But the infighting between the Coalition partners is likely to do more damage than any campaign by the Labor party.

Voters who were already perturbed by the revelations which led to the resignation of Member for Wagga Daryl Maguire have been treated to some stage-worthy farce as the Liberals and the Nationals squabble about which party should field a candidate.

At the same time as the Coalition partners bickered, the Labor party has hit the ground running.

The party has named Dan Hayes as their candidate and already begun bringing in the party heavyweights to lend him some support.

Mr Hayes already has the advantage of being fairly well known to the community because of his role as a Wagga City Councillor, but now he is being given the luxury of setting the agenda for the byelection campaign.

Walt Secord, the opposition spokesman for health, told a media conference in Wagga this week that health and education were going to be big issues during the campaign.

That may or may not be the case, but since there was no Coalition candidate to contradict him, Mr Secord could have named any issue he liked.

Being forced to a byelection less than a year before the next full general state election – and particularly in circumstances where a long-serving MP is resigning under a cloud – is not going to dispose Wagga voters to think highly of politicians.

They are likely to be left even more disgruntled after being given front-row seats to several rounds of biffo between Coalition parties which are making little apparent effort to hid their ill will.

The damage has been done.

Even once a party – and the candidate – has been settled and the date for the byelection named, the impression of incompetence and self-interest may well linger.

The only real question is just how much of a lingering impression this massive own-goal will leave in the minds of voters as they trudge off to the polling booth.