90 Not Out: The Nationals 1920-2010 – Fiona Nash

Senator Fiona Nash was elected to the Senate for the National Party at the 2004 federal election – taking her seat in the Senate in July 2005. An active party organiser before entering politics, Fiona Nash is currenly Deputy Leader of the Nationals and her Senate committee work has covered a wide range of matters including immigration, industrial relations, communications and foreign affairs. On Thursday 15 July 2010, Fiona Nash addressed the Sydney Institute to  discuss the changes in focus for today’s National Party.

90 NOT OUT: THE NATIONALS 1920-2010

FIONA NASH

I’ve been asked to make a few comments this evening following on from Paul on the Nationals in the present day, and the Nationals in the future. It’s certainly an honour to be speaking here tonight after Paul Davey, someone that I’ve known for 15 years, who many years ago gave me some very wise advice about my future path in the Nationals.

I’ve been in the Senate now for five years, but my involvement with the party spans those 15 years that I have known Paul. During that time I’ve obviously considered the party’s history. I’ve been involved in the present over recent times, in my capacity as a Central Councillor and member of the State Executive, as a Ministerial staffer, and currently as a Member of Parliament. And I now look toward the future. It is interesting to note that some of the remarks that Paul has already made will align quite considerably with some of the remarks that I will make. And I can assure you that there was no collaboration.

The National Party of the present day is significantly different from the party of the past. The great contrast has been the move from being a rural based farmers’ party to a more regional based party. This has developed for a number of reasons. First is the changing demographic of rural Australia generally, with a population drift away from rural areas. That has been a significant factor. The increase in the mechanisation of farming over the decades, often referred to by John Anderson in the past, has resulted in a reduced labour force in rural areas, resulting in population decline. As a result of this, the proportion of rural people that we represent out of the total regional pool has declined. This has required the party to broaden its views over the years to encompass regional Australia more widely.

Secondly, the demographics within our electorates themselves have changed and continue to change. We are seeing the issue of sea change, tree change, urban sprawl and ageing contribute to an altered demographic within our electorates. This has required the party to accommodate and adjust. And not without difficulty for the party as the needs of those people currently residing within our electorates are incredibly diverse. We have some of the lowest socio-economic electorates. Indeed four of the five lowest socio-economic electorates are held by the Nationals.

Interestingly though, it is the issue of the divide between city and country that is the binding element across regional Australia. It is that which unites the people of regional Australia and gives rise to the need for the Nationals. No other party is wholly and solely focussed on regional Australia. The notion that regional Australia should get its fair share is one that is dominant in the development of policy for the Nationals, and pivotal for us in delivering outcomes for the region. Our claim that we are the only party not distracted by city interests is entirely valid.

Although regional communities are many and varied, regional issues everywhere are the same. As a New South Wales Senator, it doesn’t matter if I am in Tweed Heads, Broken Hill, Albury, or any regional community in between, those issues reoccur. Over the last three months, I’ve visited 40 towns across New South Wales. On the ground the messages are the same. Issues with health, infrastructure, education, water, telecommunications and the environment continually arise. Lack of service provision, the tyranny of distance, lack of critical mass to ensure sustainable communities, these are issues that continue to cause great concern in the regions. The overriding feeling in those communities is one of being neglected by both state and federal Labor governments. There is a feeling that the contribution our regional people make to this country is not recognised. Be they farmers, small business owners, teachers, or health workers, that feeling is the same. And this gives rise to the need for the Nationals.

The present day federal parliamentary team is incredibly diverse in makeup, reflecting our diverse electorates. Among the Nationals MPs we have an accountant, a paint brush salesman, a fisherman, a couple of small business people, a truck driver, a journalist and we throw in a few farmers as well. It really is reflective of those changing electorates that we are seeing out there in our communities.

The National Party is the only party that fully understands regional Australia. Others may disagree, and I’m sure they will, but our party never has to compromise its views in order to accommodate city interests. Never has that been more evident than during the debate on the emissions trading scheme. The Nationals, recognising that this was a great big new tax that was not going to make the slightest bit of difference to climate, and that it would cause the greatest hardship for the regions, fought against it from day one.

Under Warren Truss’ leadership, we were the only party that had a strong and clear position, and a position that we stuck to. The course of history was changed because of the Nationals. The Liberal Party has a new leader, and the ETS has been held at bay, so far. It is often a David and Goliath fight for us in Canberra. As Paul Davey has said, we have only nine House of Representatives members and five senators. Our size is disproportionate to the size of the outcomes we achieve.

Regional Australia needs the Nationals. It needs a third political force to ensure that the voice of the regions is heard. It needs the Nationals to ensure that political outcomes are not entirely determined by parties dominated by city interests. For the Nationals, regional Australia will always come first.

The question then arises as to why has the modern day National Party lost seats? Why are we fewer in number federally than we have been in the past? I see much of the difficulty for the party has arisen by the adjustments we have had to make to those changing demographics I mentioned earlier. It is a much simpler task to represent a narrow entity such as farmers, it becomes a much more difficult task to broadly represent the diverse interests of the regions.

So what of the future for the Nationals? I believe that a successful future for the Party requires us to be bold. It requires us to be strong. It requires us to adhere unfailingly to those principles in which we believe, principles that will ensure a sustainable future for regional Australia. Times are changing, and we must be prepared to change with the times. The challenge the twenty-first century National Party faces is to re-establish itself as the natural representative of rural and regional Australia.

We’re confident we can do a good job of this but there will be no silver bullet, or as somebody once referred to it as, there will only be silver buckshot. It will require us to be bold, to think outside the square, to combine the solid traditions of the past with a fresh view to the future. Take, for example, the Western Australia Royalties for Regions program, which rejuvenated the Nationals’ vote in that state. The expectation for the Nationals in Western Australia was that they would be reduced to one seat after the last state election. They now have ten seats. The Western Australia Nationals reminded people during the campaign that there was a genuine prospect of a non-urban voice in Western Australia, and that the people’s voice could be heard through the Nationals. It took courage, it took vision and it worked.

The future requires us to emphasise the commonality of our tradition, that living outside a major centre presents a common challenge to attract the focus of government, whether you’re in a retirement village in Kempsie, or on a property outside Wellington, and that the need for an authentically, genuinely competitive market is the same for all business people, whether you’re running an IGA on the Tweed, or a horticultural farm in the Riverina. The future requires us to have courage.

There is no doubt, that whatever people’s view of him is, Barnaby Joyce has raised the profile of the Nationals as the party giving those regional people a voice. This is because of his courageous and straight talking approach to regional issues. Take also, as an example of the Party’s courage, the recent community pre-selection in Tamworth; a bold approach that resulted in success. I congratulate State Chairman Christine Ferguson and State Director Ben Franklin and all the team involved in that success. It gave the people of Tamworth a voice.

The people of Tamworth responded to the Nationals’ vision to try change and to give the people of that community an opportunity to have their say. And they took that opportunity, some 4,293 people turning out to vote on a cold and miserable day to have their say in the National Party’s community pre-selection. As Peter van Onselen said in one of his articles:

The Nationals should be congratulated for having the courage to take the first step towards a more democratic pre-selection system which is inclusive of a public increasingly cynical about their elected representatives … From small things big things sometimes grow. Who cares what’s going on in a small state-based party in regional New South Wales? We all should.

Four terrific candidates stood, and I have to say the successful candidate, Kevin Anderson, is an absolute star. He is 40-something and in business. He has a fantastic wife Anna and young children. Kevin Aderson is part of the future of the Nationals. The reason I am mentioning him is that there are so many more like Kevin Anderson. The perception of the Nationals is that we are still a predominately male farmers’ party. As a fellow said to me upon introduction after winning my spot as a Nationals senator, “But you’re not a bloke, and you’re not wearing a hat.”

The perception is a long way from the truth. We have just pre-selected two young Nationals – Niall Blair, who operates a highly successful OH & S business, and Sarah Johnston, political advisor to Mark Coulton – for our New South Wales state upper house ticket, along with Ben Tyson, a 30-something stock and station agent from Kempsey. Bridget MacKenzie has been pre-selected in Victoria for the Senate ticket, a young, 40-something with four children, whose is a university lecturer. Kevin Hogan, our sensational candidate in Page, is a classic tree changer, going from a financial and money market background in Sydney to a teaching career in Lismore.

And there are many, many more of these. These are the type of people who are offering themselves up as candidates for the Nationals. They see a strong future for us. These are the type of people who are truly representative of the regions. They will be the future for the Nationals. The challenge for the party is to ensure that we are relevant to our regional communities. To do that, we not only have to have to courage and vision that I have spoken about, but it must also be underpinned by substantive policies in the future that will contribute to greater sustainability for the regions.

Policies in areas such as health, where the Nationals have advocated strongly for a return to local health boards. We recognise that local people are best able to understand the needs of those regional communities, to ensure health services are most efficiently and effectively run.

The Nationals policies in areas such as education recognise the inequity that exists between the regions and the cities. The party has announced that in government we will create a $1 billion regional education fund, to bridge the education gap and address the issues which lead to lack of opportunities for students in the regions. We have policies in areas such telecommunications where we will re-instate the $2 billion telecommunication fund and fast track broadband to the regions, recognising the inequity in service provision that currently exists. And policies in areas such as infrastructure where we will build the inland rail, continue the Roads to Recovery program and re-instate the Strategic Regional Roads program.

With policies in areas such as water, the Nationals will continue to oppose a referendum on the transfer of powers to the federal government; we will ensure that there is balance and fairness in the decision making that affects our irrigators.

It is an honour to be here tonight speaking with Paul Davey. Paul has made an incredible contribution to the National Party over many, many decades. And we thank him for capturing the party’s history in his book. It is now time, though, to write the pages for the future. I believe the Nationals will have a strong and successful future, we will get it right.

The Nationals recognise that people in the regions want their political representatives to stand up and fight for them. They want to have a voice. They want to know that when it gets tough, their political representatives will weather the storm and stand up for what they know is in the best interest of those regional people. The best party to do that for regional Australians is the Nationals.