The two branches will present a joint motion to the NSW Nationals annual State conference in Sydney on Saturday, June 14.

The motion seeks ‘that the NSW Nationals enter into negotiations with the Liberal Party of Australia with a view to merging the two parties’.

Given that the Nationals’ NSW parliamentary caucus and state executive are already on the record strongly opposing a merger, the proposal is unlikely to succeed.

In fact, a second motion to the conference calls on the Nationals to ‘totally reject any move to amalgamate with the Liberal Party of Australia’.

The motion comes from Inverell, Dubbo, Bathurst and Goonellabah branches.

Chairman of the New England Federal Electorate Council of The Nationals, Bryan Pape of Armidale, said the thrust of the Armidale/Guyra motion was that maintaining two separate political parties is a waste of money and human resources and a duplication of effort.

“There are economies of scale to be looked at and it comes down to exploring possibilities,” he said.

“In the Nationals pre-selection process, all members of the party are entitled to vote, but that’s not the case in the Liberal Party.

“So there are hurdles . . . the devil’s in the detail.

“But it’s like a chess game - sometimes, to start a winning move, you have to lose a few pieces,” he said.

As the agenda for the Nationals conference was being aired last week, the NSW Liberals were rocked by the joint resignation of the party’s president (Geoff Selig), vice-president (Rhondda Vanzella) and financial director (Robert Webster, a former Minister).

Meanwhile, the Queensland Nationals have already backed the merger proposal, as have Liberal and Nationals state MPs who believe it is their best way of defeating Labor.