Some are tucked away in sheds, gathering dust. Others were never taken down, but have been crowded out by undergrowth in the nine months since the federal election.
But across the electorate of Farrer, in south-western NSW, they’re about to return to roost: the orange emu corflutes used to support independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe.
Milthorpe ran second to Sussan Ley in last May’s election, but the Liberals bickering since then has seen Ley turfed, leading to her announcment that she will quit politics – and triggering a byelection.
That byelection, in Ley’s seat of Farrer, will pit Milthorpe against a Liberal candidate in the first test of Angus Taylor’s leadership.
It will also test Taylor’s new pitch further rightward into the anti-immigration space One Nation has claimed. Pauline Hanson says her party will run in Farrer.
Milthorpe said in the hours immediately after Ley announced her retirement that the electorate, which borders South Australia and Victoria, and takes in Albury, Deniliquin and Griffith, deserved better than being a second-thought in party politics.
But she also praised Ley for her 24-year career, while promising a greater focus on local issues should she replace her.
“Our communities deserve a reliable and relatable representative; someone who listens, understands our regional context, and is prepared to do the work in Canberra to make policy better reflect life in rural and regional Australia,” she said.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
“The Coalition has been consumed by its own internal contests at a time when people are crying out for leadership. Farrer’s future cannot be an afterthought to party politics.”
New donation data released earlier this month revealed Milthorpe received $283,000 during the last election, including $170,000 from Climate 200 and another $30,000 from the Regional Voices fund.
She said she would again accept donations from people supporting climate action, including Climate 200.
“As a rural, remote and regional electorate, we feel the burden of floods, fires and droughts first – and hardest. We live with the consequences of water mismanagement and infrastructure neglect.
“Both major parties signed up to the Paris Agreement long before I ever ran for office. The conversation has moved on,” she said.
“What our region needs is real consultation, a fair and practical transition, grid stability, renewable energy benefits that flow to communities, support for local manufacturing, and no new fossil fuel projects that ignore long-term realities.”
It will be the fifth byelection in three years and the second in succession brought about by the retirement of a former Liberal leader, after Scott Morrison’s retirement from Cook in 2024.
Election analyst Antony Green suspects it could be a messy contest. Farrer is bordered by Nationals-held seats and the Victorian seat of Indi, held by the independent Helen Haines.
“Under the Coalition agreement, the Nationals did not contest Farrer while Ley was member. With the seat vacant, it is certain that the Nationals will run against the new Liberal candidate,” Green wrote on his blog.
“The last few weeks of Coalition disputes and Liberal leadership rumours could well drag on ahead of a Farrer byelection.”
It is possible the electorate reacts to such dysfunction as it did in Aston in 2023, after the retirement of Alan Tudge. The Liberals lost the once-safe seat, the first time since 1920 that a government gained a seat from an opposition in a byelection.
Such a result would be even more disastrous now, given Labor’s thumping 2025 election win.
Green said Labor would probably not contest the seat, given it has not reached a quarter of the primary vote since 2007. “More likely Labor would sit out the contest and leave the field free for a conservative slugfest,” he wrote.
The byelection is likely to fall close to the May federal budget.
Milthorpe has seemingly not stopped campaigning since the election: she has been posting on social media accounts since the election about attending community meetings, citizenship ceremonies and even the Deni ute muster.
And she has continued to campaign on a contentious local issue – the Albury-Wodonga hospital redevelopment.
The margin to Ley was cut to 6.2% last election, and Milthorpe is confident she can claim it on her second attempt. “The last election proved this seat is no longer ‘safe’,” Milthorpe said.
“Swings were recorded in almost every booth across the electorate. The people of Farrer have already signalled they want genuine representation.
“This byelection is our opportunity to finish what we started.”
