Roy Butler to stand as independent, resigns from Shooters Party

State Member for Barwon Roy Butler has announced his resignation from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party following a fallout in relation to the behaviour of the party’s leader.

Mr Butler will stand as an independent candidate at the state election next year.

Phil Donato, the Member for Orange, also resigned from the party.

Their departures follow a comment made in the NSW Legislative Council by Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party leader Robert Borsak who said former party member Helen Dalton, the Member for Murray, should have been “clocked”.

The comment was made during a vote on floodplain harvesting at a sitting of the Upper House.

Both MPs met with Mr Borsak privately and asked for him to resign following the comment.

Mrs Dalton, who sits in the Lower House, was in the Legislative Council listening to the debate. One Nation’s Mark Latham made repeated calls for Dalton to speak, however, as a Lower House member, she is unable to address the Upper House.

Mr Borsak can be overheard in the parliamentary broadcast of the Upper House saying that “Rath’s [Liberal Upper House member Chris Rath] too soft … he should’ve got up and clocked her [Helen Dalton]”.

Outraged by the comment, Mr Butler and Mr Donato attempted to change the party executive at its annual general meeting in Singleton at the weekend, however, they were unsuccessful.

“Both Phil and I are men of integrity. We could not let Robert’s remarks stand without some acknowledgement that he was wrong, nor could we allow him to continue to damage the electoral chances of the party. We tried to fix the problems within the party, but unfortunately, that has not been possible,” Mr Butler said on Monday.

Mr Butler said that he has always operated a bit like an independent in Parliament, so not much will change in that respect.