Nationals make play for Hunter and name James Thomson to take on Fitzgibbon

The Nationals announced James Thomson, a Maitland Christian School community relations officer, would be taking on Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon.

Labor has held the seat for more than a century, with the Fitzgibbon family at the helm for 37 of those years.

However, the Nationals see the seat as vulnerable. Mr Fitzgibbon saw a 14 per cent swing against him in first preference votes at the last election. Many of those votes went instead to One Nation candidate Stuart Bonds, who received the most first preferences of any One Nation candidate with 21.5 per cent of the vote.

Much of the swing against Labor was attributed to its confusing stance over coal, with the Hunter home to several large coal mines. Since the 2019 election, Mr Fitzgibbon has been vocally declaring his support for the industry, often too loudly for many of his Labor colleagues - earlier this year Mr Fitzgibbon stood down as the party's agricultural spokesman

Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Michael McCormack said Mr Thomson was committed to fighting for the Hunter region, families, local jobs and a secure future.

"Whether it is our hard-working coal miners, small business owners or award winning primary producers, James is dedicated to securing the future prosperity and jobs for all who call the region home," Mr McCormack said.

Mr Thomson said he was already working to secure the future of the Hunter region.

"Every day, I have the people of the Hunter foremost in my mind, especially the next generation of Hunter citizens and regional Australians," Mr Thomson said.

"We need to ensure that there are jobs in the regions moving forward and I know the Nationals are unwavering in this belief as they lay the economic foundations for regional, rural and remote areas to thrive well into the future."

Mr Fitzgibbon recently said if the Labor Party didn't change he wouldn't recontest his seat.

"[But] I don't think I could lose the seat, I'm not complacent about it in any sense," Mr Fitzgibbon said.

"But I've been there a long time, I've worked hard, people know what I stand for, I always stand up for my community, and I believe they'd stick with me

"We had a perfect storm last time and I survived with still a 3 per cent margin. A lot of people around this place wouldn't mind 3 per cent."

Political punts have speculated an election may be called in the last quarter of the year, however Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared multiple times he would not hold an election in 2021.