Allegations of payback are swirling inside the federal Coalition after the Nationals recommended changes to electoral boundaries that would see NSW Liberal MP and rising star Angus Taylor almost certainly lose his seat.
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Mr Taylor is understood to be furious at the submission made to the Australian Electoral Commission which must decide by early next year which seat in NSW to abolish.
Due to population and other demographic factors, the number of federal electorates in NSW must fall from 48 to 47 at the next election, while Western Australia will pick up an extra seat, rising from 15 to 16.
The AEC received all its submissions this week and the Nationals propose abolishing the seat of Hunter, held by Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon. The submission argues further that a consequence of boundary changes caused by the abolition of Hunter would be Mr Taylor's rural seat of Hume, which sits south-west of Sydney, being pushed further south towards Canberra and incorporate such towns as Yass and Queanbeyan.
This would result in Hume effectively becoming a Labor seat while the adjacent bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro, held by the Liberals Peter Hendy, would go from a marginal seat to a semi-safe Liberal seat.
Mr Taylor took over the seat at the last election from long-serving Liberal MP Alby Schultz, a renowned "Nationals hater". He backed Mr Taylor as his replacement and enlisted Tony Abbott to crunch a deal which prevented the Nationals contesting the seat that they had long coveted.
Suspicious motives
The redistribution has been the subject of several gatherings between MPs in Canberra this week, with those in the breach sweating over who will lose out in the game of musical chairs. Mr Taylor is suspicious of the motives behind the proposals to change his boundaries.
Labor's submission argues for the abolition of the northern NSW seat of Paterson, held by the Liberal Bob Baldwin. It also calls for the abolition of its own western Sydney seat of Fowler but to replace it with a new seat called Whitlam.
The Liberals are also gunning for Mr Fitzgibbon by recommending Hunter be abolished, while the Greens want the Coalition-held mid-north coastal seat of Lyne abolished.
If Mr Abbott calls an early election later this year, before the redistribution is finished, the two adjacent electorates with the lowest voter enrolment would be merged into a single electorate and the members left to slug it out against each other.
Sources say these would most likely be the western rural seats of Riverina, held by The Nationals MP Michael McCormack, and Farrer, held by Liberal Health Minister Sussan Ley.
Originally published as NSW MPs slug it out in game of musical chairs by Financial Review.
