‘Could see myself sitting here’: One Nation MP Farley gatecrashes Liberal meeting

One Nation MP David Farley has fuelled speculation about his future in Pauline Hanson’s party after accidentally walking into a private meeting of more than 20 Liberal MPs – then telling them he could see himself sitting with them.

The extraordinary encounter happened in Parliament House last Wednesday when Farley wandered into a regular meeting of Liberal MPs from marginal seats. Several Liberals present said the Farrer MP took a while to realise he was in the wrong room before turning to leave.

“I could see myself sitting here,” Farley told the MPs, before walking out.

“We were all taken aback, to be honest,” one Liberal MP said. “It was a very loose thing to say.”

Farley confirmed the incident on Monday, but portrayed it as an off-the-cuff joke after accidentally entering the room.

He said the Liberal MPs had a “who-hit-John” look on their faces, silent with their mouths open, before he “filled the empty space with my quip” and left.

The remark comes at an awkward time for One Nation, with Farley again publicly at odds with Hanson over one of the party’s central political issues .

The Farrer MP told ABC’s Insiders that while One Nation wanted to reduce net overseas migration to 130,000, it would allow another 100,000 migrant workers through skilled visas, backpacker programs and the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme.

That would put the effective number at about 230,000 – broadly in line with Labor’s forecast of 225,000 by 2027-28.

Hanson moved quickly to reject Farley’s interpretation, insisting One Nation’s policy was to cut net overseas migration to 130,000, with some short-term agricultural workers excluded from the official measure.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce was then sent out to clean up the mess, telling Sunrise that Farley had simply got it wrong.

“Show me a political career where people haven’t made a mistake, and I’ll show you a person who’s not told the truth.”

Joyce said One Nation had seemingly raised the matter with Farley but refused to elaborate.

“Oh, look, I’m not going to throw anybody under a bus,” he said. “When people are new in parliament, they can sometimes get things incorrect, and that’s what happens. God knows I’ve done it enough.”