Bathurst MP Paul Toole says it's an honour and privilege to be retained as NSW Nationals leader

And he says it's "good for democracy for people to be able to vote for who they would like to see as leader" after he was challenged for the NSW Nationals' top job when the party met on Wednesday morning.

"It's an honour and a privilege to be given the support by National Party colleagues to continue in this role," Mr Toole said after a challenge for the leadership from Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Wednesday afternoon that the final result was eight votes for Mr Toole, seven for Mr Saunders and one informal vote.

Bronnie Taylor was re-elected as deputy leader and Sarah Mitchell as leader of the NSW Nationals in the Upper House after they both also faced challenges.

"At the end of the day, our party convention is that, after every election, all positions are made vacant," Mr Toole said.

"Then it's up to the party room to fill those positions."

The Bathurst MP, who has just started a fourth consecutive term, said the Nationals performed "extremely well" at last month's election.

"It's looking like around about a six per cent swing towards Labor and the NSW Nationals are only looking at a 0.9 per cent swing against them," he said.

"In seven of our seats, we increased our margin."

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He said it was disappointing to lose the one seat, Monaro, and said it was always going to be a difficult ask, as a 12-year government, to win back the three Shooters, Fishers (and now independent) seats of Barwon, Murray and Orange.

"It's always tough, when you are in government and going for a fourth term, to win seats back," he said.

In terms of his priorities for this next term, Mr Toole said they included working with a united team; making sure that the Nationals members were getting out into their communities to talk about the things that matter to residents so the right future policies can be put in place; and "holding a city-centric government to account and reminding them that regional NSW deserves a fair share of investment".

He said it was anybody's right to challenge for the leadership positions in the party given the convention to make those positions vacant and that was part of the strength of the National Party.

And after a busy end to the election campaign, when he travelled to all corners of the state to campaign with Nationals candidates, Mr Toole said he hadn't thought about stepping back and taking a break from the leadership.

He said "experience and knowledge" would be critical in the NSW Nationals leadership as the party made the transition to opposition and he was someone who had sat around the cabinet table.

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