For the Nationals, voters in the bush are clearly waiting with baseball bats | Katharine Murphy

While the Liberals may take some joy from the result in NSW, the poor showing for the Nationals is set to inflame Coalition divisions and leadership speculation

While the Liberals will emerge from the New South Wales state election feeling less despondent about their federal prospects in May than they felt before Saturday night, imagining a containment line in Scott Morrison's home state - the same can't be said of the Nationals.

The state jigsaw puzzle is a complex one, and still resolving, but it is clear the Liberals have managed to hold their ground in Sydney - doubtless helped by state Labor leader Michael Daley's indefensible observation that "foreigners", mainly Asians, were moving in and taking jobs from young Sydneysiders - a faceplant into deep stupid emblematic of what was by all accounts, a shocking final week for the Labor campaign.