Federal election 2025: Grain farmer and O’Connor candidate Darren Moir supports Labor’s ban on live exports

Seven years on from a “traumatic” marriage equality debate, Darren Moir is back in the limelight and ready to fight his first Federal election campaign as the Labor candidate for O’Connor. The fifth-generation grain farmer is well aware that his run for Labor will baffle many Keep the Sheep supporters who firmly oppose the party’s ban on live sheep exports. However, having endured a tough debate during the 2017 gay marriage plebiscite, Mr Moir believes he can cope with any brickbats that come his way. “I’m big enough and boofy enough to take it all on the chest,” he said. “The livestock industry will survive and there is a $140m transition package which will help. “But it’s also the right time for the industry to have a good old look at itself and ask why the margins are so tight for farmers. “There are two large processing plants in O’Connor, and it is time to get them cranked up because I would love to have more processing done onshore, here in Australia.” Mr Moir was always going to be a farmer. After leaving home for boarding school and a degree in agriculture at UWA, he returned to help his dad and has been there ever since. Accepting his sexuality was not as straightforward. “I didn’t really come to terms with my sexuality until I was 30,” he said. “If you’d told me as a 15-year-old that I could be gay, have a family and a farm in this paradise, I wouldn’t have thought it could happen. “The gay marriage debate was traumatic, but I think the world has changed for the better and that issue has been put to bed.” He became a Labor Party member when Kevin Rudd passed “a heap of reforms around gay people” as prime minister, but it wasn’t until the Liberals’ announced their proposal to turn Collie’s Muja Power Station into a nuclear reactor that he decided to throw his hat into the ring for the 2025 election. “I was grinding my teeth, sitting in my tractor when I heard that,” he said. “I was shocked that the people of Collie had not been consulted.” So far, his campaign has taken him to Collie, Kalgoorlie and Esperance, and on Saturday he dropped into Albany, where he swam a leg in the 2025 Albany Harbour Swim with his team the Soggy Magpies. “I’m not a natural small-talker — I just like to get back to the tractor — but it’s great being part of a Labor Party campaign,” he said. “I want to be a representative so I’m trying to talk to people about what matters to them.” Though reluctant to make specific promises for the electorate, he said Labor’s national commitments would benefit those in O’Connor. “The main issue is the cost of living, which affects everybody, and keeping inflation under control,” he said. “I think the Albanese government has been doing a good job reining it in. “It’s not fixed yet, but I want to be part of the team that fixes it. “Tax cuts are coming, which will help everybody, and I support Labor policies around cheaper childcare and medicines.” Help with HECS debts and free TAFE courses to attract apprentices were also on his list. “I think the Albanese team is the right team to handle the uncertainties of our times,” he said. “Labor wants to ensure we have good access to our own markets so we can sail through turbulent times.” If elected, he will spend time in Canberra, away from husband Nigel Lock, their son Andy and the Amelup farm in the Stirling Range. “The farm is a family partnership, and we have something of a corporate set-up so it will be fine,” he said. “I would miss it, though. But I think I would take the seat out of my tractor and bring it to Canberra with me.” This is the fourth in the Albany Advertiser’s series on the Federal election candidates for O’Connor. Read about Liberal incumbent Rick Wilson, Nationals candidate Heidi Tempra and One Nation’s Gemma Johnston. Stay tuned for more.