Barnaby Joyce blames campaign ‘pressure’ after One Nation Farrer candidate contradicts party on immigration

Barnaby Joyce has blamed “the pressure of a campaign” for One Nation’s Farrer candidate contradicting party policy on immigration and appearing to endorse Labor’s current intake. The One Nation MP also claimed voters won’t worry about Gina Rinehart’s million-dollar donation of a private plane to Pauline Hanson’s party, claiming journalists were more interested than ordinary people in the lucrative gift from Rinehart’s company. Appearing on Sky News on Sunday, Joyce said he expected his party’s candidate, David Farley , would prevail in next Saturday’s byelection, despite a stumble this week where the would-be MP said Australia’s net overseas migration of 306,000 last year was “probably not” too many. One Nation’s stated party policy is a cap of 130,000 migrants a year. Farley, appearing at a candidate forum hosted by former Insiders host and Guardian podcast host Barrie Cassidy, said One Nation wanted to “match immigration to a housing policy, a health policy and an education policy”, noting demand for skilled migrants. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Cassidy asked: “Is 306,000 [net overseas migration] too many?” Farley responded: “No, it’s probably not.” “If we’re successful in One Nation’s water policies, we’re going to need more labour and we’re going to need more labour quickly, skilled labour,” he said. …