SPECULATION is rife that veteran NSW Liberal Senator, farm advocate and firebrand Bill Heffernan is likely to retire – or be forced to retire by ferocious factional infighting.
Mr Heffernan will be 74 when his six-year is up in 2017 and his recent battles with ill health will weigh on his mind.
Mr Heffernan has been coy about his plans; but party insiders say Senator Heffernan is most likely to be replaced by his former political staffer and long-serving Liberal rural executive representative and disability advocate Hollie Hughes, of Moree.
However, other candidates with dirt under their fingernails have been touted for the job.
NSW Farmers grains committee chairman Dan Cooper, a 37 years old mixed farmer from Caragabal in central-western NSW, has been urged to throw his hat into the ring for one of the top two winnable positions on the Senate ticket for the Liberals in NSW.
Another strong contender is NSW Farmers wool committee chairman and WoolProducers Australia senior vice president Ed Storey who operates a fourth-generation wool enterprise just outside of Yass.
Mr Storey is also president of the Yass Liberal branch and lost a competitive pre-selection battle against incumbent Hume MP Angus Taylor leading into the 2013 election.
Either farmer would sit comfortably on the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee that Senator Heffernan has co-chaired in recent times, covering agricultural levies, animal welfare, food labelling and, competition flaws.
Since entering the Senate in 1996, Senator Bill Heffernan remained a sheep and grain farmer at Junee while earning a reputation for tackling the big rural issues that other politicians shy away from, or fail to recognise.
His often brutal language and penchant for political stunts - like taking a pipe bomb into parliament to test security systems - has regularly landed him in hot water.
This week, he was forced to deny having called a parliamentary committee witness a “bloody wog” during a public hearing late last year, saying everyone knows he uses “much more explicit language than that”.
His life experiences and connections to the bush contrast politicians who have manipulated their way into power by “playing the game” inside the clandestine machinery of various political parties - but largely lack authentic real-world experience.
On behalf of farmers and rural folk, the value of first-hand knowledge must now be placed front and centre when the NSW Liberal preselectors gather in coming weeks to assess the credentials of Senator Heffernan’s potential replacement.
