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Electoral district of Port Macquarie in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly | ||||||||||
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| Registered | 63,221 [1] | |||||||||
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The 2025 Port Macquarie state by-election will be held on 15 March 2025 to elect the member for Port Macquarie in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, following the resignation of Liberal Party MP Leslie Williams. [2]
Port Macquarie was created in 1988 following a redistribution with the majority of the seat being inherited from Oxley. The seat was held by the National Party until 2002, when sitting member Rob Oakeshott left the party to become an independent. [3] Oakeshott resigned in 2008 to successfully enter federal politics at the Lyne by-election, and was succeeded by independent Peter Besseling at the 2008 Port Macquarie state by-election. [4]
Besseling lost his seat at the 2011 state election to Nationals candidate Leslie Williams. [5] Williams was re-elected in 2015 and 2019, increasing her primary vote on both occasions. [6]
On 20 September 2020, Williams left the Nationals to join the Liberal Party, citing the "reckless and unreasonable behaviour" of Nationals leader John Barilaro in threatening to end the Coalition and move the party to the crossbench due to a disagreement over koala protections. [7] The Nationals contested Port Macquarie at the 2023 state election, but Williams retained the seat for the Liberals with a two-candidate-preferred vote of 60.8%. [8] [9] Williams was the first Liberal member since Les Jordan to win Port Macquarie since 1962 in its prior iteration as Oxley.
On 22 January 2025, Williams announced that she would resign from parliament. [10] She said she made the decision in order to be closer to her family in Western Australia after the death of her husband, Don Williams, in 2022. [11] [12] Her resignation officially came into effect on 31 January 2025. [13] [14]
| Party | Candidate | Background | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Robert Dwyer | General manager of Laurieton United Services Club and Kew Country Club [15] | |
| National | Sean Gleeson | Beef cattle farmer [16] | |
| Libertarian | Breelin Coetzer | Candidate for Port Macquarie-Hastings Council in 2024 [17] [18] [19] | |
| Greens | Stuart Watson | Candidate for the 2023 state election | |
| Independent | Warwick Yonge | General practitioner and practice manager at Port GPs [20] [21] [22] | |
On 8 February 2025, Laurieton United Services Club and Kew Country Club general manager Robert Dwyer defeated real estate agent Luke Hadfield to win Liberal Party preselection. [23]
On 26 February 2025, The Daily Telegraph published an article about a NSW Liberal Party fundraiser in Sydney intended to support the Port Macquarie by-election campaign, which only attracted ten attendees to the $2,000-per-ticket event. [24]
On 9 February 2025, general practitioner Warwick Yonge was preselected by the Nationals as their candidate for the by-election. [25] Three days later on 12 February 2025, the Nationals' Central Executive refused to endorse his candidacy without providing a public explanation. [26] On 14 February, NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders was quoted in the media as saying that although Dr Yonge had been through the Nationals internal vetting process: "there were further issues which came to light after that time, which meant it became untenable from the perspective of Central Executive to actually endorse him as a candidate." [27]
On 19 February 2025, beef cattle farmer Sean Gleeson was selected as the party's replacement candidate for the by-election. [16] [28] Yonge announced on 27 February 2025 that he would run for the by-election as an independent. [29]
The Greens have never polled more than 8.9% of first preference votes in the seat. The party has nominated Stuart Watson as their candidate for the by-election. [30]
Labor have traditionally polled poorly in the seat, only registering more that 40% of the two-party preferred vote on one occasion (2003) since the seat was created in 1988. Labor have declined to nominate a candidate for the by-election. [31]
The Speaker: I advise the House that on Friday 31 January 2025 I received a letter from Leslie Gladys Williams resigning her seat as member for the electoral district of Port Macquarie. I inform the House that I have issued a media release advising of my intention to issue a writ for a by-election to be held on 15 March 2025.
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