Labor Party elder Bob Carr has advised Labor supporters to vote for the Liberal Party in the byelection of Farrer, “to prevent One Nation winning”. The byelection is due in a couple of months with the pending resignation of former Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley.
It raises a lot of questions, and it just doesn’t sound right.
So, below I try to analyse what the real situation might be. (This article is also in video / podcast format on the Kangaroo Court of Australia YouTube Channel: Click here)
Bob Carr posted his advice on social media website “X”, as per the below screenshot, on the 14th of Funerary 2026 where he says: “Labor should do anything it can to prevent One Nation winning Farrer. Yes, throw our votes behind the Liberal. Don’t want Australian decency wrecked by race prejudice that makes migrants feel disliked and isolated and sullies our international character.” (Click here to see on “X”)
Regular commentator on social media Ronni Salt responded as per below:
As you can see below independent Michelle Milthorpe ran second to Sussan Ley at the May 2025 federal election and Ms Milthorpe would have to be favourite to win the seat at the byelection in a couple of months from now.
Also, on “X”, The Prophet Marcus Pizza, responded to Bob Carr’s post and pointed out that Carr’s attempt “to prevent One Nation winning Farrer” is just an excuse to undermine independent Michelle Milthorpe.
While One Nation, on current polling, are a good chance to pick up seats in the Senate, Independents are a greater threat to the Labor Party in the House of Representatives than One Nation.
As you can see in the below graph, Independents have 10 seats in the House of Representatives and were close in 3 or 4 other seats at the 2025 federal election. So, it is a real possibility that Independents will go from 10 seats to 15 or 20 seats at the 2028 federal election.
Without a doubt the Labor Party senior management know Independents are the real danger for the Labor Party in the House of Representatives.
I think Bob Carr might have been road testing the idea of encouraging Labor supporters to vote Liberal in certain seats to see what the feedback is.
If the feedback was ok, then Labor could conspire with the Liberals to knock out Community Independents “Teals” in certain seats the same way the Liberals preferenced Labor at the last election in 4 Green seats that cost The Greens 4 lower house MPs.
If the Labor Party / Coalition duopoly of taking turns to govern fails because the Liberal Party fails then the Labor Party will be in big trouble in a few years and they know it.
The Labor Party preferencing the Liberal Party in Farrer would show Labor’s loyalty is to the duopoly.
I published a video / podcast version of this article at 2pm Qld time (18/2/26) and 3 hours later the SMH website had their own version up which starts off:
Two Labor heavyweights have urged the party to take the fight directly to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation in the looming Farrer byelection, warning that preferences would shape not only the contest in regional NSW, but the next federal election.
Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie and former NSW premier Bob Carr said Labor should run a candidate in Farrer and direct preferences to the Liberals ahead of One Nation, in a bid to block Hanson from claiming the seat. (Click here to read more)
Why would Labor spend money running a candidate in a seat they have no chance of winning to help the Liberal Party candidate? It would be scandalous if it does happen.
One Nation’s chances of winning the seat of Farrer aren’t great, given they only received 6,803 votes (6.6%) at the 2025 election, so what Bob Carr and the Labor Party are up to is not honest or for the benefit of voters.
Australian politics at the federal level is changing rapidly and in 12 months the situation could be totally different but the Farrer byelection will give us a gauge of where we’re at now.
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Categories: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
Quite frankly, what a ridiculous thing for Carr to say. I would imagine he already rues making it.
In my New England electorate the political sentiment is rarely pro-LABOR and only INDEPENDENT when an exceptional candidate having a proven track record promoting the best interests of voters runs against the incumbent NOtional$ lay-about. Think Tony Windsor, 2000-2013.
From a regional viewpoint both duopoly parties prefer to think crossing the Hawkesbury River Bridge or the Nepean Bridge means falling off the edge of the flat Earth to be consumed by lurking Bunyips and Drop Bears.
So it is convenient to allow the NOtional$ to plan going forward into the 19th century as the regional development strategy because that allows both NSW and feral governments to restrict infrastructure development funding to the Sydney metropolitan area, thus increasing over-crowding, pollution, congestion and the consequent health and social problems almost absent from regional cities and remote paddocks.
Farrer will be best served by electing an INDEPENDENT with a proven political track record. MICHELLE MILLTHORPE reduced the electoral margin of Sus$san Ley from about 18.2% to about 6.8%, a huge rejection for a 25 year established LIARBRAL$ MP.
Then there are now 4/8 NSW electorates west of the Range where INDEPENDENTS are improving the best interests of the voters and overcoming the neglect of too many years of representatives of the NOtional$.
REGIONAL INDEPENDENTS GET THINGS DONE FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES.
What do NOtional$, LIARBRAL$, Only Nutters do??
North of the Hawksbury River may be seen as a Perk Free Zone.
“If the feedback was ok, then Labor could conspire with the Liberals to knock out Community Independents “Teals” in certain seats the same way the Liberals preferenced Labor at the last election in 4 Green seats that cost The Greens 4 lower house MPs.”
The Greens only lost three MPs; Elizabeth Watson-Brown is still there.
Interesting article. It seems Labor is openly coming out now as Liberal Lite. A pox on both their houses. Hope people will ignore the preferences; I always do.
Labor keep putting up no-bodies in Farrer and although the locals work hard on the ground their efforts are wasted. For reasons, local Labor won’t look at a candidate that could win the seat. But when her name is brought up it is quickly pushed aside. Probably infantile jealousies play a role here too. After all, the main Labor man in Farrer is anti abortion.
Uniparty looks after their own……
Bob Carr just worried about another good independent community candidate winning the seat. So he would preference the Libs?
We need a broader parliament instead of the two old warring parties
Bob Carr has confirmed fact that the Duopoly takes us all for granted. I’d rather he said something about what blights Australian politics. Tony Windsor said we have to get rid of boy’s clubs called parties and he explained why to my satisfaction. Bob seems to have learnt nothing about public disillusionment. Hansonism, like MAGA, is a symptom of a malaise relaxing in comfort under the rug — out of sight, out of mind.
Bob Carr needs a good bollocking. Why do they keep trotting out this old prune. One nation should collect this seat with no problems.
In Tasmania at the recent state election, Labor could have taken power by working in coalition with the Greens. It refuses to do so and has delivered power to an on-the-nose Liberal party (state treasurer is Herr Erich Abetz who is willing to risk bankrupting the poorest state to build a gigantic stadium on behalf of the AFL-gambling complex). As a result, the Labor leader Rebecca White led the ALP to a fourth consecutive defeat at the 2024 election, then failed upwards to accept an assistantant minister’s position in the Albanese government.