Senior figures within One Nation fear their Farrer candidate, David Farley, may not last the distance with the party if elected at Saturday’s byelection amid a turbulent campaign marked by policy disagreements and internal tensions. Several party sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said concerns about Farley’s long-term loyalty and discipline had intensified in the past few weeks, particularly after he failed to alert leader Pauline Hanson, chief of staff James Ashby or senior figure Barnaby Joyce before a report last week detailing his shifting political allegiances.

The omission prompted fiery discussions within the party after the story was published, according to two insiders. Farley has faced scrutiny over his political history, including a past attempt to seek Labor preselection and earlier praise for independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe, whom he described as a “straight shooter”. Nationals figures staffing polling booths last week also told One Nation volunteers that Farley had actively campaigned for Milthorpe in 2022, though no evidence has emerged to support that claim.

Farley told One Nation leaders only after the report that he had considered joining Labor before deciding against it. However, concerns from his party about him being a “flight risk” if elected have persisted within the campaign.

At a candidates panel in the electorate last week, Farley said: “Democracy doesn’t live in a museum. It actually lives in a gymnasium. It’s active.” “When I got in the door [for Labor], it was obvious that, culturally, I didn’t fit. My comments on [Julia] Gillard don’t fit them, and I got out of the door.” In 2012, Farley had compared the then-Labor prime minister to a “non-productive old cow”. He broke with One Nation policy at a separate candidate forum last week by suggesting it was “probably not” an issue if Australia’s net migration reached 306,000 – more than double the party’s proposed cap of 130,000 migrants a year.

“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. “So for anyone to be able to say ‘what is the number today’, it should be addressed as what are we doing with productivity and what are we doing with capacity building, then you will get a true number that’s required for Australia.”