The Nationals ponder Goulburn electoral bid

In the process, chairman of the party’s Goulburn State Electoral Council, Yass-based James Harker-Mortlock has questioned the Liberal’s campaign strategy in the lead-up to the March poll.

He was speaking following sitting MP Pru Goward’s decision to resign at the next election.

“We are looking at it (whether to run a candidate),” Mr Harker-Mortlock said.

“One of our main concerns is the state of the NSW Liberal Party and their ability to run effective campaigns because they were clearly unable to do so in Wagga Wagga,” he said.

“We ran a strong campaign in Wagga and from our point of view, some seats are more naturally National Party because they’re rural based.

“We are starting to question the relevance of the Liberal Party in rural seats because the Liberals are descending into factional warfare and voters are not interested in that. Constituents want us to solve issues with practical solutions.”

Mr Harker-Mortlock said his party wanted to differentiate itself from its Coalition partner at the next poll.

He cited the channeling of $4.2 billion from the sale of the Snowy Mountains scheme into the regions as a win. The Nationals had lobbied for this but Mr Harker-Mortlock said its importance had been lost in “the Liberals’ internal problems.

But he conceded the Nats would be racing against time to nominate a candidate and raise their profile by the time voters went to the booths. If not 2019, it could run someone at the 2023 election, he said.

If so, it would need to consider any redistribution and how it could affect the Goulburn and Cootamundra electorates. The Nats are strongly focusing on Deputy Premier John Barilaro’s renomination in Monaro.

“We are determined not to spread ourselves too thin,” Mr Harker-Mortlock said.

“...If we are going to run a candidate in Goulburn we need to do it properly. My experience is you need the resources and to plan ahead...These things are not done at the drop of a hat.”

He told The Post he wasn’t entirely surprised by Ms Goward’s decision to retire and that he was disappointed the Liberals hadn’t been clearer about their position.

“We sympathise and don’t diminish the importance of her reason (due to her husband’s illness) but the reality is we have a new situation that not everyone was expecting at the next election. We, as a party, need to recalibrate,” Mr Harker-Mortlock said.

The Nats’ ability to finance a campaign was a consideration in running a candidate but so too was the competition. He described Labor’s Dr Ursula Stephens was a strong rival who had “done quite well” at the 2015 election for Goulburn.

“Plus, we don’t know what the Liberals are doing. We’re sitting and watching,” he said.

Asked whether his party was interested in running former Goulburn Mulwaree Mayor Geoff Kettle, Mr Harker-Mortlock said anyone with an established reputation was worthy of discussions. However, this was more likely in the future than in 2019.

“For us the (political) landscape is changing positively,” he said.

“We’d love to get Goulburn back in the National Party fold. In fact we’d like to see Goulburn, Monaro, Cootamundra and Gilmore as a Nationals bloc. It’s an area of southern NSW we want to get back into. We have a lot of good, young people who would like to run.”

Meantime, Mr Kettle has ruled himself out of Liberal Party pre-selection. But he’s been silent on whether he’d be interested in running for the party if that process were dropped.

Ms Goward said on Saturday that there was no time for pre-selection and Premier Gladys Berejiklian was anxious to choose someone quickly. This would be likely done in consultation with branch presidents and the party’s State executive.

Mr Kettle pointed out on Sunday that when former Hume MP Alby Schultz decided to retire, it was at least one year out from the 2013 election.

“(Current Liberal MP) Angus Taylor had that time to get himself known,” he said.

“Whoever the Liberal Party selects for Goulburn will have eight weeks.”

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