Former federal Labor leader Mark Latham looks set to secure a seat for One Nation in the NSW upper house, marking his return to public office after 14 years on the political sidelines.
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Minor parties including the Greens and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers polled strongly in early election results as Premier Gladys Berejiklian returned to power with a possible majority in parliament.
With only a small percentage of upper house votes counted on Saturday, Pauline Hanson's One Nation is on track to secure one seat in the Upper House, which will go to Mr Latham.
Mr Latham, the foremer Werriwa MP, has led the revival of One Nation party, which could see it become a powerful force in NSW politics for the first time in two decades.
"We only ran in 12 lower house seats so I'm keen to see what happens in the Legislative Council," Mr Latham said on Channel Seven.
"At the moment we are tracking towards two [Upper House seats] and when the metropolitan numbers are counted in the Legislative Council they are pretty encouraging."
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers retained the seat of Orange in central-western NSW and likely gained the regional seat of Murray in the state's south-west.
The party was ahead in NSW's largest electorate of Barwon, with a hefty swing against the Nationals, but results remain too close to call.
Early results suggested the Shooters could secure a historic three seats in the lower house - the same number of seats previously held by both the Greens and independents.
The Greens looked set to retain three lower house seats -- Newtown, Balmain and Ballina.
Sitting Orange MP Phil Donato retained the seat with a 37 per cent swing to the Shooters.
"To get this result tonight, I'm so happy," he said.
The party had hoped to repeat the success of the Orange byelection in 2016.
Mr Donato took the seat, the party's first in the lower house, with a 32 per cent swing away from the Nationals, albeit by just 50 votes.
He said on Saturday that the "people in the bush have had a gutful" and had grown disillusioned with the Nationals.
"They felt that the National party had let them down over many years, I think that's a void we've been able to fill, and able to fill quite successfully.
"There was never any real alternative for generations, and now there is."
With 16 per cent of the votes counted in Barwon, Shooters candidate Ron Butler had secured 28 per cent of first preference votes, behind the Nationals' Andrew Schier on 40.9 per cent.
The party was ahead in Murray with 36 per cent of votes counted. Candidate Helen Dalton had won 40 per cent of the first preference vote, with the sitting Nationals' MP Austin Evans on 33.5 per cent.
NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro told the ABC that five retiring Nationals MPs had created a string of vulnerable seats and the Murray Darling Basin's woes had frustrated voters.
"The locals know this hasn't occurred overnight," Mr Barilaro said. "It's occurred over a long period of time.
"When people feel anxious in the regions, they'll look at their vote going elsewhere.
Mr Barilaro said the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers had "been out there as an alternate voice".
"They're trying to word that vote. I'm not sure if we've done enough to hold it, but I'm still confident that we went into today and we can hold all our seats."
In inner Sydney, Newtown Greens MP Jenny Leong looked set to retain her seat after securing 49.5 per cent of the vote with 38 per cent of ballots counted.
