Former independent to announce on Thursday if he will run against Nationals leader, who holds NSW seat of New England on notional margin of 19.9%

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Former independent Tony Windsor will announce on Thursday whether he will run against the deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce in the NSW electorate of New England.



The expectation in the electorate is growing that Windsor will challenge Joyce for his old seat, which the Nationals leader holds on a notional margin (after electoral redistributions) of 19.9%.



Windsor retired in 2013 after the bruising 43rd parliament, when he joined fellow independents Rob Oakeshott and Andrew Wilkie to back Julia Gillard’s minority Labor government in exchange for commitments on the Tamworth hospital, industry assistance for biofuels, the Namoi water study and the Chaffey dam. Windsor and Oakeshott also pushed for the national broadband network, which was switched on for the first time in Armidale.



Shenhua passes on mining licence application for $1.2bn Watermark mine Read more

At the time, Barnaby Joyce said it was “payback” for Windsor’s support for the minority Labor government.



National party sources remained confident that Windsor could not wrestle the seat from Joyce, who won the party’s leadership last month when Warren Truss retired. Critics say Windsor retired in 2013 to avoid an electoral backlash for his support for Labor in the conservative rural seat.



One of the main issues in the next election will be the proposed Chinese state-owned $1.2bn coalmine approved by the NSW and federal governments. But amid controversy over the Shenhua project, the mine appears to have been put on ice – stuck between the initial government approvals and the application for a mining licence, which requires another $200m on top of the $300m paid under disgraced former NSW Labor minister Ian Macdonald.

Greens candidate Mercurius Goldstein, who was preselected last August, said the voters of New England deserved to know who would be standing for the election.

“I recall when Tony Windsor visited Armidale town hall last year to hear a public lecture from Dr Bob Brown, a crowd of hundreds gave Mr Windsor a standing ovation just for showing up,” Goldstein said.

He warned that the pathway back to Canberra would not be easy for Windsor, with the seat of New England likely to go to a preference count according to recent polls. Goldstein said Windsor would not win Greens preferences automatically.

“The question of preferences will be decided by local New England Greens members, and they will decide based on policies, not personalities,” he told Guardian Australia.



“Before New England Greens members make a decision on preferences, they will examine each candidate’s policy on meaningful action to limit climate change, protecting the Great Artesian Basin from coalmining and CSG, and fast-tracking the national broadband network in our regional towns and communities.”



Goldstein, who has lived in the seat since 2010, said during his campaigning that Gonski education funding had surged as an issue for voters in the lead-up to the 2016 federal budget.

“We know that New England, according to Australian Tax Office figures, has five of [the] 10 lowest-income postcodes in Australia,” Goldstein said.



“They have great schools in those towns, doing wonderful things for those communities and federal National MPs are saying you don’t need this money in the poorest communities in Australia. That is the attitude of Barnaby Joyce and his federal counterparts”.



Goldstein acknowledged NSW education minister, Adrian Piccoli, had been highly supportive of the Gonski funding model.

“The Nationals are divided on this,” he said. “It is a sensible path to take – a fairer funding model.

“It was proposed by [David] Gonski and Kathryn Greiner after they did an actuarial calculation. That’s what it takes to educate a children, according to the benchmarks from kinder to year 12. This is not extra money – this is what it takes to educate a child.”

Joyce’s office was contacted for comment.