2026 Farrer by-election: Saturday 9 May 2026

The Speaker of the House of Representatives has announced that the by-election for Farrer – a large rural electorate in NSW’s southwest - will be held on Saturday 9 May 2026.

In announcing the date of the by-election, the Speaker has provided a full timetable for the election with a writ (the formal instructions for the AEC to run the by-election) to be issued on Wednesday 1 April.

Farrer covers an area of approximately 126,000 km sq and includes the council areas of Albury, Balranald, Berrigan, Carrathool, Edward River, Federation, Greater Hume, Griffith City, Hay, Leeton, Murray River, Murrumbidgee, Narrandera and Wentworth.

The AEC’s NSW State Manager, Rebecca Main said the by-election follows the recent resignation of the former member for Farrer who was re-elected at the 2025 federal election and has held the seat since 2001.

“A by-election occurs where there is a vacancy in the House of Representatives and it means that the local community for Farrer will be able to continue to have federal representation,” Ms Main said.

“If you live in the electorate of Farrer, have recently moved to the area or are a local resident who has turned 18, then you should check your enrolment details at aec.gov.au now.”

Enrolling and voting in a federal by-election is compulsory, just as it is for a full federal election. You can enrol, check or update your enrolment details on the AEC website.

“Enrolment closes for the by-election at 8pm on Wednesday 8 April 2026.”

Postal voting is available for the by-election and applications are now available on the AEC website. The AEC cannot send your postal vote pack until the ballot papers have been printed. Printing will occur after the Declaration of Nominations (Tuesday 14 April 2026). The Declaration of Nominations determines the order candidates will appear on the ballot paper.

   

AEC TV videos: Farrer by-election announced & What is a by-election

Looking for some extra money?

The AEC is recruiting hundreds of people to work at the Farrer by-election.

Most positions are for a single day but some stretch over a few weeks. The AEC will primarily be looking for people to be polling officials – to mark people off the electoral roll, be queue controllers, guard ballot boxes, and issue and count votes.

For more information or to register your interest go to the AEC website.

Media resources:

• Stats and quick info
• AEC Newsroom
• AEC YouTube (AECTV)
• AEC imagery (AEC Flickr)
• AEC media contacts

Stats & quick info

Enrolment:

• There were 123,752 people enrolled in Farrer as at the 2025 federal election. This figure is ever so slightly different as at the end of 2025 (123,678).
• Farrer has an estimated 98%+ of people entitled to be enrolled, on the roll.

2025 federal election votes:

• There was a two-candidate-preferred margin of 6.19% between the Liberal and Independent candidates. There was a reasonable spread of first preferences in the contest. See full results. 
• Turnout was 91.55% (113,297 total votes)
  • This was slightly above the national rate of 90.7%
  • Turnout is traditionally lower for by-elections and depends on a range of factors including the profile of the election and the level of campaigning.
• Informality - 9.03%
• This was higher than the national average of 5.60%.
• Informality is often affected by the number of candidates (9 candidates in 2025) and/or demographics of the division.
• Postal votes - 13,313 postal vote applications were completed with 11,440 completed postal votes returned.
• This represented approximately 10% of all votes cast.
• Pre-poll votes – 50,706 votes were issued at pre-poll centres in Farrer.
• This represented 44.75% of total votes cast at the 2025 federal election.
• When combining pre-poll and postal votes, easily more than half of all voters casted their vote before election day (in line with national trends).

Electorate name:

• Named after William James Farrer, 1845–1906. Farrer was a noted wheat breeder and experimentalist.

Former members:

• Ley - Liberal (since 2001), Fisher - Nationals (1984-2001), Fife – Liberal (1975-1984), Fairbairn – Liberal (1949-1975)

Voting services:

• 2025 federal election services included pre-poll centres, polling places, postal voting, remote mobile voting teams, special hospital voting teams and the availability of blind and low vision voting services. It is anticipated to be a similar offering with details becoming available progressively.