‘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.

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”.