THE next federal election will be one of the most important the National Party has ever faced.
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And the seat of Indi will be the litmus test for how fair dinkum the party is about truly being the party that represents regional Australia.
And if it doesn’t stand a high profile candidate that has a genuine chance to win the seat then the electorate is entitled to feel a little deal has been done with its senior coalition partner to give the Liberal Party’s candidate, Sophie Mirabella, a clear run at the seat.
And Sir John “Black Jack” McEwen, born at Chiltern and a former leader of the party, will turn in his grave.
“Black Jack” would never bow and scrape to the Liberals – in fact he actually picked the Australian Prime Minister on the death of Harold Holt because he refused to serve under the Liberal’s pick, Billy McMahon.
And he would have been disgusted at his party’s decision not to stand a candidate in the seat of Hume, upon the retirement of the late Alby Schultz, at the last federal election.
Especially when the Liberals not only rebuffed Tony Abbott who asked the party not to stand a candidate in the seat of Mallee in the same election but also had a red hot dip at it.
I just can’t understand the attitude of the Nationals sometimes when it comes to not upsetting their coalition partner.
On what planet did the federal government, and the NSW government for that matter, think it would be all right to sanction the proposed Shenhua Watermark coal mine on the rich agricultural land of the NSW Liverpool Plains.
You would have to think the former member for New England Tony Windsor was right when he said the continued approval of the mine was done solely to appease the Chinese interests in the mine.
In fact, one might be tempted to think that the free trade agreements organised by the federal government have come at too great a cost, with it looking horribly like the Australian car industry was sold down the drain to bolster the chances of the FTAs being signed.
At least the federal Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce has had to the intestinal and testicular fortitude to speak out against the mine – at least it seems he was genuine and not expressing mock indignation for the purpose of appeasing his electorate.
Of course, it all comes down to the fact that metropolitan politicians and the the metropolitan media have not yet got it through their thick skulls that agriculture will play a huge part in Australia’s future.
When the people of Asia are starving they are not going to want to eat bits of red rock.
They will line up to consume Australia’s clean, green produce.
In last week’s The Land the NSW Nationals leader Troy Grant was quoted as saying: “Potential impacts to land and water, which have been raised with me on the ground as concerns, have cleared every independent and scientific assessment to date, including strengthened scientific water modelling called for by the NSW Nationals”.
And, yeah, the Titanic was unsinkable.
The Land also quoted Prime Minister Tony Abbott at the launch of the Ag White Paper as saying: “Prime agricultural land is just about this country’s greatest natural asset and it can never, ever be compromised.
The definition of the word compromised has obviously changed since I last looked at a dictionary.
Regional Australia needs some heroes so Tim Fischer where are you now that we need you?
