The Nationals have emerged victorious but bruised, winning Cootamundra but experiencing a 20 per cent swing against them before preferences. 

With more than 80 per cent of the first preference vote counted, Steph Cooke collected 45.16 per cent. Nationals state leader John Barilaro declared the party victorious in both Murray and Cootamundra after 1pm on Sunday. 

“These by-elections were a big test for us as a party and for me as a new leader,” Mr Barilaro said in a statement.

“The nature of a by-election, together with some of the issues of the past meant we were always expecting a large swing against us.

“But I think voters recognised that we have worked hard to fix the mistakes of the past, and that we are a good government that is in the midst of seriously improving the lives of people in regional and rural NSW.” 

The result in Junee was consistent with the rest of the electorate for the Nationals, where Ms Cooke collected 43.5 per cent of the votes cast at the Athenium.  

Country Labor’s Charlie Sheahan came in second with 23.53 per cent of first preference votes statewide followed by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers with 22.76 per cent. 

Sheahan conceded defeat on Saturday evening. 

“Yesterday was a heavy blow to the Nationals. A 20 per cent swing is a rejection of the Nationals failed policy agenda,” he said. 

“Cootamundra is now a marginal seat, this happened because thousands of people, for the first time in their lives, chose not to vote National.” 

The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers finished with 16.8 per cent of the vote at the Athenium on their debut in Cootamundra, calling the statewide result a “wake-up call”. 

“I think that behind the scenes the Nationals are quite worried,” the Shooters Matthew Stadtmiller said. 

“The Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party will maintain a presence here in the Cootamundra electorate, and this by-election was a dress-rehearsal for the 2019 State election.

A total 1730 votes were cast during pre-polling at the Junee Library, compared to just 1082 at the Athenium on election day.