In the 2019 New South Wales state election, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers (SFF) party surprised many by winning three seats in the lower house.
Phil Donato was re-elected in the seat of Orange after winning a by-election in 2016, while Roy Butler defeated the Nationals in Barwon and Helen Dalton won in Murray.
Since then the party has descended into chaos, with all three members resigning from its ranks to become independents.
Murray MP Helen Dalton quit the party in March 2022 following a falling out over water management with her colleagues.
In December, Mr Donato and Mr Butler announced their resignations, following comments by the party's leader Robert Borsak that former member Helen Dalton should have been "clocked."
Charles Sturt University political scientist professor Dominic O'Sullivan said the SFF party offered regional New South Wales voters an alternative to the Nationals.
"In each of those cases, there was considerable dissatisfaction with the National Party which was seen to be taking rural and regional voters for granted," Professor O'Sullivan said.
"People were feeling let down and looking for an alternative, they were not inclined to support the ALP or Greens so there was an opportunity for a party on the right of politics to emerge as an alternative."
A swing to independents?
The demise of the SFF party has left many in regional New South Wales considering whether there will be a return to the National Party at the NSW state election on March 25, or a move towards independents as seen at the federal election.
Now an independent, Member for Orange Phil Donato won his seat at the 2019 state election as an SFF party member with a primary vote of 49.1 per cent, making it one of the safest seats in the state.
He said his experience of being the sole SFF lower house member prior to this, between 2016 and 2019, was like being an independent and showed the influence it was possible have on policy.
"Being independent from a political party gives me more agility to be able to manoeuvre and address issues faster and [be] more focused," he said.
Mr Donato said with a minority government looking likely in the next election, independents would "be in a very strong position come the next parliament."
"That will place members on the crossbench in a fairly strong and influential position where governments need to negotiate with them to get legislation through," he said.
Professor Sullivan said it would be a "competitive contest" in rural electorates with independents the biggest threat to the Nationals.
"The Shooters party brand has obviously been damaged by the fracturing of the party and that probably gives the independents the edge over the Shooters candidates," he said.
"I am not predicting that they will win but they are likely to outpoll the Shooters and therefore be the opponents that will have to be the greatest focus for the National Party."
'There certainly is a demand'
Despite the SFF party's loss of all three MPs since the 2019 election, deputy leader Mark Banasiak said people in regional NSW still wanted what the party had to offer.
"We're a party that doesn't kowtow to the Liberals and that is what they voted for in Barwon, Orange and Murray — they were sick of the Nationals not standing up for rural and regional people," he said.
"A vote for the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party always stays with the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party."
Mr Banasiak said Labor's rise to power in the federal election last year would push voters towards the party.
"There is a silent majority who are sick of having leftist ideas shoved down their throats," he said.
"We are a party of freedoms sitting there largely by ourselves on the conservative centre right so there certainly is a demand for the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party."
