This photo circulated widely on social media was fake. Photo: Facebook.
One Nation’s candidate for Farrer can’t even spell the electorate’s name. At least, that’s what a widely shared social media post would have you believe.
The image showed a corflute of their supposed candidate, David Hirst, urging voters to support him in the “Farrier” region. It spread quickly, shared by critics keen to paint supporters of Pauline Hanson’s party as uneducated and incompetent.
There’s just one problem: it was fake. Mr Hirst is not a One Nation candidate and never has been.
The 9 May by-election to replace Sussan Ley is still in its early stages, but misinformation is already choking Facebook feeds and X timelines. And it’s coming from all directions.
The fake “Farrier” post is a textbook example — a cheap, effective hit designed to ridicule rather than inform. It circulated widely for days before being debunked, by which point the damage had already been done.
But misinformation in this campaign isn’t all one-way traffic.
Supporters of One Nation and other conservative voices have been pushing their own misleading claims about independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe, branding her a “fake independent” and a so-called “teal” who wants to strip irrigation water from local farmers.
These claims don’t stand up to scrutiny.
For a start, there is no “teal party”. The term was coined by the media to describe the mostly female independents who won traditionally Liberal seats at the 2022 election. The colour itself — a mix of blue and green — is shorthand for candidates who are economically conservative but more progressive on social and environmental issues. It’s a label, not a party, and certainly not a policy platform.
Claims Ms Milthorpe is a teal don’t pass the pub test. Image: Senator Malcolm Roberts Facebook.
Yes, Ms Milthorpe has received support from Climate 200, a crowdfunding group that backed several of those city independents. But unlike many candidates, she has publicly disclosed that donation. Voters still have no idea who is funding the other campaigns as millions of dollars from unknown sources pour into this race.
So if the attack is based on one donation, it’s on pretty shaky ground.
You might not like the independent’s policy positions, and that’s fair enough. But I don’t see how they fit the “teal” stereotype her critics are trying to pin on her.
She opposes government buybacks of irrigation water, supports building a new dam at Lake Coolah, wants a royal commission into water corruption and waste, and backs the pro-farmer seven-point Murray–Darling Basin plan championed by Helen Dalton.
Those are hardly the hallmarks of inner-city independents such as Zali Steggall or Allegra Spender — the kind of “teals” who would probably choke on their organic lattes if they heard those policies.
None of this is to say voters should back One Nation, Milthorpe, or any other candidate. But they should be wary of what they’re being fed.
Because this is how modern campaigns are fought: not just with policies and debates, but with memes, half-truths and outright fabrications designed to travel faster than facts.
In what’s expected to be an extremely tight contest that could be decided by a few hundred votes, misinformation could well swing the result.
So as the Farrer by-election heats up, voters should pause before they share and judge the candidates on what they actually say and do — not on what a viral post claims they represent.
Because if this campaign is decided by fiction rather than fact, the real loser won’t be the Liberals, Nationals, One Nation or Ms Milthorpe. It will be us, the gullible voters of Farrier.
