One Nation candidate vows to deal with ‘real issues’ facing Farrer electorate

Let's go to Nandanda right now which is part of the federal electorate of Farah and let's have a chat to the person who has become the candidate for One Nation in the upcoming bi-election which is of course May the 9th. David Farley joins us now. Congratulations on uh on becoming the candidate. Why do you want to be a politician? You've been so successful at many things. Why do you want to be a politician? >> We've got some real issues, Paul, and thank you for having me. show we got some real issues that um can only be resolved with the political level and more importantly they can only be resolved with a little bit of courage and tenacity. You know, Farah in particular has been under reppresented now for circa 25 years and the issues that uh pretty core to Farah being an agricultural powerhouse and and an agri business powerhouse is right at the core of it is water and we we've gone through a water reform process since the last millennial drought which is principally an extraction policy. We extracted water from the consumptive pool and the consumptive pool is the water we use for irrigation and the water we use to run our regional towns and cities. And the reality of that uh compared to the millennial drought and then the tinderbox drought is demand uh has kept growing for um foods. And if you do the math of comparing the millennial drought to a population now approaching 30 million and then ultimately a population approaching 40 million in uh the 2030s to 40s, uh Australia is definitely going to have a problem meeting its food security and food demand. So we've got some pretty major issues to address and they need to be addressed at a political level ultimately to uh get resolution to them. So obviously uh this bi-election is one you'd like to win. Why? Because you put your hand up, you want to be a member of parliament, but also seemingly very important about trying [clears throat] to work out just where things are at the moment with One Nation. Um again, you're plugged into uh people who've been around for a long time, people who know how to campaign. What are the conversations that you've had, say, with a Barnaby Joyce about what it's like to campaign in the lower house when they're all up against you? Well, it's interesting. You know, we've all got to make decisions in life. And the good thing about as you get a little bit older, you've got experience to tackle the issues of Farah, you need a political party that demonstrates political courage and has demonstrated political tenacity. When I made the decision to join One Nation and ultimately pro prosecute these cases for Farah and others is I looked across the political spectrum. you know, we can measure the performance of the Nationals and the Liberal Party over 25 years. We know the alliances with the the Labor Party uh and you realize the time window you've got to do this in is a 2-year period before the 28 election. >> Therefore, there's some pretty serious heavy lifting to be done in a very very short period of time. And you needed not only you needed the political courage and tenacity of One Nation, but you also need the mechanics and the machinery that they offer. You know, you've got Barnaby in the lower house, you got the four senators in the upper house, and uh it gives you the opportunity to hit the ground running. There's not a learning curve involved here. It's a it's a matter of hitting the ground running and uh positioning uh Farah positioning water and positioning all the industries that uh applied from that water uh in a better in a better light and a better competitive position for the future. Are you surprised that Okay, look, we're we're far out, but you're in the race. Are you surprised that the bookies are saying that the the teal propped up by sort of Sydney money and climate 200 is currently the favorite in that seat? Again, it's one that's been held by the Nats. It's been one held by the Libs. The assumption being that the population center of Aubry, uh, you know, this should be leaning center right. There's certainly been a surge for One Nation. So, do you think the independent is in front because Labour's not running or because there's some libs who wouldn't dare join the cause of one nation? >> No, I think the teal the independent teal is definitely in front of the moment principally because she's been out there campaigning, never stopped campaigning since the last election, >> kept a nice little heartbeat going underneath it all and uh now is really starting to turn the taps on very hard. And I was even surprised today to see that the Teal Independent was advertising through the Grand Prix that was being raised. Um, so yeah, there's obviously some good money there. Um, and there's some good intent, but the reality is what Farah's going to need is you've got to hit the grown round running and you need to have some machinery and some experience behind you >> um to prosecute the case for for Pharaoh in the lower house. >> Well, that's it. I mean you you you've got to be part of something bigger because it's the something bigger that's able to actually as you say get something done. Uh last one here. Um every tell tell us about yourself. All right. Tell us about life prior to you becoming a a national name in the past couple of days. You've got a pretty significant background in things like agri business. But g give us give us the ber. >> Well the quick buyer the the readers died version as they say. You know, I started my career as a jackaroo, but I was extremely fortunate that when I started my career with FS for sons, Rbert Murdoch bought the the enterprise and um therefore he gave he gave the business horizon and with that horizon he gave he gave me career opportunity. Um he sent me to US to study. I came back. I realized that um with Robert and his team that they were newspaper men and I wanted to be an agri businessman. I left um uh FS Fork and Suns and uh went and took on a really interesting challenging operation. An operation that was owned by the British Coldboard Pension Fund least to a family of farmers out of Northern Ireland uh based west of Warie. In our first year, we grew 400 acres of cotton. And in my last year there, we're at 68,000 acres of cotton >> with two major cotton gins. A cotton trading book out of Australia of about 800 million and then a book out of California as our risk book offsetting the risk of $280 million a year. So it was it was quite some enterprise. Now that enterprise doesn't exist today. Um you know the the new owners of it sold the water back to the government, made a handsome handsome profit. uh the 550 staff across the the farming operations, the warehousing operations, marketing operations have all dispersed. The plant and equipment was sold off over a massive 2 or three day auction and even the accommodation was jacked up and shifted away. So, it's a you career of mine was has been erased with water buybacks. Then I went from there to California, ran a a massive um uh farmers marketing cooperative. We're the biggest user of containerized freight off the west coast. We market the cotton on behalf of all the c most of the California farmers, Arizona, New Mexico, and southwest Texas. Then I returned from America and um took up the CEO's role with the AA across Northern Australia. >> Good man. And after four to five years there, I um uh shareholder change, life live cattle challenges, droughts, you name it. Um >> uh yeah, it was time to uh uh rest, relax, and u put put life to my favor instead of the corporate side. >> Good stuff. All right. Lovely to meet you. Lovely to get to know obviously we'll come and see you uh and be part of a pub test and all of that in a couple of weeks time. All the best, David. >> Thank you, Paul. >> All the best. uh there he is the candidate for one nation in the seat

One Nation candidate for Farrer David Farley says there are some “real issues” in his electorate. Mr Farley told Sky News host Paul Murray that Farrer has been “underrepresented” for about 25 years. “Right at the core of it is water.”