2013 Northern Tablelands state by-election

A by-election was held for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Northern Tablelands on 25 May 2013. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of independent member Richard Torbay, which was announced on 20 March 2013. Adam Marshall was declared elected on 28 May 2013.^[1]

2013 Northern Tablelands state by-election

25 May 2013

First party Second party Third party   IND Candidate Adam Marshall Herman Beyersdorf Jim Maher Party National Labor Independent Popular vote 27,276 4,190 5,814 Percentage 63.3% 9.7% 13.5% Swing 35.0 6.3 13.5 TPP 81.0% 19.0% TPP swing 4.9 4.9

The location of the seat of Northern Tablelands in New South Wales

MP before election Richard Torbay Independent Elected MP Adam Marshall National

Dates

Date	Event [2]
22 April 2013	Writ of election issued by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.[3]
22 April 2013	Close of electoral rolls
8 May 2013	Close of party nominations
9 May 2013	Close of independent nominations
13 May 2013	Early voting began
25 May 2013	Polling day, between the hours of 8 am and 6 pm
7 June 2013	Return of the Writ of election was due

Background

The seat became vacant when the former Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and Member for Northern Tablelands, Richard Torbay, who was the endorsed candidate for the Nationals for the federal seat of New England, suddenly resigned from State Parliament. Immediately prior to his resignation, the National disendorsed Torbay as preselected candidate for New England. It was claimed that his resignation was due to the controversy surrounding his ownership of more than twenty Centrelink buildings dating back to the era when John Howard was Prime Minister.^[4]

Former mayor of Gunnedah Shire, Adam Marshall, won preselection as the Nationals nominee ahead of Jock Laurie and Claire Coulton.^[5]

Controversies

During the campaign it was reported in the Armidale Express that Marshall had been a financial member of both the Labor and the National parties between 2001 and 2003; by the time his membership of the former expired in 2004, he was employed as a staff member for the then Independent Member for Tamworth, Peter Draper.^[4][6]

One week prior to the by-election, Mal Peters, a councillor of Inverell Shire Council referred a matter of an undisclosed nature relating to Marshall to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Marshall claimed that Peters' actions were spurious and questioned the timing of the complaint.^[7]

Candidates

The seven candidates in ballot paper order were:

Candidate nominations [8]
	Independent	Bill Bush
	Nationals	Adam Marshall	Former mayor of Gunnedah Shire
	Australian Greens	Dora Koops
	Labor Party	Herman Beyersdorf	Deputy Mayor of Armidale Dumaresq Shire
	Independent	Katherine Nicholson
	Independent	Jim Maher	Mayor of the Armidale Dumaresq Shire
	Christian Democratic Party	Silvana Nero

Results

Northern Tablelands by-election Saturday 25 May ^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Adam Marshall	27,276	63.3	+35.0
	Independent	Jim Maher	5,814	13.5	+13.5
	Labor	Herman Beyersdorf	4,190	9.7	+6.3
	Independent	Katherine Nicholson	1,845	4.3	+4.3
	Greens	Dora Koops	1,782	4.1	+0.8
	Independent	Bill Bush	1,270	2.9	+2.9
	Christian Democrats	Silvana Nero	912	2.1	+0.5
Total formal votes			43,089	97.1	−1.7
Informal votes			1,304	2.9	+1.8
Turnout			44,393	85.7	+7.5
Two-party-preferred result
	National	Adam Marshall	29,817	81.0	+4.9
	Labor	Herman Beyersdorf	7,014	19.0	−4.9
	National gain from Independent		Swing	+4.9

See also

• Electoral results for the district of Northern Tablelands
• List of New South Wales state by-elections