Statewide polls shows Shooters closing in on Nationals

A recent ReachTEL poll put the Nationals at 6.5 per cent of the state’s vote, with the SFF narrowly trailing on 6.1 per cent.

A similar poll this time last year shows the Shooters have almost tripled their vote, rising from 2.2 per cent, while the Nationals have dropped slightly from 8.3 per cent.

A senior Nationals source told The Leader the statewide poll carried no weight with the party on a seat-by-seat basis.

“The Nationals run in 19 out of 94 seats, they run in all of them,” he said.

“There is statewide polling history for the last term, with Nationals sliding between four and six per cent, with an outlier of nine per cent. [It is] 100 per cent dependent upon sampling.”

SFF Tamworth candidate Jeff Bacon said anecdotally evidence suggested the “poll could be considered reliable”. 

“At AgQuip, we had a lot of people from the community talking to us, who said the government being dragged kicking and screaming to a delayed drought response pushed them over the edge,” Mr Bacon said.

“We’ve seen [Tamworth MP] Kevin Anderson come out advocating for first past the post voting in this election. That can only be seen as one way, and that’s that they are concerned.”

Mr Anderson, who was recently re-endorsed as the Nationals candidate unopposed, said every election battle he'd fought since stepping in to the political arena in 2007 had been tough.

He expected the 2019 election to be no different.

“I have a saying, and that is, you take care of the people and the politics will take care of itself,” he said.

Mr Anderson wouldn’t be drawn on the threat posed by the SFF, but said he would “take everyone seriously”.

“Anyone who puts their hand up to represent the Tamworth electorate should be treated with respect,” he said.

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