Almost 17 per cent of the primary vote in the 2015 State Election was enough to get Narrabri's newchum Independent candidate for Barwon, Rohan Boehm, third place.
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Nationals Kevin Humphries won the seat with 62.9 per cent of the vote from his nearest rival, Labor's Craig Ashby with 37.1 per cent. But Mr Humphries lost 12.9 per cent of the vote after preferences, and suffered a 22.9 per cent first preference swing against him, 16.9 per cent of which went to Mr Boehm.
It was a steep learning curve, but out of all that we managed to snare a bit of a result that seemed to take a few stripes off the opposition.
- Rohan Boehm
You would be right to wonder what all this has got to do with the electorates of Northern Tablelands and New England.
Well, Mr Boehm has teamed up with Mudgee's IT businessman Charles Tym and they will be involved with this year's Polls as co-founders and campaigners of a Registered Third Party called "Anyone But Nats".
Neither man is up for election; neither will ever become a Member Parliament from this election result, but Mr Boehm said since they announced their intention to speak in New England against Barnaby Joyce, and other Federal seats, they were pledged funding worth $60,000 for the 2019 Federal Election.
That conversation is about why in the hell do we vote for them and how are we going to stop it.
- Rohan Boehm
"Under the NSW Electoral Act you can be an official party, there are registration requirements needed there, and you can also be a registered third party. That's what allows minerals councils and all those usual players to come in and try to upset campaigns," Mr Boehm said.
"What they weren't realising at the time, of course, was that there could quite readily be someone, or some organisation formed, that would allow the community to have the conversation that the Nats never wanted it to have.
"We really exist for that voice. It was the same voice that I was listening to four years ago."
Mr Boehm thought this year's elections were the two most important for Australia.
I think most people now really get that the Nationals are last century's party.
- Rohan Boehm
"Our economy is facing the need for dramatic change in face of climate damage and these things are happening all around the world," he said.
"Many countries are setting themselves up to be less reliant on fossil fuels. They are going to transform their industries, transform their economies and become significantly stronger than Australia is.
"And we have the Nats sitting there with only one policy. It's called the 'Trinkets for Indians' policy; a few weeks before an election they go around sprinkling tiny bits of cash in this little community and that little community, pat them on the back and send them away saying 'Just keep voting for us'.
"I think that people get it now and that policy has nearly run out of gas; that's why we'll support anyone but Nats."