nation last it would undermine their credibility with city voters and prevent them from winning back the teal held seats in Sydney and Melbourne.
NSW Labor says it is consulting local branch members in the region before it decides whether to run a candidate in the byelection, at a date which is yet to be set. A senior Labor source, speaking on the condition on anonymity, said there was varying views internally about contesting.
Labor, which polled 15 per cent last May in Farrer, is the only party which has contested every poll since it was created in 1949.
Carr echoed the call from Beattie, arguing Labor should be prepared to sacrifice short-term political advantage to stop Hanson, which he said was in the “national interest”.
“Labor should do anything it can to prevent One Nation winning Farrer,” Carr said. “Yes, even if it’s throwing our votes behind the Liberal. I don’t want Australian decency wrecked by race prejudice that makes migrants feel disliked and isolated and sullies our international character.”
He said there was no long-term gain in “a 24-hour tactical win” seeing Taylor crushed by Hanson.
“As Keating said about Hewson, they should do him slowly.”
One Nation is running second to Labor, ahead of the Coalition, or neck and neck, in every major opinion poll in the country. Hanson said the party has had dozens of submissions in response to their candidate call-out.
NSW independent MP Helen Dalton, who represents the state seat of Murray, said last week she was still considering whether to run for the federal seat and revealed she’d been approached by One Nation.
Climate 200 candidate Michelle Milthorpe, who cut Ley’s margin to 6.2 per cent at the May election, said she would run again but had not committed to preferencing either major party, describing her approach as an open ticket.
The Nationals, who previously held the seat with former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, are expected to contest the seat, which takes in Albury, Deniliquin and Griffith.
Election analyst Ben Raue, from The Tally Room, said Labor would have to consider many things before contesting, such as money, volunteers, and the time and focus of paid staff.
But he said, with an expected low primary vote, the difference its preferences could make would be “fairly insignificant”.
“It could make a small difference, if Labor can put out how-to-vote cards that ensure that some of their voters don’t preference One Nation who might otherwise do so, but I doubt they will be able to get that many booth workers across Farrer,” he said.
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Rob Harris is the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect via email.