Hello Bob,
Congratulations on the "elevation" this election has given you. It may give you and your fellow independents the opportunity to do some real good for rural and regional Auatralia. As an ex Mackay man and a sugar and ethanol 'expert' having grown sugar cane, managed sugar mills and played a major role in conceiving and building the Rhodesian ethanol industry, and a role in producing studies in 1988 and early 1990's into ethanol from sugarcane and other renewable materials in QLD and NSW, I have followed your political career with much interest. I admire your enthusiasm. I want to say that both of the ethanol studies were well received by the then conservative state govts but when unfortunately both Qld and NSW reverted to the socialist parties (why does the press call them progressive?) the reports on the Qld Ethanol Study and the Dept of Energy's NSW Ethanol Study got shelved and lost never to reappear.
Dont please try to form a government with the socialists. They dont know how to manage the bureaucrats, cant manage money, have held back northern development for years, started the drop in tariffs (dropped the sugar embargo in the 1980's, cut tariffs soon after as a condition for loans to the sugar industry in 1985/86 which never eventuated and gave dairy deregulation the first push in the 1990's. They probably also kicked off the first Free Trade agreements. God only knows why anyone believes there will ever be free trade with China or USA. There is always a cost (usually totally disproportionate to any gains).
What we want is better representation ( more rural electorates and parlimentarians, fewer urban electorates, a fairer division of proceeds for farm produce on the basis of proportionate division of inputs into the final product and a communications system (roadrail electronic) at least comparable to that enjoyed by our urban brothers and sisters. I am sure you will do yur best to ensure we are not again let don. Go for it.