Family business: Aaron and Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell are both running for One Nation in separate seats. Photo: Supplied
Chisholm, a suburban Melbourne seat 200km from Shepparton, is centred on Box Hill and wedged between Kooyong and Menzies, and a long way from any dairy farms.
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Sifting through the candidates list, there is current member Glady Liu, student Thomas Stanfield standing for Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party and Australian Federation Party’s Anthea Antoine, who is listed as a mum and student.
But the next name on the list is that of a dairy farmer — Aaron Tyrrell, the husband of One Nation candidate for Nicholls Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell.
Ms Tyrrell confirmed her husband was running for the seat after One Nation asked him to stand in the Melbourne seat, but said he had been too busy working on the farm to get down to the area and campaign.
Both Mr and Ms Tyrrell live in Nicholls and neither has been to Chisholm during the campaign.
Ms Tyrrell said her husband had been running an “inactive campaign” because he was tied up with work on the farm.
She said she didn’t think of him as a ghost candidate or as a paper candidate because he would still represent One Nation’s policies should he get in.
Life on the farm: Rikkie-Lee and Aaron Tyrrell.
He is one of dozens of One Nation candidates running across the country in seats they don’t live in.
Mr Tyrrell’s information page on the One Nation website is blank aside from a how-to-vote card.
Ms Tyrrell said tongue in cheek that Mr Tyrrell had “lost preselection to his wife” but because he was still keen to run, One Nation approached him to see if he would stand elsewhere.
“It would be great to see if the people of Chisholm voted him in — it would increase regional representation in parliament,” she said.
“Regional people don’t have enough representation in the city.”
When asked if that meant he wouldn’t be representing the people of Chisholm, Ms Tyrrell said a vote for him would be a vote for the party’s policies.
“One Nation’s policies will still have an impact on people in Chisholm, and Aaron would still represent them by carrying out One Nation’s policies if elected,” she said.
The Liberals’ candidate is preferenced eighth on the One Nation how-to-vote cards in the seat, with the Labor candidate ninth.
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