Contained within his answer was the line: "I think the Greens represent the most clear and most present danger to our regional communities."

It's strange that the member for the Riverina would so deliberately turn a question about One Nation into a seemingly gratuitous whack at the Greens.

Ideologically, the Greens and the Nationals could scarcely be further apart - these are not parties that are competing for swinging voters.

The response smacked of a party unsure of its footing in a political landscape which is proving more unsteady for them with each passing year.

Surely, if the state election taught the Coalition's junior partner's anything, it's that they have enough to worry about to their immediate right, without looking way over yonder to pick a needless fight.

Their biggest threat is obviously from its disenfranchised voters looking for right-wing alternatives, such as the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers and One Nation, or Independents who are not tethered to an ideology.

Orange's voters have proved that twice in the space of three years: once by electing SFF candidate Phil Donato at the 2016 byelection, and again last weekend by returning him to Macquarie Street with a drastically increased margin.

Whether or not a similar tale could play out in Andrew Gee's Calare electorate come the Federal election is, at this stage, unlikely, with his only rival - Labor's Jess Jennings - also based in the political mainstream to which so many voters are turning their backs.

As a party, the Nationals seem lost at the moment, trying to navigate an unstable middle ground on a number of complex, intertwined issues of great concern to their constituents.

The myriad challenges surrounding farming, mining, employment, climate, irrigation, infrastructure and immigration appear to be among those front-of-mind of voters.

The NSW Coalition has just survived losing seats that two or three years ago it would have pencilled in for the Nats. The federal Coalition would not want to cut it so fine.