THE triumph of the independent Peter Besseling in Saturday's Port Macquarie byelection is a further sign of the need for a merger between the National and Liberal parties, federal Liberals say.
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They were incensed that the party's state executive, with the support of the state leader, Barry O'Farrell, voted 8-4 against contesting the seat vacated by another independent, Rob Oakeshott, who moved to federal politics.
The Nationals were allowed to stand without a contest from their Coalition partners.
Tensions were exacerbated during the campaign when the NSW federal Liberal MP Alby Schultz travelled to the seat to support Mr Besseling against the Nationals' candidate Leslie Williams.
This caused the Nationals Senate leader, Barnaby Joyce, to complain to the federal Coalition leader, Malcolm Turnbull. "He is campaigning in the electorate against a Coalition colleague, wearing T-shirts and handing out leaflets for the independent," Senator Joyce told the Herald several days before the election. "There have been heated discussions about it. If we did that the sky would fall in.
"Malcolm Turnbull says he wants unity but you can't have calls for unity then have a Liberal MP campaigning for independents against the Nationals."
Yesterday Mr Turnbull described the result as disappointing. "We would rather see the Nationals win a seat, particularly if there's no Liberal candidate," he said.
The NSW Liberal senator Bill Heffernan said it was time the parties merged. Modern communications and transport made obsolete the concept of separate parties for the cities and regions.
The Liberals' Port Macquarie president, Ken Dodds, was so angry at the decision not to contest that he supported Mr Besseling.
Mr Schultz, who supports a merger, defended his actions last week. "The hypocrisy of the Nationals is breathtaking," Mr Schultz said.
"Over the years on a regular basis we have had National Party candidates running against Liberal candidates and preferencing the ALP.
"They are the worst perpetrators of opportunistic politics of any political party in Australia."
The NSW Nationals leader, Andrew Stoner, said the Liberal Party needed to control "some of the Nats haters in the Liberal Party" as it tried to repair the rift between the parties.
As to which party would stand in Port Macquarie in the future, "that will be worked out by the Coalition agreement", Mr O'Farrell, said. "We both can't run. That wouldn't work."
