Early voting is off and running in Broken Hill at the old Pellow and Moores Store, near the Susans Store, in Argent Street.
There are nine candidates standing. In the order they appear on the ballot paper; Derek Hardman Aboriginal Party of Australia, Peter Rothwell Liberal Democrats, Deborah Swinbourn Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, Mark Coulton National Party, Petrus Van Der Steen United Australia Party, Stuart Howe Independent, Jack Ayoub Labor, Trish Frail The Greens and Benjamin Fox Informed Medical Options Party.
Broken Hill and the seat of Parkes.
Broken Hill is in Parkes, covering 49% of the State, it is the largest electorate in NSW, and seventh largest in the country.
It has been a solid National Party seat since 1984 and is considered one of the safest Nationals seats in Australia with a swing of 16.9 per cent needed to topple Mark Coulton according to ABC’s Anthony Green.
Broken Hill has been a part of a number of Federal seats in the last 40 years including Riverina/Darling, Farrer and Parkes.
Major centres in Parkes apart from Broken Hill include Dubbo, Moree, Walgett, Narrabri, Coonabarabran, Coonamble, Gilgandra, Condobolin, Cobar, Bourke and Brewarrina.
Labor came close to winning in the 1993 election when it was first put into Parkes, it was then changed to Farrer with Susan Ley and finally put back into Parkes where, by 2016, the city had lost around 30 per cent of its population.
In 2019 the Nationals recorded majorities in 71 of the 81 polling places in the Parkes electorate.
The lowest vote the Nationals received was in Menindee, with 27 per cent, possibly a response to the water problems of the time.
