Mr Drum announced his retirement from politics last year, having won the first election of the Nicholls electorate when it was created, replacing the former Murray electorate, at the 2019 election.
Nicholls was named in honour of Sir Douglas and Lady Gladys Nicholls, in recognition of their contributions to the advocacy of Aboriginal rights.
The electorate spreads as far as Broadford and Seymour in the south, to Cobram and Echuca along the Murray River in the north, and includes Numurkah, Shepparton, Kyabram, Rochester and Rushworth.
An announcement on a federal election date is not expected until April, with most political pundits predicting a May election.
Sam Birrell from Shepparton will represent the National Party at the poll, while Cobram’s Steve Brooks is the Liberal candidate; Rob Priestly will stand as an independent.
Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell from One Nation and Greens candidate Nickee Freeman will again contest the election. There is also a United Australia Party (formerly Clive Palmer’s UAP) candidate in Seymour Doctor Rob Peterson.
Prior to the 2019 election the seat was notionally held by the National Party with a 22 per cent margin.
There were eight candidates at the 2019 election, two of them will be representing their parties again in 2022.
One Nation’s Ms Tyrrell picked up 11.29 per cent of the vote at the last poll, while Ms Freeman took 4.21 per cent of the vote.
There was a 102,971 turnout at the election, which was dominated by Damian Drum with 51.27 per cent of the vote. He finished well clear of Labor’s Bill Lodwick with 19.41 per cent.
There were three independent candidates at the 2019 election and it is expected that Mr Priestly will be joined by another candidate, at least, prior to the closing of nominations.
Mr Priestly, a City of Greater Shepparton councillor and well known Shepparton-Mooroopna businessman, was very early out of the blocks with his nomination.
Mr Birrell, who also has a strong connection to local government and the Shepparton business community in his former role as Committee for Greater Shepparton chief executive, will have the backing of Mr Drum through his campaign.
Mr Brooks has a strong connection to not only Shepparton, where he was educated, but also to the Cobram community where the Brooks family is a major player in the district.
Dr Peterson spoke to The Riv last week and has raised several concerns in regard to mandates, in keeping with the United Australia Party’s freedom of choice policy.
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