The long-talked-about rumour mill will have to move onto a different topic now, with Troy Grant announcing his retirement on Thursday morning.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Grant’s plans ahead of the election next year have been a topic of discussion for some time, with a National’s candidate not yet announced for the seat of Dubbo and other candidates calling for the party to be a little more transparent in their plans.
Now we know why, and it’s opened things up in a very interesting way for state politics in the Dubbo electorate over the next eight months.
But before we think about what’s to come – will those other rumors about the new National’s candidate and others planning on running be true? – lets take a minute to look back on Mr Grant’s career and what he’s done for the Dubbo electorate over the past few years.
In announcing he won’t be standing for the next election, Mr Grant cited family reasons and said he ‘can’t give it my all’.
Mr Grant looked at the electorate and the people to whom he had been serving during his speech.
“The Dubbo electorate is a standout example of a thriving regional area thanks to our diverse economy, transport hub, tourism, strong agricultural sector and salt of the earth people. I might be biased, but it is truly one of the best places to live in NSW, if not Australia.”
In the past seven years in office Mr Grant has had an interesting time in parliament – to say the least.
In 2014 after just three years in elected office, he was elected to the role of National’s leader and deputy premier.
He said at the time he would ‘work his backside off’ in the role.
Just over two years after his promotion, Mr Grant stood down as leader following numerous attacks on the Liberal and National’s party and their decisions about the Greyhound Racing Ban in NSW (a decision which they backflipped on at a later date) and the amalgamations between councils – forced or not. It was the Orange by-election that forced his hand when the Nationals candidate lost by a close margin.
Those big and controversial decisions weren’t popular in our electorate and still remain a topic of conversation – one that will possibly push strong National voters to look for others to mark as number one next year.
We can only say it’s going to be interesting.