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The Liberal-National Coalition directed their preferences to a party that could ultimately replace them.
In late February, Sussan Ley, the then-leader of the Liberal Party and opposition leader, succumbed to internal and media pressure and resigned her position. Rather than retreat to the backbench, she also decided to resign from Parliament itself. In doing so she left a little present for those in the party who had undermined her leadership – a by-election the Liberals were almost certain to lose. Over the weekend that loss came in a dramatic fashion that created an enormous shift in the Australian political landscape.
The seat of Farrer sits in southern New South Wales, along the Murray River which forms the border with Victoria. It contains the small city of Albury (population: 60,000) but is otherwise mostly farming communities reliant on irrigation from the Murray – a highly contentious issue given that three states share the river. Since the seat’s formation, it has only ever been held by the Liberal Party or its coalition partner the National Party. Ley herself had held the seat since 2001.
Yet when the by-election results concluded both parties had been decimated. The Liberals managed to secure just over 12 percent of the vote and the Nationals even less. What bested them is a dual assault on both parties, but especially the Liberals – the rise of the nationalist-populist One Nation party, and the Community Independents Project, a loose collection of independent candidates who share a mode of political organization, but are heavily focused on local issues.
