Oliver Peterson: Australian correspondent on what One Nation's Farrer seat win means for the party's future

The right wing One Nation party is uprooting Australia's status quo - scoring a seat that had long been a conservative stronghold.

Candidate David Farley won more than 57 percent of the vote in the regional Farrer by-election, triggered by former Liberals leader Sussan Ley's ousting. 

Australian correspondent Oliver Peterson says One Nation is eyeing off seats in other areas, and it's unclear what this could mean for Labor ahead of the next election. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International Correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance, Peace of Mind
for New Zealand Business. Polly Peterson ABC per Drive Radio
presenters with us, Hello Ollie, Hello the Heather. Okay, so
how significant do you think it is that one nation
is one Farah.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I think it's quite significant because it does just back
up these opinion polls that we've seen around Australia and
it really does keep the coalition in particular on its nose.
That Prime Minister was probably the one doing a bit
of a victory lap all weekend and again this morning
going on the ABC saying that he thinks that the
Liberal Party the National Party had made a big mistake
by legitimizing one nation and adopting many of their policies

(00:39):
but a lighter version of them. So he's seeing this
as a bit of a win for the government. I'm
not so sure about that, Heather, and I think maybe
the heads of the Liberal Party, the National Party and
Paul Enhanson itself may come together at some stage and
form a bigger coalition that takes on the government, because

(00:59):
ultimately that's who they're up against, and it might make sense.
There's a lot to play out with this one Nation
obviously would resist that for some time either because it
is now eyeing off seats. For example, in Western Sydney,
there's a Queensland MP by the name of Colin Boyce who'd,
to be.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Honest, I've never heard of until today who.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Was actually thinking about defecting from the National Party to
One Nation. Now he takes in some of those mining
areas like Gladstone and rock Hampton, but he said that
he was considering everything yesterday. It's today indicating that I'm
a National Party member. I'm going to stick strong with
the National Party. He's not going anywhere yet, but it
just gives you an indication. Barnaby Joyce obviously made the defection.

(01:38):
Now they've picked up Farrh. It just gives you an
indication how the landscape here in Australia is shifting significantly.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
It really is. I see the Liberals have shut down
any talk of a coalition. But I mean, is that
just like what they have to do. They can't necessarily
hold to that all the way through of course.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
And really the one who is in the pole position
here is Pauline Hanson because she can snip an opportunity
to pick up not just obviously the cet now of Farah,
but they might pick up a whole bunch of other
seats and the next federal election. But if the One
Nation Party was to want to form government, they're going
to have to do that with the Nats and the Limbs.
So I mean you see some of the pitches of
the people who are at the function on Saturday night,

(02:20):
Heather the Maga hats which are saying that make Albow
go away. So the United One Nation, the National Party,
in the Liberal Party, of the fact that they all
want to take on the government, and probably by the
unification of wanting to remove Anthony Alberanezi in the Labor
Party from government, maybe they do eventually find a way
to be on the same page.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
It's a fascinating time in Australian politics.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Hey, are you expecting a road use the charge and
the budget tomorrow?

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Well nothing has been ruled out yet by the Treasurer
Jim Charmers, and he has flown this kind on a
number of occasions and try to indicate which ways he's
going to blow. But the McKell Institute, which is quite
closely aligned with the Labor Party, he has brought out
some modeling today which I just find the timing of
it very interesting here because it's modeling.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
It's suggesting that.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
We bring in a road user charge, but if you
earn more, you pay more. So they're arguing, for example,
if you're a lower income earner, you pay just under
four cents a kilometer, but if you earn a higher salary,
if you're a high income earner, which in Australia is
over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, you'd
be paying thirteen cents per kilometer, so four hundred and
forty bucks versus fifteen hundred dollars per year, and they

(03:30):
say that would be obviously linked to your income through
the tax system.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
I believe that we will hear an announcement.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Tomorrow from Jim Charmers that we will be bringing in
a road user charge, but I don't think you'll commit
to it from one July.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
He'll say it'll be coming in in twenty twenty eight
or something like that.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
There's just enough of a suggestion that this is about
to be introduced by the federal government.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
That's a little tip of bit of a prediction, but
nothing confirmed.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Youah, interesting, Okay, listen, explain to me what's going on
with the rugby league players who are retired getting these
medical screenings when.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
They have to pay for them at the moment, so
cte obviously with the head knocks, and we know what
that's done to a number of people's lives as a results.
If you go and get a PET scan it costs
you about nine hundred dollars. The MRI is about five
hundred dollars. Mark Carroll and James Graham, two of the
toughest prop forwards to play rugby league over the last
thirty years, have convinced the National Rugby League that they

(04:19):
will now pay for any NRL or any NRLW player
who is suspected of these head knocks wants to go
and have one of these PET scans or these MRI scans.
So look, that's I guess part of the health and
the welfare, isn't it? The occupational health and safety of
the players in their retirement.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
They've convinced the.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
NRAL that they'll go through with paying for those scans.
So hopefully we're not going to hear about too many
more through concussion and head knocks as a result of
playing the great game of rugby league.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah, hey, Ollie, thank you very much, talk to you
again soon. Good luck tomorrow. That's Oliver Peterson, ABC Perth
Radio Drive presenter. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,
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