IT was the most hurtful thing anyone had ever said to him.

During Bill Sykes’ first election race, the comment didn’t come from a rival candidate or party, or as part of the usual mud-slinging one might expect on the campaign trail. It came from one of his mates.

“He said, ‘Sykesy, you’re OK, you stand up for what you believe in, but you’ll end up just like the rest of them’,” Dr Sykes recalled. “You’ll go in straight and green, and come out all yella and bent.”

His face is earnest as he relays the story; after 12 years in Victorian politics, it’s clearly a comment that has stayed with him, perhaps even kept him on course.

Because the general consensus is, while such a statement might apply to other pollies, “Sykesy” has managed to retain his good bloke status.

Ask on the streets of Benalla, Bright or Mount Beauty, and the average sentiment is the same: that he’s done alright, has Bill. Then there’s the small pile of thank you gifts piled in his Benalla electorate office, which one suspects has in the past been much, much larger.

Do you prefer facts and figures? Past election results seem to indicate the same, with Dr Sykes’ margin growing from just 52 per cent of the two-party preferred vote in 2002 to 73 per cent in 2010.

Despite that, or maybe because of it, he is calling it a day. 

Related: Sykes takes a swing at deal-breaking Libs

As Victorians head to the polls today, and those in Dr Sykes’ former electorate of Benalla cast their votes in their new seats of Ovens Valley, Benambra or Euroa, November 29 officially marks the end of his tenure.

“Whether I’ve been a good local member or whether I’ve not, that’s for others to judge,” he said philosophically.

“I’ve copped a few whacks along the way but I think, on balance, I’m the same person.”

In his valedictory speech to Parliament last month, Dr Sykes described his career: “I am a farmer by love, a veterinarian by training, and a politician by error of judgment.”

Even now, he suppresses a wry smile when he reflects on what it was that convinced him — the country vet, part-time cattle farmer, and one-time VFL footballer — to enter politics.

“A moment of weakness,” he says.

In truth, of course, there was a little more deliberation than that.

When former Nationals MP Pat McNamara resigned in 2000, he approached Dr Sykes about running in the by-election.

True to his straight-forward nature, he agreed to meet but bluntly told him, “I’ll come and listen, but I’m not interested”. Famous last words.

Maybe it could be, he thought, a “natural progression” after years helping people and the part of the world he is so very fond of, North East Victoria.

So it was he went on to run against Labor’s Denise Allen, who, riding on a backlash against the previous Kennett Coalition government, scraped into the seat for the first time for the ALP with just 50.4 per cent.

As the 2002 election drew closer, Dr Sykes “agonised” over the decision to run, eventually emailing Nationals leader Peter Ryan, who immediately responded he would come out to see him the next day.

“I didn’t want to die wondering,” Dr Sykes explained.

“Second, I didn’t want to be remembered as a loser, and finally, it was the leadership of Peter Ryan, his integrity … he is an amazing man, so for those three reasons I thought I’d have a go.”

Dr Sykes snatched back the electorate for the Nationals in 2002, taking 52 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.

He admits, in those early years, he was “politically naive”. 

There was that first visit to Parliament House, for example, during his first campaign.

“I went to the Treasury building,” he chuckled. “Now that’s real slow-talkin’ country boy stuff there.”

BUT the country boy learnt fast. Sitting on the backbenches in opposition for eight years wasn’t easy, he said, but there were still many highlights.

Being able to achieve them, he said, came down to two things: his staff, and listening to what people were asking.

There are the local joys — the pride at seeing at-risk youth receive deserving recognition through the Weary Dunlop You’ve Got What It Takes Award, which he helped Benalla’s schools launch; or at helping people navigate bureaucracy to get the help they need.

He rallied alongside the Euroa community against a proposed toxic waste dump in their town and assisted farming communities through the dry — but the biggest by far was stopping the north-south pipeline.

“Finally the Labor Party have got it — people were angry,” he said, on news of Daniel Andrews’ commitment not to return to the controversial plan.

“It was the principle, the principle of taking water from drought-stricken communities … where everyone was close to the end.”

Regardless of the successes, it’s no comparison to being in government.

“It ain’t easy being in government, but it sure beats the hell out of being in opposition,” he said.

“You can be a good local member in opposition but to make a real difference in the big picture, you’ve got to be in government.”

He is, naturally, proud of the Coalition’s past four years and won’t be any heed to the standard criticisms that have been launched against it, particularly accusations of running a “dysfunctional government” and its handling of rogue MP Geoff Shaw.

“We put through a budget the Labor Party didn’t ask one question on,” he said.

“Labor passed 330 pieces of legislation … we passed 325 or thereabouts. Next question.”

The antics of Question Time, the “10 per cent of Parliament the public sees”, he agreed had been “disgraceful” at times, and the tone of debate as portrayed in the media was something he thought was “not all that nice”, but “it’s like footy — there’s always someone who doesn’t go by the rules”.

“There was turmoil, yes, but in the overall scheme of things we got on with governing and delivering,” he declared.

But have the Nationals done all they can as a party? Amid criticism the Nats have forgotten their roots and let themselves be overrun by a city-centric Liberal Party, Dr Sykes is typically blunt: “Pig’s bottom.”

“The critical thing is we have to be in government to make a difference,” he said.

“We had to forego some of our dreams in the first term because the money wasn’t there, but we delivered with the ($1 billion) Regional Growth Fund in bucket loads.

“There’s a difference between what do we still need and what can we realistically deliver.”

ON the pinboard in his office are two messages that perhaps reveal more about Dr Sykes’ character than anything else. 

“Strive for perfection. Be satisfied with nothing less than excellence. Reject mediocrity,” reads one. “You can give nothing but your best, but the best you can give can be better”, the other.

That is the attitude his successors — in four different electorates — will be living up to.

The Kiewa Valley, Mt Beauty and Falls Creek are now part of Benambra, while the Ovens and King Valleys and Bright and Myrtleford are part of Ovens Valley — each widely tipped to fall to the sitting Coalition MPs Bill Tilley and Tim McCurdy.

Those redistributions, Dr Sykes said, made sense. But the carve-up of the lower half of the Benalla electorate into Eildon and Euroa less so.

“I think they (the electoral boundary commission) got it wrong,” he said. “But one of the things you learn in politics is the man in white is always right, even when he’s wrong … so you live with it.”

Part of that has been campaigning madly for Euroa candidate Steph Ryan, whose youth is exactly what he wants to see in the future of the Nationals.

She’s facing a tough battle today against Liberal candidate Tony Schneider.

Dr Sykes has made no secret of the fact he disagrees with the Liberals’ decision to run in the seat, which the Nationals had claimed as their own, but as ever, is diplomatic.

“It was disappointing, we have a Coalition agreement,” he said.

“The most important thing is to be in government … there’s always tensions in all relationships, but the thing is you have mutual respect. The Libs have done wrong on this one but we’ll deal with that.”

HOME for Dr Sykes will remain Benalla, on the 250-acre cattle farm where he lives with his wife Sally and their two dogs. There will be more time for visiting their three children and five grandchildren, and catching up with friends put “on hold” for the past 12 years.

There will be travel, a passion that reminds him how great a place North East Victoria is to call home.

“Personally I went from an honourable profession, to what is deemed to be a dishonourable profession … and I’m the same person,” he said.