Kevin Anderson marks ten years in politics - but he's up for more

In an interview to mark the Friday anniversary of the wipe-out 2011 election, which elected both the first conservative NSW state government and the first government member for Tamworth in a decade, Mr Anderson told the Leader he'd be there for many more years yet.

"I don't feel 57 to be honest," he said.

He said he was most proud of the fact that people kept asking him for help and kept thanking him when they got it.

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"You can build a $62 million bridge and people can have robust debates over the name but they forget the fact it's a $62 million investment in a town the size of Gunnedah, but I can write a happy birthday card to an 80-year-old and I get the most beautiful handwritten letter back," he said.

"That's what excites me about this job every day is the diversity of the scale of the job itself."

The 2011 win was a second try by Mr Anderson, who bested Independent Peter Draper and ended a trend of non-party representation stretching back to Tony Windsor's election in 1991.

In an unprecedented move, Mr Anderson was preselected as a candidate by the entire community, not just party members. Some 4293 locals picked him over James Treloar, Russell Webb and Mark Rodda.

Two elections later he became the first Tamworth MP in Cabinet in half-a-century, an appointment Mr Anderson said gives him the power to "value-add" for the electorate.

It's the same non-ideological 'service-delivery' attitude that still motivates him, he said.

"I don't come from politics. I come from the working class. I don't even know how my mother and father voted. As people over the last 10 years would know I don't like getting into political fights. I don't believe that helps my community at all," he said.

"From the day that I decided to run, there's been a saying I've lived by: look after people and let the politics take care of itself. That's still relevant to me today. As long as I continue to hold that view the community, I believe, want me to continue to go down that path."

In the decade since the party won some 18 lower-house seats, the Nationals have shrunk dramatically, losing their seventh MP on Thursday. The caucus of just 11 lower-house MPs is the smallest in their 94-year history. Most of those lost seats have gone to the crossbench, like the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party.

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Mr Anderson said it wasn't quite time to write the party off yet.

"It's interesting that people throw rocks at the National party all the time," he said.

"Just recently the National Party celebrated 100 years. I suspect that there will be a time when the National Party celebrate 200 years.

"And people will still be throwing rocks saying - what's wrong with the National Party!"

The ten highlights of his time in office were all projects he'd won funding for, from the new Bullimbal school, to Tamworth's new fire station and hospital and the expanded Chaffey Dam, he said.

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He said he'd won a new police station for Gunnedah, an upgrade of Manilla Road, relocation for Walcha's men's shed, an improved Werris Creek pool, and funding for a new roof on Nundle Hall.

His final highlight was "every showground and community group that I have been able to help over the last 10 years".

The Nationals have a habit of surviving in the rural seat. Bill Chaffey lasted 33 years as MP for Tamworth, 25 of them for the Country Party. Noel Park, served for 18 years, all of them as a National MP.

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