While the Victorian Liberals were stealing headlines with their surprise leadership switch, the NSW Nationals also changed their leader.

This time there was no surprise factional coup.

Dugald Saunders resigned his position as leader on Monday citing personal reasons, seemingly out of nowhere.

‘It’s a difficult decision but it is the right time for me to take a step back and focus more on my family and myself. It’s also the right time to allow a new leader to take up the fight of the next election. I will continue to serve the people of the Dubbo electorate as their local member.’

His party members were caught off guard, describing it as ‘very sudden’ although, if we are honest, the whole thing was not particularly dramatic for the general public.

NSW conservative politics is in such a dire state that most would struggle to name the leader even if given a multiple-choice sheet.

Conservatives have a branding problem. Mark Speakman might be the opposition leader, for example, but you could walk down George Street and be hard-pressed to find a handful of people who recognise him. This is the fault of their failure to … oppose.

There is a bit too much head-nodding from the NSW Liberals.

That is not to say that Saunders wasn’t a generally good leader of the Nationals attempting to deliver for regional areas while grappling with the disagreement from the state Liberal Party on Net Zero, only that politics is a different game now. If you are not owning social media, you are not talking to more than half of the electorate who are under 40.

Everyone is hoping Gurmesh Singh will step up and do better online.

The Member for Coffs Harbour seemed to be a natural fit for the leadership and was elected unchallenged. It was his time, he was keen, and here we are.

He is joined by Kevin Anderson as his deputy.

Singh said of his new role:

‘Our team will continue to represent regional NSW to the very best of our abilities. I thank Dugald Saunders for his leadership and guidance over the past two and half years. The wellbeing of regional communities is at the heart of everything we do, and I thank my party room colleagues for affording me the opportunity to continue the great work of the Nationals across NSW.’

Singh appears to be well-liked and perfectly capable of leading. He also has a long family history in the farming community with his family residing in Australia for 120 years.

He is stable, likeable, and grounded.

It was also encouraging to see him outright reject the cheap identity politics that fascinates the media but annoys Australians.

When asked if he should be defined as ‘the first Indian Sikh leader of a major political party’ (in the same way they like to talk about Sussan Ley as the first female Liberal leader), Singh replied, ‘I don’t think I am defined as that, I’ve never seen myself as anything but Aussie. I am not embarrassed or ashamed by the label by any stretch, but it’s not the way I see myself. The Nationals have had a pretty proud record of electing leaders from diverse ethnic backgrounds. I’ll carry that torch on.’

Thank goodness for that. A sensible leader and a civilised transfer of power.