IN THE wash-up of the federal election, it would appear Stuart Bonds has pulled off what no other One Nation candidate in the House of Representatives could achieve by becoming one of the two preferred candidates for the seat of Hunter.

The other candidate was the sitting member and now returned member for Hunter Labor's Dan Repacholi.

Mr Repacholi easily held the seat, achieving a four per cent swing based on first preferences.

However, one cannot ignore the continued success of Mr Bonds and One Nation in the electorate.

Commenting his Facebook page, Mr Bonds said, "It will be the first time in history that One Nation has achieved this two-candidate-preferred result at a federal level in NSW and the second time ever across the country.

He added that if Muswellbrook were still in the Hunter electorate, he would have expected it to be a more significant result for himself and the party.

Two-candidate preferred basis

The Australian Electoral Commission has the pair on a two-candidate-preferred (TCP) basis as Mr Repacholi with 59,000 votes and Mr Bonds with 41,000 votes.

Every other contest across the country for the House of Representatives had either Labor or a Coalition candidate against each other, or the Greens and an Independent as the two-candidate preferred outcome after preferences.

On first preference votes, Mr Bonds (17,999) was third behind Repacholi (48,539) and The Nationals Sue Gilroy (20,295), but he attracted strong support when it came to preferences.

Ms Gilroy placed him second on her how-to-vote card, but Mr Repacholi had him in ninth and last place.

This is Mr Bond's third federal contest, having gained national prominence in 2019 when he gained 21 per cent of first preferences (22,000 votes) giving the then sitting member, Labor's Joel Fitzgibbon, a significant scare and making the once safe seat marginal.

In 2019 there was a much closer gap between Mr Bonds in third place and the second-placed national candidate, Josh Angus.

Preferences from several smaller parties and the Nationals, no doubt, assisted in boosting his position on the TPC count this year.