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Rebekha Sharkie defeated Jamie Briggs to take the South Australian seat of Mayo.Credit:David Mariuz

Speaking with media in the town of Stirling in Mayo on Sunday morning Senator Xenophon said the party's decision would be based on an internal consensus and influenced by which party ended up with the most seats and was best able to address NXT concerns of job creation and gambling reform. He said the party would take a centrist view.

Ms Sharkie told Fairfax Media she was undaunted by the responsibility and that her experience to date would prove valuable.

Ms Sharkie was a paralegal in Darwin and South Australia after studying international relations and public policy at Flinders University. She went on to work in 2006 as researcher for the South Australian state Liberal member (and then Liberal leader) Isobel Redmond and then in 2008 she began working part-time for Mr Briggs as well.

It was during this period that she first joined the Liberal Party."In 2010 there was a lot of pressure on staff to become members because there had been a few leaks and there had been that question of loyalty.

Rebekha Sharkie with Nick Xenophon on Saturday night.Credit:James Elsby

"I was prepared to join,Isobel Redmond is a centrist and she was inspirational to work under.

"Her style of politics was quite different from that federal style."

Her experience working with Mr Briggs was less happy.

"Certainly,I didn't feel that Jamie and my personal values were aligned. There were things said that were misogynist in nature,"she has previously toldThe Australianof her time in Mr Briggs'staff. He responded that her claims were baseless and that she was an opportunist.

Ms Sharkie went on to leave the Liberal Party in 2012.

"I was no longer a staffer and I let my membership lapse,"she tells Fairfax Media."For me at that time it was not fitting in with my personal ideology.

"I think over that 2010-2012 period there was that growth of the far right of the party that did not sit with my idea of liberalism."

Looking back Ms Sharkie says her political awakening was in year 12 when she studied the Australian Democrats member Janine Haines,who became the first woman to lead an Australian political party.

"The love just never died,"she says recalling her time following Ms Haines'fight for the seat of Kingston.

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Federal election