FOR a now-independent federal member of a quiet country seat, Andrew Gee seems to pop up in wider political reporting surprisingly regularly.
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He was there again when a transcript was released of federal Nationals leader David Littleproud's post-referendum press conference in Canberra on Monday.
Asked about Calare's overwhelming vote against the Voice and whether Mr Gee (who left the party partly over its stance on the issue) would ever be welcomed back by the Nats, Mr Littleproud told the media that the Calare MP is "not in touch with his electorate", "doesn't understand his electorate" and would have "no right to come back".
We'll take that as a no, then.
Inquiring about whether Mr Gee would be welcomed back was an odd choice of question considering he has shown absolutely no desire to do so, but asking about the Calare result was probably inevitable considering the MP had tied himself so closely to the Voice referendum.
His advertising in this newspaper has, for many months, carried full pages explaining the ins and outs of the Voice and why voters need not be afraid of it.
He spoke and offered support at Voice events in Bathurst, attended the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land in August and has even offered some frank advice to the conservative side of politics about relying too heavily on a referendum defeat for their own electoral fortunes.
With Calare having comprehensively rejected the Voice, there will be some - particularly the Nats and their supporters - who will revel in Mr Gee having got the mood of his electorate so wrong for so long.
What will be interesting, though, will be to see whether he receives any political dividend for following through with something that obviously meant so much to him.
As an independent, will Mr Gee gather support from new quarters when he runs in the next election (as he is adamant that he will)?
Or will he face the worst of both worlds: abandoned by conservative voters and admired by progressives who will nonetheless vote for their more favoured Labor or Greens candidate?
Compared with Bathurst's more extroverted, talkative state MP, Paul Toole, Mr Gee has often appeared as a bit of a political man of mystery.
We might never know how he truly feels about the leap of faith he took last December - or the bracing dose of reality that was delivered less than a year later.