We expect our politicians to deliver for us job security, quality education for our children, affordable health care, reliable energy and a secure border.

Everything else, including the private life of others, is a distant second in the minds of people living in the North East and on the Border.  

Just last month power prices increased an average of 9.5 per cent whilst wage growth has only increased by two per cent since 2016.

The craziness that is the push for 100 per cent renewable/unreliable energy and the gross amounts of taxpayers’ money it receives should be the headline news.

Renewables do have their place in 2018 Australia but not at the scandalous amounts of money it costs you and I, and only when they are 100 per cent reliable, which they are not. 

We live in one of the world’s most resource-rich continents.

We have available reserves of coal and gas ready to use and yet our leaders, who actually want to utilise these resources to help this nation, are continuously blocked by those on the left who are driven by an ideologue that has its roots in the dark ages.

With over one thousand coal-fired power plants being built around the world utilising HELE technology, most fuelled by Australian coal, it is time for the same to happen here. 

Mum and dad small businesses must be given the freedom to create more jobs, build a better lifestyle and provide for their children.

They need to be able to do this without being hindered by those who, frankly, have no idea. 

I experienced this within my own business just last week where we had a ‘Brown-Out’.

This ‘Brown-Out’ caused our plant to be non-operational for five hours. 

Predictions are that incidents such as this are to be expected on a more regular and frequent basis. 

How then can small business guarantee continuation of production and ongoing employment in this environment? 

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to running a small business in North East Victoria in 2018.

But the iceberg is growing and the solutions are being ignored.

Australians are struggling, while in reality, we should all be enjoying the luxury and great benefits of living in a resource-rich country.

There are 17,880 small and medium businesses in the electorate of Indi.

These small businesses need the security of a reliable power supply, coupled with the highly successful rollout of the Mobile Black Spot Program, to ensure their viability and future.

Workers employed by these businesses need to know that each day they won’t be sent home from work due to a lack of energy supply.

Frequently, it looks as though that a select few of the people that we elect to be in charge of job creation, power prices, health care and other infrastructure projects, that encourage and support decentralisation, are oblivious to the real day-to-day struggles facing the Border community and Australia as a whole. 

Marty Corboy ran as the Nationals candidate in Indi and runs a small business