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On Thursday the National Party beast tried to fight back against an electoral terrier nipping at its heals, trying hard to prove it isn't just a Liberal Party numbers lapdog.

Source : PortMac.News | Independent :

Source : PortMac.News | Independent | News Story:

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Koalagate : wrong issue, wrong timing, wrong tactics.
On Thursday the National Party beast tried to fight back against an electoral terrier nipping at its heals, trying hard to prove it isn't just a Liberal Party numbers lapdog.

The last 48 hours in NSW politics have been extraordinary.

Extraordinary not just because an issue that few had ever heard of (Koala Habitat) muscled its way onto centre stage and threatened to bring down the entire Berejiklian Government.

The situation is really 'Extraordinary' because of the historical stability of the Coalition in NSW.

Other states have seen such Coalition explosions.

The Queensland Coalition Government exploded in acrimony in 1983.

The Victoria Liberal Party governed for nearly three decades without a Coalition partner.

Disputes have also infected the federal Coalition in our lifetime.

It was the National Party's split of the federal Coalition, driven by the hubris of Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, that played a huge part in preventing John Howard winning the 1987 Federal election.

In contrast, the NSW Coalition has been in continuous existence since 1927, both in government and in opposition.

This long-term relationship hasn't always been harmonious, but the occasional tiffs have usually been about rights to run candidates in seats at elections.

It has rarely been policy, or numbers in Parliament, that have split the NSW Coalition.

In more than four decades there has never been, until Thursday, an issue blow up that had the potential to split the Coalition and topple a government.

'We are not anti-koala'

And what was the issue? Proposed laws related to land clearance and the protection of koala habitats.

We all love Koalas, but it's an issue most voters had never heard of prior to Thursday.

The bottom line was that John Barilaro reckoned the land clearance legislation proposed by the Liberals represents a "Nail in the coffin for farmers", while on the other side of the divide, the Nature Conservation Council argues the legislation would ensure "koalas don't become extinct".

Heavy stuff.

And the timing? All this was going down at a time when all arms of government are fully occupied with the health and economic fallout from a pandemic.

By taking the nuclear option of threatening to make government unworkable if the National Party didn't gets its way, Barilaro put the National party's head in the noose.

It is a case of wrong issue, wrong time, wrong tactics.

In the 1950s and 1960s, when Australia's wealth truly was built on the sheep's back, the Country Party was able to exert power over the Liberal Party.

Country Party leader and then-deputy prime minister John McEwen threatened to walk away from the Coalition over trade and exchange rate policy.

He usually won the argument, and famously even vetoed William McMahon replacing Harold Holt as Prime Minister.

When the National Party tried the same tactics of standing up to the Liberals in the 1980s, the results were very different.

By then, Labor was more electable, and splits in the Coalition allowed Labor to campaign on, to quote Bob Hawke, "If you can't govern yourself you can't govern the country".

Labor won the 1987 federal election, and state elections in Victoria in 1988 and Western Australia in 1989, in part because of the absence of a Coalition between the Liberal and National parties in opposition.

In the three decades since, the National Party has rarely separated itself from common policy position with the Liberal Party.

While Coalitions fell apart elsewhere in Australia in the 1980s, a strong Coalition government was elected to office in NSW under Nick Greiner.

His government inflicted major pain on the bush, with sweeping closures of country rail services, courts and smaller hospitals.

The government survived because of strong support from Greiner's Deputy, Country Party leader Wal Murray.

But that period was the start of a long down hill struggle for the NSW National Party.

The Nationals remain strong along the NSW North Coast where continued population growth ensures the expansion of government services.

West of the mountains it is a different issue.

Western districts National MPs are constantly fighting to protect services.

Improved roads means locals travel further to shop, boosting major regional centres but killing smaller towns.

The growth of corporate agriculture has cut the number of families on the land, and mechanisation cuts the rural workforce.

Population is at best static and increasingly concentrated in larger centres.

Many rural voters ask themselves, who can better serve my local interests, a Nationals MP who will form government, or someone else who will concentrate only on local issues?

Enter the 'Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party':

In the last few years a new threat has emerged in the 'Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party'.

Enamy at the gates : The 'Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party' won three western NSW seats at the 2019 state election - bad news for the Nationals

'Koalagate' simply highlights the pending irrelvance of the National's, and whatever happens next, its likely to end badly for John Barilaro & the National party.


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