Nationals to forge their own path for Australia

In times of great political upheaval, parties are tested on the endurance of their values.

Australians want strong and principled leadership in the Federal Parliament, and they want philosophical clarity.

That means MPs who are prepared to fight for a better future for the people they represent.

For our part, the Nationals have never been a subsidiary of metropolitan politics. We believe building the regions creates a stronger, more competitive country for all Australians.

This is only the third time in 75 years the Nationals (formerly the Country Party) will not sit in Coalition with the Liberal Party in the Federal Parliament.

We do not come to this decision lightly.

Just three weeks ago our Party took to the Australian people a set of policy positions which we consider are critical to the future of our nation and the regions.

These policies were hard fought for and agreed collectively as part of a united Coalition.

Following discussions between Party leaders, we have not been able to secure the assurance we need that these policies will be honoured under a future Coalition agreement.

This month’s election result was disastrous for the Coalition, and particularly for the Liberal Party, but it confirmed that distinct identity matters.

It is important after such a result that a clear assessment be made of the reasons why the election was lost, but policy positions which formed the core of our proposition to the people should not be casually jettisoned.

The facts for our party are that Nationals were re-elected in all the seats we held.

Despite the national swing against the Coalition, many Nationals achieved swings to them, including a remarkable 10 per cent shift away from the Government in Bendigo, where Labor’s neglect of the regions has been acutely felt.

We cannot in good conscience walk away from our commitments to these regions, and the Australian public more broadly.

These policies include divestiture competition powers as a last resort if supermarkets and big box retailers misuse their market power.

Just like in the UK and the USA, we have long believed Australian consumers and small business suppliers, particularly farmers, should be covered by the protection of these laws.

Generations of National Party MPs and Senators have fought for reforms to our competition policy to even up the relationship between large corporates and small business suppliers and customers.

Competition policy reform has been vacated by the Labor Party, why would we walk away from improvements to competition now?

Similarly, if we are genuinely serious about having a low emissions modern economy, we cannot ditch the idea of nuclear power being part of our future secure energy mix.

As a mid-sized industrial economy, the idea that we should not avail ourselves of the abundant uranium in our own backyard, to provide a reliable, sustainable, affordable, low emission energy source into next century, is beyond belief.

Our commitment to first principles extends to our ambition for a Regional Australia Future Fund. This is not a political sweetener. It  was designed to assist the regions to overcome the challenges and seize opportunities over the next two and a half decades of changes to energy, for which the cost and impact will be felt most strongly in our regional communities.

Of course, this was part of a broader policy with the Liberals that would have seen windfall commodity receipts retained to help offset national debt, in stark contrast to the Albanese Government’s spending of tax windfalls with little to show for it.

And why in the 21st century would we walk away from ensuring Australians are guaranteed access to digital communications technologies that are essential in times of emergency, access to health care, education opportunities, and are critical to how Australians run their businesses these days?

The Prime Minister promised to govern for all Australians. Unfortunately, people in the regions do not feel this promise has been delivered.

On two previous occasions when Nationals sat separately from the Liberal Party, our Parliamentary members aggressively took the fight up to Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke and will start today to do the same to Anthony Albanese.

The Nationals are very proud of who we represent, where we come from, and the variety of perspectives that our diverse party room brings to Parliament House.

Our departure is a reminder that meaningful policy must begin with attention to difference, not the pretence of sameness.

The Nationals are a hyper local party, but we also will never walk away from policy that is in the national interest.