To that collection of new and familiar faces was added our own 32-year-old state Member for Northern Tablelands, Adam Marshall.

Since his relocation from the Namoi Valley, where he served as mayor in Gunnedah and cut his political baby teeth, the Mr Marshall has proved himself to be an everywhere-man.

While he has been in office, he inherited a broader swath of electorate when the boundaries changed, with more cropping land on the doorstep of this very changeable landscape we call the New England North West, and he kept turning up.

He has been a Nationals representative in the fact it is in our rural and remote communities where you will find him, his frustratingly youthful grin, a little like the Where’s Waldo of NSW politics. Because, he seems to be about everywhere.

You might find him causally strolling across a paddock with a cattle producer. He might be ducking out from the canteen at the Moree races. There he is on the floor with a roomful of preschool children, seemingly as rapt in the story they, or taking a selfie with a crowd of high schoolers.

There he is on country dais with a few CWA women, or standing up to recognise a local quiet achiever in state Parliament.

It cannot really be argued Adam Marshall has not demonstrated at least part of his heart is with the men, women and children who are rooted in this region.

Now there is a new job, and a new calling. New NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian saw fit to bestow two positions on Mr Marshall; as Minister for Tourism and Major Events, and Assistant Minister for Skills.

Mr Marshall will doubtless find himself with a few cold dinners as he travels the state in his new role - as he told one local journalist just recently, “I thought I knew what busy was, but this...” 

Before we judge him as a potential absentee representative as he starts his foray into the ministerial world, lets’s give him a chance, and also give him reason to remember his constituents, by dropping a line, picking up the phone, keep sending those invitations. Let’s keep giving him a reason to turn up, do our part, and give him a chance to do his.