Allegations of “dirty tricks” have emerged in the regional seat of Murray, which the Nationals are trying to claw back from independent Helen Dalton.
Upper house Nationals MP Wes Fang posted a video to Facebook on Saturday which he said showed Murray taking down a corflute promoting her rival Peta Betts.
The video showed Dalton holding a pair of scissors. Another man, wearing a Dalton hat, can be heard saying “don’t know what happened there”.
A corflute can be seen on the ground, outside the Griffith Public School.
“Helen Dalton is not fit, to be a member of the Parliament of NSW,” Fang said in the social media post.
A spokesman denied the video showed Dalton messing with the sign.
“The gentleman involved didn’t work for Helen, he worked for another independent,” the spokesman told Crikey.
“The Nats have been playing dirty tricks all week, filming, goading Helen, stealing corflutes, poking holes in eyes on corflutes.
“They’re staffers for Wes Fang.”
Fang didn’t address the suggestion his staffers had been involved.
But he told Crikey the video showed “the dirty tactics [the Dalton campaign] has been using to try and win”.
“[It] also displays the constant negativity from her, that voters really dislike.”
He described the seat as “neck-and-neck, with a possibility we might pick up … once counting has finished”.
Dalton spent part of Saturday riding around Griffith in a horse-and-buggy, the horses decked out in her pink campaign colours.
Dalton won the seat of Murray off the Nationals in 2019 as a member of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party. She has since gone independent.
