Nats must regain respect in Orange: Joyce

Barnaby Joyce has commended NSW Nationals leader Troy Grant and his deputy Adrian Piccoli for quitting after the party's humiliating result at the Orange by-election.

Mr Joyce said the by-election outcome was "without a shadow of doubt" bad for the Nationals, singling out the abandoned greyhound racing ban and council mergers as two key issues which hurt the party most.

"It was a bad result and basically two have paid with it for their jobs. That's what happens," the deputy prime minister and Nationals leader told the ABC's Q&A program on Monday night.

The Shooters Fishers and Farmers party are well within range of winning the seat held by the Nationals for almost 70 years with just 204 votes to be counted.

The Nationals must recalibrate and regain people's respect after the Orange result, Mr Joyce said.