What is the point of the National Party

[The Speaker]

The Nationals are supposed to represent rural and regional interests. National MPs are blokes in RM Williams trousers and big hats.

They lost their way 10, 15 years ago. A vote for the Nationals has always meant a vote for the coalition, but now it's just a vote for the Liberals. I'm not surprised their share of the vote has fallen away. In the 2016 election in WA they got only 3% of the vote, and the Australian Christians who are a genuine fringe party got 2.6. The Greens outpolled them 4:1. Didn't come close to winning any of the regional seats.

Not sure WA is a great example to use, given a) the WA Nationals are explicitly not linked to the Liberals, and b) Western Australia has a very low proportion of rural population compared to Queensland, NSW (and Victoria). Overall percentage of vote is unlikely to reflect their strength.

 

[QuietB]

They are cheaper to bribe than the Liberal party and they have a better network to the land mining companies want to get their mitts on

What do I win?

 

[Hawk Dork]

They are cheaper to bribe than the Liberal party and they have a better network to the land mining companies want to get their mitts on

What do I win?

Spot on Libs cant govern without them so its the cheapest influence money can buy

 

[Scotland]

Not sure WA is a great example to use, given a) the WA Nationals are explicitly not linked to the Liberals, and b) Western Australia has a very low proportion of rural population compared to Queensland, NSW (and Victoria). Overall percentage of vote is unlikely to reflect their strength.

I live in WA. Plus WA is the largest state by area and even though the majority of the population is centered around Perth there are two very rural electorates and three semi-rural ones. O'Connor and Durack are the sort of seats I would expect the Nationals to be strong in. They aren't.

In the last state election Kalgoorlie and Pilbara went from National to Liberal and Labor respectively. The Nats hold 5 seats out of 59.

 

[The Speaker]

I live in WA. Plus WA is the largest state by area and even though the majority of the population is centered around Perth there are two very rural electorates and three semi-rural ones. O'Connor and Durack are the sort of seats I would expect the Nationals to be strong in. They aren't.

In the last state election Kalgoorlie and Pilbara went from National to Liberal and Labor respectively. The Nats hold 5 seats out of 59.

I know you live in WA. We reside in the Perth thread.

Preferences were all over the place at the state election, and even so, Kalgoorlie and Pilbara were not ever traditional Country/National seats in the same way that seats in the South-West are. Mining has been much more inclined to be Labor territory than agriculture, and I think that explains why now both O'Connor and Durack are not so strong for the Nats. It's a testament to how well the regained ground under Grylls that mining territory began to be understood as Nationals territory in WA.

 

[Hawk Dork]

Mining has been much more inclined to be Labor territory than agriculture

Mining seats do tend to be National and Bob Katter, Capricornia,Flynn,Dawson

 

[The Speaker]

Mining seats do tend to be National and Bob Katter, Capricornia,Flynn,Dawson

Not in WA. Kalgoorlie, Pilbara and Kimberley have all been Labor seats for most of history.

 

[Hawk Dork]

Not in WA. Kalgoorlie, Pilbara and Kimberley have all been Labor seats for most of history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyran_O'Donnell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Duncan

The other 2 seats I would imagine have a traditioanl Labor Voter base within the Aboriginal Communities ,not so much a Labor voting mining base even though they are mining areas

 

[The Speaker]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyran_O'Donnell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Duncan

The other 2 seats I would imagine have a traditional Labor Voter base within the Aboriginal Communities ,not so much a Labor voting mining base even though they are mining areas

Let me repeat myself.

Kalgoorlie, Pilbara and Kimberley have all been Labor seats for most of history, because their biggest population centres have been mining towns. It is the pastoralists, not the miners, who might lean more National (historically). Kalgoorlie had never been won by the Liberal Party until 2001, when One Nation preferences flowed predominantly to them. Matt Birney became a fairly popular figure by the next election and became leader immediately afterwards. He then resigned, and John Bowler, a Labor minister who had been forced to resign from both cabinet and the party, came in from Murchison-Eyre and won as an independent, and took votes from Labor in doing so. When he retired from state politics at the next election, he supported Duncan and his supporters followed him. When Duncan retired at the last election, both One Nation and SFF added themselves into the mix and sent preferences flying everywhere. The Labor candidate was still only a few hundred votes behind on first preferences, and former Nationals O'Connor (federal) MP Tony Crook came third. The federal electorate covers more the agricultural areas of the Great Southern region, which the state seat does not.

Pilbara has only been won once ever by the Liberals and once by the Nationals, and the latter was only because the most popular Nationals leader in a long time decided to have a go at it at an election where Labor was weakened. He still lost at the most recent election.

Even Kimberley, the seat that would be most like to qualify under your "only Labor because Aboriginal" hypothesis, was Labor long before Aboriginals could vote. And even so, the Nationals haven't performed better than third.

If you're looking for evidence of the Nationals' failings or otherwise, the mining towns of Western Australia are the wrong place to be looking.

 

[Fat Yak]

Barnaby at his best.
“If you go into this election and shut down your major export, your major income earner for the nation — and I’ll tell you why that’s important. Deb, they’re lovely shoes, where are they from?” Mr Joyce asked.
“Wouldn’t have a clue,” Knight said.
“Overseas. How about the dress? Where’d that come from?” he pressed.
“Wouldn’t have a clue either,” she admitted.
“How about the jewellery?”
“Ditto.”
“What car have you got, Deb?”
“It’s an overseas car.”
“Overseas petrol in it? And you cook on an overseas stove?”
“Yep.”
“And you get your food out of an overseas fridge. Who’s putting something on the boat and sending it in the other direction so you can have that standard of living?”


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Joyce hijacks interview with Deborah Knight
Barnaby Joyce hijacked an interview on Channel 9’s Today show this morning, turning the tables on host Deborah Knight.

 

[Chaisa]

Mining seats do tend to be National and Bob Katter, Capricornia,Flynn,Dawson

Isn't Capricornia traditionally Labor? The other two are basically swing seats and in Flynn it's the agricultural areas that sees it lean National - Gladstone is one of the safest Labor cities in the country.

Even Kennedy was mostly Labor pre-Katter.

And the mining seats in NSW are some of Labor's safest seats state and nationwide....

 

[Benny78]

How many jobs in the country belong to farmers? It would basically dominate all the rural areas. Most farmers would be hard pressed to find a job on 45k+ outside their blocks of land. Most jobs over 45k employers expect further education and these days a double masters degree.

If you have enough people who are making 6 figures and feel threatened it might go away, and couldn't compete for that salary anywhere else you end up with something like the national party. It's survival in their minds, they're on easy street and don't want it to go away. Wealthy retirees are more or less the same. There's enough of them to bother gaining votes which is why they can get centrelink with million dollar assets.

There's no actual point to the national party. There's just a lot of farmers who know if supermarkets keep making prices lower for working class customers they'll have to sell up and struggle to hold a job at a call centre. The National party simply adopt whatever sentiment to gain the country vote. Because it's a large voting base.

 

[The Speaker]

they're on easy street

just to be clear, you're saying that farmers are on easy street?

 

[Benny78]

just to be clear, you're saying that farmers are on easy street?

The ones that are struggling can forfeit their land and go work for a call centre tomorrow if they like. But not everyone at a call centre can spend millions on farmland so they can "struggle" at making a living.

Lars Ulrich cried about how he couldn't afford a new private jet but compared to most others he's also on easy street.

 

[Juddism]

How many jobs in the country belong to farmers? It would basically dominate all the rural areas. Most farmers would be hard pressed to find a job on 45k+ outside their blocks of land. Most jobs over 45k employers expect further education and these days a double masters degree.

If you have enough people who are making 6 figures and feel threatened it might go away, and couldn't compete for that salary anywhere else you end up with something like the national party. It's survival in their minds, they're on easy street and don't want it to go away. Wealthy retirees are more or less the same. There's enough of them to bother gaining votes which is why they can get centrelink with million dollar assets.

There's no actual point to the national party. There's just a lot of farmers who know if supermarkets keep making prices lower for working class customers they'll have to sell up and struggle to hold a job at a call centre. The National party simply adopt whatever sentiment to gain the country vote. Because it's a large voting base.

ever left that Mornington mansion of yours and ventured out bush in the Range Rover? easy street, let me tell you from now, I've been to many of the outback cattle stations in this country and those farmers are there because that's all they know and it's what they're passionate about, the next time you enjoy your grass-fed sirloin have a think about where it came from and the effort it took to get to you.

 

[Craven Morehead]

ever left that Mornington mansion of yours and ventured out bush in the Range Rover? easy street, let me tell you from now, I've been to many of the outback cattle stations in this country and those farmers are there because that's all they know and it's what they're passionate about, the next time you enjoy your grass-fed sirloin have a think about where it came from and the effort it took to get to you.

Don't feed the troll.

 

[Crankyhawk]

just to be clear, you're saying that farmers are on easy street?

I thought he meant the national party politicians were on easy street

 

[Bomberboyokay]

"WA Nationals aren't linked to the WA Liberals." 9 years in Cabinet would say otherwise.

 

[GoldenSky]

How many jobs in the country belong to farmers? It would basically dominate all the rural areas. Most farmers would be hard pressed to find a job on 45k+ outside their blocks of land. Most jobs over 45k employers expect further education and these days a double masters degree.

If you have enough people who are making 6 figures and feel threatened it might go away, and couldn't compete for that salary anywhere else you end up with something like the national party. It's survival in their minds, they're on easy street and don't want it to go away. Wealthy retirees are more or less the same. There's enough of them to bother gaining votes which is why they can get centrelink with million dollar assets.

There's no actual point to the national party. There's just a lot of farmers who know if supermarkets keep making prices lower for working class customers they'll have to sell up and struggle to hold a job at a call centre. The National party simply adopt whatever sentiment to gain the country vote. Because it's a large voting base.

Totally agree!

 

[nut]

How about supporting raising #%*+^ing wages so we can pass the extra cash onto the farmers ....

No let’s screw the working wage earner over by deliberately keeping wages down... and cutting penalty rates.
That really helped the economy. ???????? FMD are people so stupid? Do they still think the Libs/nats have any idea????

 

[The Speaker]

I thought he meant the national party politicians were on easy street

Alas not:

The ones that are struggling can forfeit their land and go work for a call centre tomorrow if they like. But not everyone at a call centre can spend millions on farmland so they can "struggle" at making a living.

Lars Ulrich cried about how he couldn't afford a new private jet but compared to most others he's also on easy street.

He genuinely thinks that farmers are doing it easy, and that if they aren't they should go work in a call centre after giving up their land. Immeasurably stupid stuff.

"WA Nationals aren't linked to the WA Liberals." 9 years in Cabinet would say otherwise.

Or, you know, they had an actual coalition like other countries have, rather than being The Coalition - as evidenced from the fact that they currently have nothing to do with each other.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

They're never officially linked anywhere across Australia on the opposition benches. Don't use that as evidence.

It's not a normal, overseas-style coalition. They were together long before and will be back together one day when winter comes for this WA Labor government. Hopefully a long time from now.

 

[The Speaker]

They're never officially linked anywhere across Australia on the opposition benches. Don't use that as evidence.

It's not a normal, overseas-style coalition. They were together long before and will be back together one day when winter comes for this WA Labor government. Hopefully a long time from now.

Please. There was absolutely no doubt that the Nationals under Grylls were not under any circumstances in a relationship like that of the Coalition. You can argue, as Joe Spagnolo does, that they pragmatically need each other in order to form government, but that's not what's being argued about here.

 

[Craven Morehead]

Love me a piece of sweet, tender venison.
As I sit back and watch the farm take care of itself.
Ahhh the easy farming life.

 

[Hawk Dork]

Barnabys using tax payers money to put phone towers on Ginas property and pay her rent even though its useless for its intended purpose

Gina Rinehart, Barnaby Joyce and the 'epic fail' phone tower
A phone tower that Barnaby Joyce fought for ended up on the northern NSW property of long-time friend and mining baron Gina Rinehart, who gets an annual fee to host the tower.
Locals are baffled why the tower was put there over another location, as it's plagued with reception problems.

Kingstown resident Jeff Condren led the charge for a tower to be funded by the federal government's Mobile Blackspot Program and called it an "epic fail".

"Now that the tower has been in operation for several weeks it's evident the community concerns relating to the location and the service was well-justified," he said.
"Service levels drop to nothing just a couple of kilometres in any direction.


https://www.theage.com.au/politics/...he-epic-fail-phone-tower-20190406-p51bia.html