It was passing strange that the last seat to be declared in the 2019 federal election was the Victorian seat Mallee, one of the safest held by the National party.

Andrew Broad’s old seat was eventually won by the Nationals candidate and sociologist, Anne Webster, but not before the party lost 28% of their primary vote to a Melbourne Cup field of 13 candidates.

Webster won 66-34 on a two-party preferred basis, though that result belied the complex nature of the count.

While Webster won 28% of the primary vote, Liberal candidate Serge Petrovich picked up 19%. Three independents Jason Modica (9%), Ray Kingston (9%) and Cecilia Moar (3%) won a total of 21% of the primaries, also putting a significant dent in the Coalition’s vote.

Broad first contested the seat in 2013 which is the last time the Liberals were allowed to run under the three-cornered contest rules. Then, candidate Chris Crewther picked up 27% of the primaries while Broad won 38%.

So overall, the 2019 Coalition vote dropped on the last three-cornered contest though at that time, the tide was coming in for the Abbott election compared with the uphill battle and the Broad saga this time around.

Webster puts the swing down to a large field, including a Liberal candidate and the hangover from the Broad scandal, which was raised by both voters and National party grass roots members.

“There was disappointment in the National party itself, and questions about how we get over it among ordinary grass roots members early on,” Webster said.

“There was a history, that I was seeking to put behind us. The result also showed that people didn’t want [Bill] Shorten and did want [Scott] Morrison, so we put a percentage down to that.”

There are two points to make about Mallee. Firstly, when offered choice, rural voters can shift, notwithstanding the result in New England that handed Barnaby Joyce a slight swing on 2016.

“The idea that votes blindly go to Nats is wrong,” says Kingston, a climate-concerned farmer from Yarriambiack.

“The story is if there are credible alternatives that vaguely fit your world view, people will change. The electorate is not cohesive at all. It’s all over the shop.”

The second point goes to the heart of the Coalition arrangements around three-cornered contests. Is the Coalition ban disenfranchising voters by not offering choice in every election?

“[The Nationals] are very parochial about country seats, they see them as their birthright.” Serge Petrovich

Serge Petrovich, the Liberals candidate for Mallee, says the National party has treated country seats as a “birthright”. He has called for the Coalition agreement on three-cornered contests to be reviewed because he believes voters are being disenfranchised.

Petrovich is a former policeman, a barrister, a former member of the party’s administrative committee and a member the Liberal party for nearly 30 years. He was asked to run in Mallee after Andrew Broad retired in the wake of the sugar baby scandal.

“We are definitely disenfranchising people,” Petrovich said.

“As a member of administrative committee, I did wonder whether the staunch Coalition rule that prevents three-cornered contests serves either of us well.

“I have [questioned the agreement] and others have, not necessarily to end the Coalition agreement or three-cornered rules, it’s more about thinking carefully about the agreement.”

He said his interest stemmed from growing up in country Victoria near Bendigo even though he is no longer local.

Petrovich believes that by banning either Coalition party from running against sitting members, local party infrastructure is denuded and members drift away, which means when there is an opportunity to stand, there are no longer the party volunteers to do so.

“[The Nationals] are very parochial about country seats, they see them as their birthright,” he said.

He suggested results showed Liberal voters return preferences to the Nationals but Nationals voters do not return the favour, often supporting other candidates over the Liberals to ensure seats are not locked up by the Liberals.

“They spend a lot of time telling people they are not Libs,” Petrovich said. “If the Libs go out, 80% of the Liberals’ vote goes to the Nats, but the proportion of Nats vote to Liberals is only 30-40%.”

He said the Nationals were “dirty as hell” when the former Liberal MP Sharman Stone took the seat of Murray (renamed Nicholls at the last election) from the Nationals and then held it for 20 years before retiring in 2016. (It then went to the Nationals’ Damian Drum.)

“When Sharman took that Nationals seats of Murray, the Nats members drifted away,” said Petrovich. “They go to Lions or Probus or Rotary. Branch members are generally good community members, I’m sure it’s the same with Labor as well.”

Petrovich, who does a lot of legal work in the Mildura, watched the election of independent Ali Cupper on her third attempt in the state seat of Mildura.

He said if the Liberals had been allowed to run, the Mildura Nationals MP Peter Crisp would have held it with the help of Liberal preferences but the seat fell to independent Ali Cupper, a former Labor candidate.

“Often if you’ve got Labor and the Greens, it helps for us to have a running partner,” said Petrovich. “Otherwise it’s everyone against the incumbent. It worked in the Nats’ favour in Mallee. Peter Crisp would have won against Ali Cupper.”