Letters to the editor, The Daily Advertiser, November 4, 2021

But wasting taxpayers' money to "buy political peace" is exactly what Labor under the Rudd, Gillard and Rudd governments did to keep the Greens/Labor coalition in government.

The problem that I see isn't that Scott Morrison bought off the Nats.

It is the fact the Nats squandered an opportunity to secure funds which could be utilised to improve educational outcomes for rural youth, address the fact rural people live shorter lives compared to their city counterparts, or even address the inequitable burden climate change polices place on the people who manage and care for the land.

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There has been a lot of media commentary, particularly from the left-leaning (and taxpayer funded) ABC about the National Party's reluctance to sign regional Australia up to a net zero emissions target by 2050.

However, history tells us the Nationals need to be very careful before they make such a commitment, amid concerns it will have negative impacts for those of us who work outside the nation's capital cities.

You only have to look at how we have been dudded by the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to have a good understanding of how city-based politics can get in the way of sound environmental management.

In this instance a "plan" was developed, in the name of protecting our environment. However, in reality it had one core goal - to shore up environmental votes in South Australia and capital cities.

To achieve these goals there was 'modelling' undertaken to "prove" that the Murray River and other parts of the basin were dying and needed massive "environmental flows" to survive.

As we now know, a lot of this modelling was false. Yet we get no changes to the plan despite vast initial promises that it would always be adaptive and flexible.

As a consequence, communities have suffered - especially those in the Murray regions of NSW and Victoria which rely heavily on food and fibre production for their economic prosperity.

Some in the National Party are happy to toe the Liberal Party line, purely for political reasons, that this failing basin plan must be completed "in full and on time" despite its many failings.

Others whose political futures rely on retaining seats in affected areas want changes to the plan, but do not have the political pull to achieve it.

Will the Liberal Party again con the Nationals into supporting a policy that is good for the city-based Liberals, but disastrous for regional Australia, amid promises that it will be "flexible and adaptive" in the future, yet with no intention of having any flexibility if regional areas are seen to suffer?

I suspect this will be the case.

So while it's fine for the highly paid commentators on "our ABC" and other media to ridicule the Nationals for its stance, its reluctance may well be due to the voter backlash it will suffer if regional Australia is again the sacrificial lamb for the Liberal Party's political future.

Politicians have lied through their teeth and left hard-working regional Australians hanging out to dry over the basin plan. Why would climate change policy be any different?

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