THE NSW Nationals came to Tweed Heads for its annual state conference, in a push for the winnable coastal seat and a strong show of support for federal candidate for Richmond Matthew Fraser.
Mr Fraser, a local Hungry Jack’s franchcise owner, is in with a shot to bring the Northern NSW seat back to National Party, after narrowing the distance between the Labor incumbent Justine Elliot at the 2013 election.
Richmond, a former stronghold for the Nats, fell to Labor in 2004 to Labor’s Justine Elliot.
The seat was held by current federal party president Larry Anthony from 1996 to 2004. His father Doug Anthony, a long time party leader, held the seat for 27 years until 1987.
Mr Fraser received 47pc of the preferential vote at last election, compared to Ms Elliots’ 53pc, and current leader Barnaby Joyce told the conference in his opening remarks that Mr Fraser would live up to the challenge.
Speculation over Mr Anthony’s potential tilt at arose at the start of the year, but Mr Fraser was eventually backed into the gig by the party.
Mr Joyce said Mr Fraser represented the party’s future and said his business background represented the entrepreneurial spirit the party champions.
“We support the people who have achieved through their own determination, by the sweat of their brow to find their own highest level of freedom.”
Coastal seats, with growing populations, are key to the NSW Nationals, as the regional proportion of votes shrinks. Federal electoral boundaries were redrawn this year, removing one regional seat in the Hunter Valley.
NSW Nationals chairman Bede Burke said wile the Coalition was preoccupied with sandbagging seats in this election, the Nationals could win back in Richmond.
“Matthew Fraser will prove he has the right qualities. He’s not a tenured politician, he’s not an activist, he’s an ordinary bloke.”
Mr Burke said “it was the night of the living dead” over the ridge from Mr Joyce’s New England electorate in Page.
In yet another saltwater federal seat based around Grafton, Casino and Lismore incumbent Kevin Hogan, who scored an upset win over Labor’s Janelle Saffin, will be under pressure as Ms Saffin recontests.
