Ms Berejiklian has put her hand up for the Liberal leadership next Monday, following premier Mike Baird’s shock resignation on Thursday.

Her only viable competitors for the top job, transport minister Andrew Constance and planning minister Rob Stokes, have ruled themselves out of the running.

In the likely event she is installed, Ms Berejiklian will become the first female Liberal premier of any state.

Ms Berejiklian visited Wagga in August as the state’s treasurer, to hand over $8.3 million for Bomen roadworks as part of the freight hub project tipped to transform the city’s industrial future.

Mr Maguire said Ms Berijiklian was a key reason the state has zero net debt, the unemployment rate is the lowest in Australia and surpluses are forecast for the next four years. 

Mr Maguire claimed he had been lobbying Ms Berejiklian hard to fund a new Conservatorium of Music in recent days. 

“As treasurer, she and Mike Baird allocated funding to finish the levee bank upgrade, the Riverina Intermodal Freight and Logistics hub and Eunony Bridge,” he said.

“Not to mention we’re still to receive a couple hundred million to finish off the new hospital.

“She’s no stranger to regional NSW and I’ve already issued her an invitation come back to Wagga.”

But former Liberal Wagga MP Joe Schipp, who served between 1975 and 1999, said “the jury’s out”.

“She obviously has it in the bag and we'll have to wait and see whether she can handle the job,” he said.

“Everyone was taken by surprise when Baird resigned, even though the star had lost its shine. 

“But I’m surprised there's no one else in the wings to make it a contest; it’s been tied up after a lot of backroom counting.”

Mr Schipp noted the NSW Nationals “had escaped the finger of scorn” for forced mergers, despite a Nationals MP “devising the legislation”.