[3] In 1980 he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the National Country member for Riverina, based on Broken Hill.
At the Federal Election held in March 1983, despite defending a margin of only 0.5%, he retained the seat in the face of strong swings elsewhere to the eventual Hawke-Keating Labor Government.
Hicks overcame another notional Labor majority, as well as former Country Party Member John Sullivan—now representing the Liberal Party—to win it.
After declining a Liberal proposal to move to the Senate, Hicks opted to contest the new Riverina, now a safe National seat, despite some commentators' predictions that traditional Liberal voters in Wagga Wagga would hesitate to vote for a National from Griffith.
The couple were travelling to a school pageant at Condobolin when their vehicle struck a rough patch of road, before veering off into an embankment and colliding with a tree.