Fiona Nash changing the narrative about regional Australia

The Nationals’ strong-showing at the federal election is another high point for the NSW Senator that also provided a national platform for sharing her transformational narrative about the bright side of living in the regions.

Earlier this year, Senator Nash was elevated to become the Nationals’ first-ever female deputy-leader during the party’s ground-breaking leadership change-over that saw Barnaby Joyce replace the now retired Warren Truss in the top job.

That leadership transition also saw the NSW Senator, who spends time away from politics living and working on her family’s sheep and grain farm near Young, awarded a diverse ministerial portfolio with an acute focus on strengthening regional Australia.

In becoming the party’s first female senior leader in 95-years, Senator Nash was appointed to continue on as Rural Health Minister while adding Regional Development and Regional Communications to her heavy work-load.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s February ministerial reshuffle also saw SA Liberal Senator Anne Ruston remain Assistant Agriculture and Water Resources Minister while Mr Joyce retained the senior portfolio, with both continuing in those roles, post-election.

While losing the regional health component of her duties to NSW Nationals MP Dr David Gillespie after the July poll, Senator Nash continued with Regional Development and Communications, while adding the role of Local Government and Territories Minister.

Senator Nash said her biggest highlight for 2016 was the Nationals’ strong election showing where Damian Drum won the Victorian rural seat of Murray, previously held by Liberal Sharman Stone, to boost the party’s number of Lower House seats from 15 to 16 while also retaining six Senate positions.

“To have held all of our seats and picked up a seat in the election climate that we had, I think was a remarkable achievement and I was so proud of the whole party,” she said.

Senator Nash said the Nationals won contests in marginal rural seats and tightly held ones, particularly Michelle Landry in the Queensland electorate of Capricornia which effectively gave the Coalition a one-seat majority government and narrowly avoided having to govern in another hung parliament scenario.

She said one aspect of Ms Landry’s critical, narrow win - that wasn’t given the recognition it deserved - was holding onto the seat for a second term.

“It’s the first time ever that the Coalition has held the seat of Capricornia for consecutive terms which was just the most outstanding effort from Michelle and just terrific,” she said.

“Michelle understands her electorate so well and she worked so hard and she really identified the issues that were a priority for her people and worked on them consistently.

“She’s just so committed to the people in her electorate and they knew that and I think that’s why they gave her a second term.

“She’s a genuine person working extremely hard on the ground for her community.”

Senator Nash said she was “humbled” that her party colleagues had decided to elevate her into the deputy leader’s position, but stressed her party continued to work hard as a team to produce results for people living in non-metropolitan Australia.

She said a highlight of her broad, regionally focussed ministerial portfolio in 2016 was being able to use those powers to send a strong, positive message about a bright future.

“The one thing that stands out for me is changing the narrative that we hear about regional Australia; getting it away from being negative and moving it to being positive,” she said.

“In the past we’ve often seen, when the media is talking about regional Australia or where people are talking about regional Australia, it’s often about the negatives and the floods and the fires and the pestilence and this perception that the funding going to rural and regional communities is a hand out and a prop up or pork barrelling.

“What I’ve really tried to do since I’ve had responsibility for regional development is just to change that whole narrative around and turn it on its head because we’re actually investing in regional communities as government, because there’s an economic case to do so, because of what the regional communities contribute to the nation.

“And if we want to get people to stay in rural communities and move to rural communities, we’ve got to make sure people understand they’re a great place to live with a very positive future.”

Senator Nash said the Australian agricultural sector was at the forefront of shaping and delivering that new narrative, about regional Australia’s growing, positive outlook.

"We have this incredibly bright future for agriculture, going forward,” she said.

“I’m really starting to see now so many more young people choosing to stay on farms or pursue a career in agriculture which I think is fantastic.

“The next generation is so savvy and smart and clever – not that other generations aren’t – but they’re really just embracing this new technological world and that’s really exciting.”

Senator Nash said increasing global opportunities for agriculture over coming decades, combined with new technology and research, and an increased political and industry appetite for farmers to become more productive and to expand exports, was “tremendously exciting”.

She said Mr Joyce as Agriculture and Water Resources Minister and the government could claim some credit for the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics’ recent forecast that the gross value of Australian farm production was forecast to increase by 6.1 per cent, surpassing $60 billion in 2016–17.

Senator Nash said she didn’t think it was possible for politicians to claim “every number, every time” because commodity prices and production forecasts “can go the other way”.

But she said, across the board, Mr Joyce had done a “fantastic job” strengthening trade relationships with other countries to enhance Australia’s export markets to drive agriculture domestically, while the government had also played a core role.

But a lot of that performance also comes down to confidence, she said.

“This is the important thing - not just in agriculture but in rural communities generally,” she said.

“If a community or a sector has confidence that they’re going to grow into the future, that they can get out there and do things well, then it does feed on itself and those communities and those sectors do become more prosperous.

“I do believe confidence is key.”

Senator Nash said Free Trade Agreements signed by the Coalition in government with China, Japan and Korea had played a leading role in improving the farm sector’s performance along with work on infrastructure projects like dams and the inland rail.

She said changing the National Stronger Regions Fund into the Building Better Regions Fund was another major portfolio highlight for 2016.

She said the re-named Fund was now directing funding to programs located outside of the major capital cities and had also introduced, for the first time, a community investment stream and infrastructure stream.

That will allow rural communities to have a lot more flexibility in determining the type of projects that are “really going to make their future strong”, she said.

She also said the government’s “great work” rolling out the Mobile Blackspots Program with 765 mobile phone towers delivered under rounds one and two and about 31,000 homes and businesses connected that weren’t before.

The government recently unveiled $60m funding for round two of the program, but Senator Nash said that compared to “zero dollars from Labor when they were in government”.