Kimberly Grabham and Tertia Butcher, The Riverine Grazier

One Nation’s candidate for Farrer, David Farley, firmly denied he falsely claimed to have a degree from prestigious Harvard University.

In response to a question from The Riverine Grazier during his visit to Hay last week, Mr Farley said he attended Harvard University three times to deliver a course, not as a student.

He said some years ago Harvard University approached Colly Cotton, where he was employed as a team leader at the time, to develop a case study on its business model for use in the Harvard Agribusiness School’s teaching program.

Following the completion of that case study by him, he was invited three times to present the course to the school.

Each engagement resulted in a certificate of achievement, not an academic qualification.

“If you went to Harvard today, you could still pull out the case study on Colly Cotton,” he said.

Mr Farley said reports characterising his connection to Harvard as a degree claim were unfair and out of context.

His professional background, however, is extensive.

He began his career as a jackaroo with FS Falkiner and Sons at Boonoke in 1975, working his way through roles as overseer and irrigation development specialist before being appointed to lead the development of a major irrigation enterprise in northern New South Wales.

Over 19 years he built Colly Cotton from 400 acres to 68,000 acres with two cotton gins and a global trading operation.

He later served as Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Agricultural Company, one of Australia’s largest cattle enterprises, managing roughly 29 million acres and up to 650,000 head of cattle across northern Australia.

Between those roles he managed a farmers’ cooperative in California, which required regular travel to Washington to negotiate water and trade rights on behalf of farmers, and to Sacramento for state water matters.

He currently chairs the water advocacy group Speak Up 4 Water and operates Matrix Commodities, an agricultural commodity trading and investment company in Narrandera.

He told community members in Hay that he was born in Narrandera, the grandson of a First World War Light Horseman who settled in Griffith and the son of a Second World War naval veteran who established an agricultural service business in Narrandera.

Those family roots, he said, informed his decision to enter politics at the age of 69.

“A lot of people ask me, why are you doing this at your age?” he said.

“That’s pretty simple.”

He described watching the communities he worked in diminish over decades, pointing to Moree as an example.

The town had a population of around 10,800 when he left, and now has approximately 5,200.

He had felt for some time that regional voices were being ignored by both government bureaucrats and successive elected representatives.

As a former member of the Nationals, Mr Farley found his ideas on water policy were not taken seriously within the Coalition.

He joined One Nation because addressing water and energy policy in Canberra required a party with the courage and tenacity to fight for it, and One Nation had that.

“I’ve got very familiar with water,” he said of his decades across the irrigation sector.

“The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is setting out our food policy, our food import policy, our regional resilience policy. It’s actually interfering with our defence policy.”

David Farley’s central water policy position is that water should be treated as a sovereign asset belonging to all Australians, rather than an environmental asset.

He described the Murray-Darling Basin Plan as having caused direct economic harm to the communities he had worked in and lived near, stripping towns of population and industry through the progressive buyback of water licences.

“Those who sold their licences to the government may not have fully accounted for the downstream value of that water to local businesses,” he said.

“They didn’t account for the intrinsic value of that water to the towns.

“They are selling out the community at the same time.”

If elected, Mr Farley said he intended to move three bills in Parliament during the May sitting.

The first would be to withdraw Australia from international water treaties that constrain national water management, citing the Ramsar Convention specifically.

The second would call for a Royal Commission into water, with terms of reference focused not just on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan but on regional resilience more broadly.

The third would require that at least half of the water currently held by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder be returned to the consumptive pool.

Mr Farley grimly noted that the Murrumbidgee Valley and the Murray Valley are currently facing zero allocation for next year, making speed critical.

“That’s why it’s important to get going straight away,” he said.

He acknowledged the legislative path would not be straightforward, with the Labor government controlling the lower house.

His argument to that government was framed around risk:

“Are you prepared to leave food policy in a dangerous position next year?

“Are you prepared to take the risk of increasing our food imports from $20 billion to probably up to $40 billion?”

He said One Nation’s Senate representation, including four or five senators, gave him confidence the bills could pass the upper house.

On energy, Mr Farley said Australia was the only country among 129 signatories to a 1979 international agreement that had failed to maintain a 90-day fuel reserve.

He advocated for the construction of large fuel storage facilities in agricultural and mining regions, delivered via the inland rail network and spur lines.

He suggested Hay as a potential site for a major fuel depot.

On immigration, Mr Farley said Australia should step back from its obligations under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protocols and develop a national immigration policy based on skills, age and a willingness to assimilate.

He compared the model to selecting a football team.

He said the question should always be what Australia needed, not what international frameworks required.

“Australia has been a country of immigrants forever,” he added.

“We should pick for skills, age groups and those who want to assimilate.

“Australia is ours and we need to take responsibility for it.”

According to Mr Farley One Nation could use its Senate position to extract concessions on regional services, including hospitals, aged care, childcare and education, as the price of its vote on legislation.

“You’ve got to hold the cards,” he said.

The Farrer by-election was caused by the resignation of ousted leader of the Coalition, Sussan Ley and will be held on Saturday, May 9.

The declared candidates at the time of publication are David Farley for One Nation, Brad Robertson for the Nationals, Raissa Butkowski for the Liberal Party, Michelle Milthorpe as an independent, Richard Hendrie for the Greens and Rebecca Scriven for Family First.

“On Day One we will hit the ground running,” he said.

“If I am not voted in, we’ll be out in the wilderness for two years.

“We haven’t got time to be out in the wilderness.

The Riverine Grazier Editor: The Riverine Grazier will provide space to every candidate who physically visits Hay during their Farrer campaign.
This article appeared in The Riverine Grazier, 25 March 2026.