THE Liberal party suffered significant backlash from voters at the 2016 federal election but their junior Coalition partners the Nationals held firm ground, including fending-off a fierce challenge in leader Barnaby Joyce’s New England electorate.
As of Tuesday, the ALP had gained a positive swing of 2 per cent nationally compared to a negative swing of 3.7pc for the Liberals, while the Nationals had a 0.6pc positive swing and the Greens +1.3pc.
Nationals’ deputy-leader Fiona Nash was one of the unsung heroes of the party’s steadfast effort highlighted by visiting 60 different federal electorates during the gruelling eight week period, leading up to the July 2 poll.
Senator Nash said she didn’t travel to WA or SA as the campaign strategy focussed mainly on important eastern States where she unveiled funding for projects like mobile phone blackspots and regional job packages.
“Our aim as the Coalition government is to ensure that we have strong and stable regional communities into the future, so that our children and our grandchildren either want to stay in those communities or come back to those communities,” was her repeated campaign mantra.
One of the most gruelling campaign trail jaunts saw the Minister for Regional Communications, Regional Development and Rural Health cover more than 4000kms in about 24 hours.
Starting from the family farm in Young NSW, Senator Nash travelled south to Shepparton in the northern Victorian seat of Murray to back the party’s’ successful candidate Damian Drum before flying north to Brisbane for an overnight stay.
She then headed out into the Queensland rural seats of Flynn and Capricornia and down to Page in northern NSW where three party incumbents all faced vigorous battles to retain their seats against willing Labor foes.
Senator Nash said her travel schedule was hectic but worth the effort as her party scored a big win in Murray in a three-cornered contest against the Liberals and look like holding the majority of its rural and regional seats.
“It was very, very difficult to get any dry cleaning done because I wasn‘t in any one place for more than one night,” she said.
“I’m not saying it should have been a longer campaign but there just weren’t enough days to do everything.”
The Nationals started the election with 15 members in the House of Representatives and six in the Senate.
They’re expected to retain all Senate posts but it may be touch-and-go in Queensland for Barry O’Sullivan while WA Nationals candidate Kado Muir is an outside chance to win another spot.
Senator Nash said the Nationals did extremely well overall but were still waiting anxiously on the final vote-count in Capricornia and Flynn.
“We’ve fended off independents in the leaders’ seat of New England and in Cowper, we’ve held onto really difficult seats like Page in northern NSW and Damian Drum looks to have won Murray,” she said.
“I think we’ve done very, very well.
“They threw everything but the kitchen sink at that seat, the Labor party and the unions, and in Page where Kevin Hogan also came through with a win, which is just fantastic.
“It’s been a great result for the Nats so far which really does reflect how well-grounded we are, in our local communities.”
Senator Nash said she hoped her 60 electorate visits helped the party’s various candidates and members with on the ground campaigning.
“It’s been very much a credit to our National Party members and Senators,” she said.
“We’re very much on the ground, grass roots campaigners and we get out there on the ground, street by street and door by door.
“We’ve got a party full of local champions and they went out there and were local champions for their electorates and States and did a great job.”
Senator Nash said she hadn’t calculated the total distance she travelled during the eight-week campaign but was only at home on the farm for a handful of nights.
“It was really important as deputy-leader to make sure I was out there on the ground with our team across the Coalition, both National and Liberal seats,” she said.
“Barnaby was spending more time in his electorate than he normally would have done in a campaign because of the New England challenge so I was very keen do as much heavy lifting as I could in the campaign.”
Mr Joyce said his strategy was to spend three or four days on the road each week during the campaign and the rest of the time working in his New England electorate.
He said the National Party had largely focussed on winning or retaining seats in northern Victoria, the northern rivers region of NSW and central Queensland.
“If you focus hard on certain areas you get a result and we’ve got a good result,” he said.
“Major announcements (happen) when you have strong representation by the National party in government.”
Mr Joyce said while it was a bit easier being a Senator in a safe position and not needing to campaign in any particular seat, Senator Nash’s efforts visiting 60 electorates in eight weeks did contribute to an overall, positive team result.
“When the National Party is strong we hold seats in Victoria and NSW,” he said.
During Saturday night’s election coverage, former Tony Abbot chief of staff and now media commentator Peta Credlin also paid tribute to the Nationals’ federal director Scott Mitchell and the party’s central campaign team, for the New England win and overall result.
Asked if the Nationals could have won the seats of Mayo or Indi which have been lost by the Liberals to independent and minor party candidates at the last two elections, which will prove critical in the final outcome of a potentially hung parliament, Senator Nash declined to comment on hypothetical questions, post post-election.
“I’m not going to comment on specifics but as a general comment, the fact is National Party members across the board are local members who get in day after day working for their communities which is something that the people who live in those communities genuinely appreciate,” she said.
With vote counting continuing, Senator Nash said, “Clearly the best result would be to win enough seats to form a majority government so we’ll still focus on that being the best outcome for the Australian people”.
She said the take home message in New England was that Mr Joyce had been a “terrific local member on the ground working with the community and responding to the community”.
“That’s something the people in the electorate have clearly recognised - I don’t have a view on Tony Windsor,” she said.
During his New England victory speech on Saturday night, Mr Joyce said no individual wins – a team wins – and praised the party’s volunteers or “Killer Canaries” who worked on the campaign trail wearing the party’s bright yellow t-shirts.
He said the National party had some tenuous seats but “we appear to be on the cusp of a brilliant victory”.
“We don’t have the money that the other sides have - we don’t have all the flow of funds that the other sides have - what we have is membership,” he said.
“These incredible killer canaries - who sit out there in their yellow t-shirts and up in Queensland in their gold and blue.
“They sit out there and they just campaign, every street, every corner, every farm to make sure that our nation is represented by people who are humble enough and have the humility to put the people first and go into bat for them but on the premise that they can deliver – not on the premise of purely wishes.”