‘Farley needs to shut up’: George Christensen takes aim at One Nation MP

One Nation’s David Farley has been urged to stop talking by former Nationals MP George Christensen, who says the party’s newest recruit is repeatedly undermining Pauline Hanson’s immigration message.

Christensen, a one-time senate candidate for Hanson’s party who campaigned with Farley during the Farrer by-election, says he warned the new MP more than once during the campaign to “shut up about immigration”.

Hanson, he says, had also delivered the same blunt warning behind closed doors.

Farley again went off message on ABC’s Insiders, telling viewers One Nation’s immigration policy could effectively allow net overseas migration of about 230,000 a year – close to the Labor target. The comments forced Hanson to intervene within hours, insisting the party’s target remained 130,000.

Fellow MP Barnaby Joyce was then dispatched to explain the position, dismissing Farley’s comments as a “rookie mistake”.

Christensen, a close friend of Joyce, said Farley’s record makes that defence difficult to sustain.

“A rookie mistake is getting a figure wrong in your first interview,” he wrote on his Nation First Substack. “Farley had already caused trouble over immigration during the campaign and been spoken to about it. This was the same mistake, only bigger, made on national television after he’d been elected.”

Christensen’s criticism carries extra weight because he says he was part of the effort that helped Farley win Farrer. He says he spent weeks advising him on media, messaging and the issues driving voters and wanted him to win.

But he says he worried even then that Farley would struggle to stick to the party line once elected.

That concern, Christensen writes, has proved justified.

“This keeps happening,” he wrote.

The public rift has intensified speculation about how long Farley will last in Hanson’s party and follows news that the MP accidentally walked into a private meeting of more than 20 Liberal MPs in Canberra last week and told them he could see himself sitting with them.

Farley dismissed the incident as tongue-in-cheek and has insisted he has Hanson’s full backing.

Christensen cited several indiscretions since the May byelection win, including Farley been pulled into line by Hanson over plans to display the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags at his electorate offices.

Farley also publicly distanced himself from Hanson’s decision to restrict access to the ABC and The Guardian, saying journalists had treated him “equitably”.

Christensen, who represented the seat of Dawson in central Queensland for the LNP from 2010 to 2022, also took a swipe at Farley’s comments about Sydney’s Mardi Gras, which he described as a “great night of entertainment”.

“Pauline said she still didn’t like Mardi Gras. Farley apparently thought that was a good time to reminisce about what a wonderful night he’d had there⁠,” he wrote.

He said the problem was not that Farley had views of his own but that he kept turning them into public disagreements with his leader.

“Political discipline isn’t complicated,” he says. “MPs will have personal opinions and occasionally disagree with their colleagues. They just don’t need to blurt out every thought that enters their head while a journalist is holding a microphone.”

Christensen also took aim at Farley’s background in corporate agriculture and his support for migrant labour, saying the new MP should be putting pressure on labour-hire companies and the supermarkets rather than arguing for more imported workers.

“Farley should start there instead of freelancing on immigration policy,” he says.

“The voters of Farrer didn’t choose David Farley because they wanted Labor’s immigration numbers administered by a former agribusiness executive. They backed him as Pauline Hanson’s candidate… For now, the most useful thing he could learn is when to shut up.”

But Farley’s position on immigration has won support from one of his key backers, with Griffith-based winemaker Darren de Bortoli speaking out in favour of his local MP.

He said there was a failure among political parties to realise each electorate was different, especially when it came to labour needs.

“As I always remind David Farley to which he fully supports, his first obligation is to the people of Farrer, not to One Nation,” he said.

“We the people in Farrer have had enough of brain-dead politics that have sacrificed our region for far too long.”

Farley has been contacted for comment.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.