WHILE the NSW Nationals Party has booted Paul Toole from the top job, he still has a lot of support in his home town of Bathurst.
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A long-time Toole supporter and member of the Nationals, Irene Hancock, said she believes he should have remained the leader.
"You couldn't have a stronger leader for the Nationals and for the people of the rural area than Paul," she said.
Mr Toole lost his job as the NSW Nationals leader on Monday, May 8 following a party room meeting.
Reports had been swirling earlier in the day that Nationals MPs were planning to ask him to step aside and, if he didn't, a leadership spill was likely to follow.
It all spurred from accusations that Mr Toole lied to the party over a plum parliamentary job for Nationals MP Ben Franklin.
Mr Franklin has said Mr Toole knew about his intention to nominate for president of the upper house and had supported the move.
However, this is contrary to Mr Toole's own comments about this situation, telling metropolitan media last week that Mr Franklin "should not be accepting the position of president of the upper house".
Ms Hancock, who first met Mr Toole while he was still mayor of Bathurst, said she isn't convinced he would have lied.
"I'm sorry, I don't believe he would lie," she said.
She later said that Mr Franklin "did the wrong thing" in making plans to nominate for president of the upper house, a move that would give Labor an effective majority.
"He's either going to be a National or not," she said.
"He might be a personal friend of Mr Minns (NSW Premier and Labor leader), but that's no reason to abandon your political loyalties. I think it was a big mistake him doing that, but that's his thing to deal with."
She was understandably disappointed to find out Mr Toole lost his leadership position on Monday afternoon.
"I'm very upset for Paul, disappointed, because he really is an excellent leader," she said.
"... I'm hoping in the not too distant future that he challenges again and ends up back where he was.
"Still, it will give him time to focus on the local issues, which he very rarely misses out on anyway, but it'd be good to give him a bit of breathing space."
Despite losing his position as leader of the NSW Nationals, Ms Hancock believes he will remain popular in the Bathurst electorate.
"He is popular and the reason he is popular is because he works at what he does," she said.
"He really, really genuinely believes in the people in the regions, because he doesn't feel they ever get a fair go, so I doubt if he would lose his popularity at all."
Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders has replaced Mr Toole as leader of the NSW Nationals.
Mr Saunders became the Member for Dubbo in March, 2019.
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Rachel Chamberlain
I have been a journalist at the Western Advocate since 2014.
I have been a journalist at the Western Advocate since 2014.
