One Nation’s second-ever MP David Farley says those who “want to bring harm” to Australia must be “removed” in a maiden speech that stuck to his roots of farming, family, and “productive capital”.

Mr Farley replaced one-time opposition leader Sussan Ley as Member for Farrer following a by-election upset in May.

In his more than 20-minute maiden speech, Mr Farley said Australia was “one nation of an extraordinarily fortunate people”, and recalled the mixed racial and religious tapestry of his early schooling.

However, while acknowledging Australia had “invited talent from every corner of the world who choose to call this nation home and become contributing Australians”, that privilege must be guarded, Mr Farley said.

“Our national generosity, kindness, and humanity has offered the opportunity of new life to those who have been discriminated and persecuted against,” he said.

“That same generosity and kindness must be guarded and respected.

“As we open our welcoming doors, there are those who arrive onto our shores who want to change, and expect that change must be on us and not them.

“We must, with expediency and with minimal cost, remove those who want to bring harm and disrespect to this great nation of ours.”

Mr Farley said he would work with any political party “who generally wants to leave Australia stronger than we found it”.

“The challenges ahead are bigger than any political party,” he said.

Mr Farley thanked Pauline Hanson for “taking the plunge into politics way back in 1995”, and for support himself.
“We all live within and across three generations. We inherit the Australia built by those who came before us,” Mr Farley said.

“We are custodians of that inheritance for a short period of time. We carry an obligation to leave something stronger for those who follow.

“That obligation between generations is at the heart of why I’m here.”

Mr Farley was embraced after his speech by Senator Hanson.

One Nation’s other MP, Barnaby Joyce, could be heard telling him: “Great speech, Nailed it”.

“Thank you, Mr Speaker. Thank you Farrer. Thank you Australia,” Mr Farley said, closing out his speech.

The regional NSW resident’s speech stuck close to the concerns of his electorate, including the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which he said was “a failing, expensive ideology”.

“A set of political, economic, and social doctrines that can’t sustain a functioning society or deliver on its core promise,” he said.

Mr Farley also criticised the end of live cattle trade to Indonesia, which he claimed was done “without adequately understanding the chain of consequences”.

“The damage did not stop at the farm gate. It travelled through businesses, transport operators, air operators, indigenous enterprises and communities, employees families, through the lenders, holiday makers in Bali, boarding schools and regional towns,” he said.

Growing up in Narrandera, NSW, Mr Farley said his community “understood belonging brought new responsibilities”, and that he sat in a classroom “full of excitement” alongside First Nations Australians and “new Australians from all reaches of the globe”.

He recalled being given a framed copy of Rudyard Kipling’s 1910 poem “If”, which he said he kept alongside a copy of Theodore Roosevelt’s speech “Man in the ring”.

Leaving home at 17, he mused: “Nobody owed you promotion. You earned it.

“Success was achieved beyond hard work. Being interested, being polite, being equitable, being presentable, being there in present commitment, being curious and being there. Being there for the team. Knowing the job at hand and accepting responsibility and accountability for the outcome of that job.”

Later, he said of his time in agriculture, that he learned “what productive capital can achieve”.

“It also taught me that the world is not created by government decree,” he said.

Mr Farley said most Australians had enjoyed a period of “relative security and prosperity” under Pax Americana.

However, assumptions staples such as medicine and technology would remain available can “no longer be taken for granted”.

“The world has become more fragmented, more transactional, more technologically competitive, and more multipolar,” Mr Farley said.

“Artificial intelligence, semiconductors, energy, critical minerals, food, shipping routes, supply chains are becoming instruments of strategic power.

“Australia cannot be blind, deaf, arrogant or naive about that change.

“A sovereign nation must possess the productive capacity to withstand shocks and to survive on its own,” he continued, noting the need for energy and food “security”.

Mr Farley’s 98-year-old mother was in attendance.

“Mum, thank you. You are now part of Farrer’s political history as well,” he said.

As were his daughters Kate and Sarah, and Mr Farley’s grandchildren.

“They are not incidental to what I say today. They are the reason for it,” he said.