Exclusive polling obtained by The Land shows the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party (SFF) will easily hold Orange in the NSW election on March 23, while the party will make a strong run on Barwon and Murray over water issues.
At this stage, the SFF is trailing The Nationals in Barwon on a two-party preferred basis by a massive 16 per cent, but the polling was done before fish kills and water issues raised local anger in the electorate.
The fledgling party really only has three chances to take a Lower House seat in the NSW Parliament. It looks like it will hold Orange, with The Nationals even losing more votes than the extraordinary 2016 by-election, that saw the party lose the seat for the first time in 40 years.
According to polling done in Orange, SFF’s Phil Donato leads by 53 to 47 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis. SFF primary vote is up three points from the 2016 by-election to 26.8 per and The Nationals are down eight points to 23.8 per cent.
In Barwon, the poll of nearly 600 voters, found the Shooters party would defeat Labor in the primary vote and then find itself in a battle with The Nationals for the seat. The poll found it would get 42 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, with The Nationals on 58 per cent.
But the party believes with the anger over water issues and fish kills, this margin will close by the time March 23 comes around.
The Nationals in response said the Shooters Party was the party that wanted to put guns in the hands of 10-year-olds.
A spokesman from Mr Barilaro’s office said “I note the two by-election losses suffered by the Shooters party in 2017; in the state seats of Cootamundra and Murray. In the former they finished third on first preference votes behind the incumbent Nationals MP and the Labor party. I would also raise a question as to whether a preference deal will be struck between Labor and the Shooters Party?
The spokesman said it was “important to put the facts on the table when it comes to the Shooters – a party founded on repealing the Howard era gun laws.”
Meantime, The Nationals have been busy trying to win the seat of Wagga Wagga from independent Joe McGirr, with a day of funding announcements in the regional city on Tuesday. Nationals MP Melinda Pavey was also in the Murray electorate announcing new funding for the Newell Highway.
In Wagga, Deputy Premier and The Nationals leader John Barilaro said his government would wipe out the State’s school maintenance backlog.
He said Tuesday’s announcement means every maintenance job currently outstanding at the State’s 2200 public schools will be cleared by next year.
“We have worked hard to reduce the maintenance backlog in regional NSW and across the State and I am delighted to confirm we will now clear it completely,” Mr Barilaro said. “It is only because of the strong economic management of the Nationals in Government that we are in a position to keep our schools in their best possible condition, and fix the problems created by Labor’s neglect.”
Meantime, The Northern Daily Leader reports that Barnaby Joyce is on track to hold New England in the Federal election despite the controversy over his personal life.
The paper reported that a recent project in the electorate found more than three quarters of respondents in a survey didn’t care about the affair. They said though they didn’t like the cover up, or issues around misuse of power and entitlements.
“Based of the the New England participants in the project – which is only an indicative sample and not a representative sample – Mr Joyce is on track to a similar win to 2016, with around 50 per cent of first preferences,” the paper reported..