The National Party is broken and they need to work out how to fix it

Win or lose in Orange, the Nationals will have woken up today a broken party, writes Linda Silmalis. If they want to be relevant Troy Grant might have to take it to Premier Mike Baird.

Greg Board a greyhound breeder of more than 200 dogs casting his vote with retired race dog Amanda by his side. Picture: Jonathan Ng

• NATIONALS VOW SPILL IF ORANGE COLLAPSES

WIN or lose, the Nationals will awaken today a broken party.

After being held by the conservatives for almost 70 years and going in to yesterday’s by-election with a 21 per cent margin, the seat of Orange should never have come close to being in play.

But it did - and as many Nationals handing out how-to-votes were stating privately yesterday, the party must now rethink its core values.

In a long and ugly by-election campaign, the party was forced to resort to committing millions of dollars of commitments as it sought to retain its votes.

Nationals leader Troy Grant cuts a lonely figure amid a cavalcade of noisy anti-Nationals volunteers with Nationals candidate for Orange, Scott Barrett. Picture: Jonathan Ng

A cynical electorate may ask where the money was two years earlier when it handed the seat to Andrew Gee, who triggered the by-election when he skipped to Canberra.

If there is a lesson to be learned from Orange, it is that the Nationals can no longer automatically lay claim to the bush.

Labor long ago rebranded its rural branches “Country Labor” to move into Nationals heartland, while the NSW Shooters and Fishers earlier this year added “Farmers” to its title to accommodated disaffected conservative voters whose views were no longer being represented by the former country party.

The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party candidate handing out how-to-vote cards yesterday. Picture: Jonathan Ng

The party is also under siege by independents, many of whom have risen the ranks of local government and enjoy their own strong support base.

What voters wnat is a party that represents them - and listens - and as Nationals leader Troy Grant has learned, that may mean taking it up to NSW Premier Mike Baird.

What voters do not want is a puppet - and as Orange greyhound breeder Greg Board said yesterday, the lack of fight the Nationals gave when Mr Baird moved to shutdown a key local industry, that is how Mr Grant appears.

Donato didn’t have a full on celebration but were quietly confident last night. Picture: Jonathan Ng

The same with council amalgamations and land-clearing laws.

Country people have long loathed being told what to do by their city counterparts.

But that is exactly how they feel.

Handing out how-to-votes at Bletchington Public School yesterday, Mr Grant cut a lonely figure amid the noisy army of Labor and Shooters volunteers.

Standing at time awkwardly with his hands clasped, many voters walked past, seemingly unaware of the Nationals leaders’ presence.

As one senior Nationals MP said yesterday, the scare in Orange is maybe what the party needed to address its irrelevance.

To go back to the drawing board, and work out what it and who it stands for.