The federal government will take some heart from the Coalition's win in the NSW election on Saturday, but there are also alarm bells - particularly for the Nationals.
For both the winners and the losers there are vital lessons about what's on the minds of voters and campaign tactics to be learnt ahead of the May federal election.
"It’s clear that leadership and character of leadership was an issue that certainly the Coalition focused on," Assistant Vice-Chancellor at Western Sydney University Dr Andy Marks told SBS News on Monday.
But Dr Marks points out that the NSW Coalition's narrow victory margin, despite an $80 billion infrastructure budget and a relatively stable economy will not be reassuring for the federal party.
The biggest problem for the Liberals is the poor performance of its Coalition partners, the Nationals.
