National Party is floundering and the bush is suffering

With the Liberals in disarray and the Nationals floundering, we might as well hand Bill Shorten the keys to the Lodge, writes PETER GLEESON

THE once great National Party is dying and the people of the bush are the big losers. The problem is that the likes of Pauline Hanson, Clive Palmer and Bob Katter promise false hope, telling the bush that they alone are their saviour who will deliver on better outcomes.

Joh Bjelke Petersen led the Queensland Nationals strongly for decades.

Federal National Party leader 1971-84 and deputy prime minister much of that time, Doug Anthony was a great defender of rural Australia.

The reality is that these minor parties promise the world and deliver an atlas. They simply can’t influence decision-making on the level required to change the narrative.

They can talk about dams, drought-relief and providing assistance to keep farmers and graziers afloat, but it’s the National Party that is in government that ultimately delivers for the man on the land. And therein lies the problem.

The Nats are buggered. They are fast becoming a spent force because of a lack of leadership, and in some instances, backbone.

Let’s take the Mike Baird greyhound ban in NSW in 2016 as an example. Everybody in regional NSW except then Nationals leader Troy Grant knew that a ban would decimate scores of local communities.

Not only that, it struck at the heart of why the National Party exists – to denounce and fight against animal liberationists who want to poke their noses into their businesses.

Yet Grant rolled over and voted with the Greens.

Baird went from the most popular premier in the country to the least favoured. National Party members abandoned the party in droves.

Ian Sinclair was leader of the National Party 1984-89.

Ron Boswell represented the Nationals as a Queensland senator 1983-2014 and led the party in the senate from 1990-2007. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

The greyhound ban and subsequent backflip played a key role in Baird leaving politics. A strong NSW National Party would have cut the dog ban off before it got to first base.

The Nationals are asleep at the wheel. Where was the advocacy to stop the closure of scores of maternity units in rural and regional areas of Queensland?

Where were the Nationals when 300 rural bank branches closed in the past three years? Casterton in rural Victoria lost its remaining bank branch only last week.

One of the recommendations from the Royal Commission into banking should be that the “big four’’ banks have a moral and ethical responsibility to re-open branches closed in the bush.

With their obscene profits, it’s the least they could do to rebuild their reputations as good corporate citizens.

In the past you had the likes of Ron Boswell, Doug Anthony, Ian Sinclair, Tim Fischer and John Anderson in Canberra to thwart threats to rural Australia. They fought against right-wing splinter parties like Hanson cutting their grass.

Baroon Pocket Dam on the Sunshine Coast opened in 1989.

In Queensland, the Nationals under Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen were a force of nature.

The talent has dried up. They are a shadow of their former selves.

The Nationals’ best asset, Barnaby Joyce, is sidelined because he had a fling with a staffer.

The last dam built in Australia was 30 years ago. The bush is bleeding and when that happens, so too does Australia.

Agriculture is a $68 billion industry and it fuels and replenishes the livelihoods of local townsfolk.

The butcher, the baker, the chemist ... all local businesses rely on a buoyant farming industry. We need our country towns to be strong. We need them to be confident about the future of Australia.

Yet as the Liberal Party flounders, so too does its Coalition partner. Agriculture Minister David Littleproud is the Nationals’ best bet going forward.

Unfortunately, with the conservatives in disarray, the net result is that we might as well hand Bill Shorten the keys to the Lodge. The stark reality of a Shorten Government is not a pretty picture for the bush.