Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP Helen Dalton resigns from the party

The NSW Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party says Helen Dalton’s position within the party is “no longer tenable”.

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party leader Robert Borsak speaks to the media alongside party membersPhil Donato, Roy Butler, Helen Dalton and Mark Banasiak in March 2019.

Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party MP Helen Dalton has resigned from the party, choosing instead to stand as an independent in the March 2023 NSW State Election.

The SFF Party’s leadership stated that “despite Ms Dalton’s pointed and extensive campaigning on farmers rights and water equity in the Murray, her position was no longer tenable within the SFF party given the inconsistencies with her own farming and water trading activities”.

“This includes the sale and water trading, albeit fully legal, to large companies that Mrs. Dalton was criticising under the protection of Parliamentary privilege.”

As the Lower House MP for Murray in the NSW Parliament Ms Dalton has been a vocal critic of companies such as Duxton Water, accusing the ASX-listed company of “profiting off our sick Murray Darling Basin river system”.

Yet a simple search of the NSW Water Register byThe Weekly Times in August last year showed Ms Dalton sold $7700 of temporary water from her Murray water access licence 36791 to Duxton Water on November 7, 2018.

SFF Party Leader Robert Borsak MLC said “it is untenable and goes against the principles of the party to use Parliamentary privilege to pursue your personal and commercial interests. “Your constituency comes first, second and last in Parliament – nothing else”.

“At the same time Ms Dalton was rightly campaigning against large water traders across the State, the abuse of floodplain harvesting, and a host of other issues – constituents close to her office and the party recognised the inconsistencies between what Helen was saying and doing.”

In October 2020 The Weekly Times published satellite images from 2016 of water spilling onto the Mirrool Ck floodplain and flowing through the centre of Ms Dalton’s farm to a dam, raising questions as to whether she was engaged in floodplain harvesting.

At the time of publication Ms Dalton said “I can’t put my hand to my heart and say it (the dam) wouldn’t harvest Mirrool Creek water, when we’ve got a metre of water across the place.”

Mr Borsak said he wished Ms Dalton all the best in her career in politics without the party.

“We invested a significant amount of resources and trust in winning the seat off the Nationals, so it is a shame it has ended this way,” he said.

“At the end of the day, the people of Murray deserve the best representation they can get, and we will continue to fight for them after being let down for years by both major parties.

“The SFF will continue to run a select committee into the water trading inquiry and will rerun the Water Register Bill and negotiate its carriage in the lower house with the government.

“We will be contesting the seat of Murray in the 2023 State Election with a different candidate. Pending some final vetting processes we’ve learnt the hard way, we will announce this candidate in due course.”

The Weekly Times has repeatedly called and texted Ms Dalton and her chief of staff for comment, but received no reply.

ELECTORAL BACKGROUND

Ms Dalton unsuccessfully contested the seat of Murray in 2015, securing a primary vote of 18.2 per cent.

Following the resignation of Former Murray MP and Nationals Minister, Adrian Piccoli, Ms Dalton approached and was accepted by the SFF Party to be its candidate in the hotly contested 2017 by-election. Ms Dalton was narrowly defeated, securing a primary vote of 31.5 per cent.

In 2019 NSW State Election, the SFF finally secured the seat with a primary vote of 38.75 per cent, beating Nationals incumbent Austin Evans.