NSW Liberals, gun lobby preference anti-vax minor party

The Liberal Democrats, whose candidates include climate deniers and anti-vaccine activists, are being preferenced by the NSW Liberal Party and a national shooting lobby group disillusioned with the Shooters party.

Ahead of the state election on March 25, gun lobby group National Shooting Council has told NSW's 280,000 licensed gun owners the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party was "not worth supporting under its current management".

It also said the party - which is running candidates for spots in the lower and upper houses of parliament - had become a close ally of NSW Labor.

"They've broadened their focus to other issues to fight with the Nationals in country seats but that's not the fight we're in," NSC president Neil Jenkins told AAP on Wednesday.

"If we put gun laws to one side, the big issue is the government's attitude and cultural approach towards shooters - we need to be involved in more meaningful policy discussions."

Shooters party leader Robert Borsak dismissed the lobby group as "two blokes and a computer" and a disaffected mob operating out of Melbourne.

"They got the s***s when we won a seat in Victorian parliament and they didn't," he told AAP.

"They make a lot of noise on Facebook but they know very well there is only one party that represents shooters, fishers and farmers and that's us."

While Labor has preferenced a Shooters candidate ahead of the Nationals in the rural seat of Barwon, Mr Borsack said the party hadn't discussed preferences with the opposition.

"We're only telling people to vote one for us, except in Murray where we're also preferencing the Nationals candidate because disloyalty should not rewarded," he said.

The regional seat of Murray is held by Helen Dalton, who resigned from the Shooters a year ago.

Shadow treasurer Daniel Mookhey defended Labor's decision to preference the Shooters party, arguing it was necessary to prevent One Nation from gaining the balance of power in the upper house.

"We've had to make tough decisions to make sure that One Nation doesn't have a veto over important policies that we are going to this election seeking a mandate for," he told reporters.

Instead of the Shooters, the NSC told its members to vote for the Liberal Democrats, whose NSW president Ross Cameron was sacked from Sky News for racist comments about Chinese people.

The coalition has preferenced the Liberal Democrats at No. 2 on the ticket for the upper house.

Leading the small government party's upper house ticket is John Ruddick, a former Liberal Party member who railed against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and has denied the science behind climate change.

Other Liberal Democrat candidates include anti-same-sex marriage activist Millie Fontana and anti-vaccine personality John Larter.

A Liberal Party spokesman did not specifically address the decision to back the Liberal Democrats but said preferences were a matter for individual voters.