FORMER Federation Council administrator Mike Eden has left the door open to stand as an independent in the seat of Albury being vacated by long-time member, Liberal Greg Aplin.
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The lawyer and rugby league identity has been touted as a potential starter since Mr Aplin announced his decision to retire in early August.
The Liberals are haemorrhaging from a defeat in the weekend byelection with independent Joe McGirr almost certain to win the seat.
Country Labor’s candidate Dan Hayes has conceded to the doctor and academic.
After taking a congratulatory call from Mr Hayes, Dr McGirr said he remained quietly optimistic of winning the poll, but that the optimism was growing.
Labor’s Harold Mair was the last non-Liberal to be the member for Albury.
Mr Eden said the Liberals had some soul-searching to do to avoid a repeat of the Wagga wipeout before the election next March.
“I hope the Liberals learn the lessons from the weekend Wagga byelection and don't go with a vanilla candidate,” he said.
“We need a strong, passionate and energetic person to stand as an independent and hopefully in the next month or so someone is going to put their hand up.
“Whether that is me or not who knows?”
The Nationals have ruled out re-visting the decision not to contest Albury in the wake of the huge swing against the Coalition candidate in Wagga, Julia Ham.
The NSW Liberal Party is due to announce Albury preselection contenders in coming days after closing off nominations.
Labor hasn’t named a candidate for the Albury election to date, but party official Darren Cameron said the Liberals had cause to be concerned.
“What we are seeing here is the result of the Titanic of the NSW Coalition government hitting the iceberg,” he said.
“What we can expect to see is more people fleeing the sinking ship just like Mr Aplin has done.
“What we’ve learnt from Wagga is there are no safe Coalition seats in NSW any more.”
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