A doctor was dumped as a state by-election candidate only three days after he was preselected – but no reason has been given.
Warwick Yonge, a GP, was disendorsed as the Nationals’ Port Macquarie by-election candidate on Wednesday night, following a meeting of the party’s central executive.
NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders had only announced Dr Yonge’s candidacy on Sunday afternoon at a hastily convened media conference in the mid-north coast town.
‘Warwick Yonge is recognised by the community as a champion for Port Macquarie, both now and into the future,’ Mr Saunders said on Sunday.
But Mr Saunders on Wednesday night issued a statement saying the Nationals had decided not to run him as their candidate for the March 15 by-election, sparked by the resignation of Liberal MP Leslie Williams, who had defected from the Nationals in 2020 over koala policy.
‘At a meeting of the NSW Nationals Central Executive tonight, Dr Warwick Yonge was not endorsed as the party’s candidate for the upcoming Port Macquarie by-election,’ he said.
‘We will continue to fight for their best interests and I will have more updates around a candidate in the coming days.’
Gurmesh Singh, the deputy leader of the NSW Nationals, declined to explain why Dr Yonge had been disendorsed but admitted they would have preferred more time to select a by-election candidate.
Warwick Yonge, a GP, was dumped as the Nationals’ Port Macquarie by-election candidate on Wednesday night, following a meeting of the party’s central executive
‘We obviously want to win the seat back but we’re not in control of many things like the timing and the timing is not ideal,’ he told Daily Mail Australia on Friday.
‘Ordinarily, you’d have months to find and vet candidates whereas in this instance, we’ve got weeks.’
But Mr Saunders on Friday said Dr Yonge would have had to deal with uncomfortable issues in the public domain if he was the candidate, but he declined to elaborate on issues the doctor had outlined in a statement.
‘There’s been a series of issues raised that I wasn’t comfortable with the candidate having to deal with in the public eye and I wasn’t comfortable with the party having to deal with from a political perspective,’ he said.
‘We’re all human beings – no one came here hoping something would go wrong; to try and suggest it’s embarrassing is ridiculous, quite frankly.
‘It is unfortunate is what it is.’
Dr Yonge on Sunday had touted his credentials as a doctor with 16 years’ experience practising in Port Macquarie who had also established a clinic in Nelson Bay.
‘I look forward to hopefully continuing to serve the community in a different capacity,’ he said.
Dr Yonge had joined the Nationals shortly before being preselected, and is an Aboriginal health and diabetes specialist with Port GPs.
NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders (centre) had only announced Dr Yonge’s (third right) candidacy on Sunday afternoon at a hastily convened media conference in the mid-north coast town
‘It’s my understanding that he’d been a party member for a short while,’ Mr Singh said.
At the 2023 election, the Liberal Party held Port Macquarie with 61 to 39 per cent of the two-party vote against the Nationals, who suffered a 31 per cent swing against them.
Labor is declining to run a by-election candidate and unusually, the Coalition parties are running candidates against each other, with the Liberal Party preselecting Laurieton United Services Club general manager Robert Dwyer.
Dr Yonge on Sunday had suggested the Nationals would have run a negative campaign highlighting the contrast between him as a doctor and his Liberal opponent who ran a club that relied on poker machine revenue.
‘I definitely think a GP would make a bigger contribution than someone who runs an organisation that relies on poker machines,’ he said.
Former Port Macquarie mayor Peta Pinson unsuccessfully ran as a Nationals state election candidate in 2023 soon after joining the party.
But Mr Singh said she would be unlikely to be running at the upcoming by-election.
‘I don’t believe so,’ he said.
The state seat of Port Macquarie overlaps with the federal Nationals electorates of Lyne and Cowper.
Mr Saunders on Wednesday night issued a statement saying the Nationals had decided not to run Dr Yonge as their candidate for the March 15 by-election
But Mr Saunders downplayed a suggestion a contest with the Liberal Party in Port Macquarie would divert party resources from the federal contest, as electorate officer Alison Penfold tries to retain the seat of Lyne for the Nationals as a first-time candidate.
‘It won’t be diverting any of our resources – in fact, it will be boosting our resources here in Port Macquarie,’ he said on Sunday.
Mr Saunders said the Nationals had a ‘proud history’ of representing Port Macquarie but neglected to mention former state member Rob Oakeshott quit the party in 2002 to sit as a left-wing independent while Ms Williams defected to the Liberal Party in 2020 because of a disagreement over logging and koalas.
Ms Williams had previously held Port Macquarie as a Nationals MP since 2011, and is a cousin of former South Australian Liberal deputy premier Vickie Chapman.
‘The Nationals has a long, proud history in the region, representing the people of the electorate since its inception in 1988,’ Mr Saunders said on Wednesday night.
MPs who had defected from the Nationals had held the seat for 14 of those 37 years.
The Nationals haven’t won a seat off the Liberal Party since the 1999 state election when the Coalition parties fought over the southern NSW seat of Burrinjuck.
The Nationals lost the federal seat of Farrer to Liberal candidate Sussan Ley in 2001, following the retirement of former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer.
The Coalition parties also fought against each other in 2019 in the federal NSW south coast seat of Gilmore, which Labor won after the Liberals parachuted in Sydney-based former ALP president Warren Mundine.
