Country people are no different from city people. Have you ever found that we can be different people depending on who we are with. Not that we are split personalities but that different people might bring out or inspire different aspects of our personalities and character. Perhaps living in the city or country can have a similar effect.

(Had no idea his name was pronounced Wellbeck. I have trouble remembering how to spell it so Houlley it became. In the interview one wonders if H. is just good at the art of playing with people particularly the literary elite or just a man with natural angst having been "deserted by hippie parents and raised by a Stalinist grandmother".)

I always read 'Houelly' as Welly pelican.

I always wonder if Col Rouge was *raised* by hippie parents and *deserted* by a Stalinist grandmother.

PS: I really cant imagine Bob Katter seems any different when he frequents the cafes of Leichardt.

Houellebecq: << The smaller populated states with more country areas and their equal senate representation. >>

Er, that doesn't mean that country people's votes are worth more - rather, it means that people who live in less populous states have more representatives in the Senate per capita than in the more populous states. It doesn't give country people any advantage over city people in those states - indeed, quite the reverse. Think about it.

Also, even if your father's side of the family are country people, I really doubt that you've spent much time at all in the bush. If you had, you wouldn't make such silly generalisations. As pelican says, country people aren't really very different to city people - I can think of several butchers, accountants and tradespeople who frequent OLO who fit your description of "whinging bigoted bitchy gossippers with a massive chip on their shoulder who think they're doing the country a favour", but who live in urban areas.

However, one way that city and country voters to tend to differ is that country voters tend to support Coalition or Independent candidates.

As for your namesake, I tried to read 'Whatever' about 10 years ago, but got sick of the self-indulgent nihilism and gave up.

Ok - this has gone somewhat off course.
I do think that it is all rather unpleasant and undignified for the entire country to be effectively held to ransom by three people who represent just 2% of the population.
Politics is much like making sausages - you don't really want to know how it is made, you just want the end product.
Forcing the major parties to bend over on lists of demands is pushing extortion IMHO.

CJ,

'I can think of several butchers, accountants and tradespeople who frequent OLO who fit your description of "whinging bigoted bitchy gossippers with a massive chip on their shoulder who think they're doing the country a favour", but who live in urban areas. '

Agreed. Please see my recent assessment of small business owners.

Doesn't mean farmers aren't the same though.

PS: I've spent a decent amount of time in the ten dollar town (When we had paper money that is), and also The Jacaranda City. Maybe that doesn't count. Not exactly city though.

Now *real* country people you say....

It is easy to oversimplify the situation by arguing the future lies in the hand of a few rural independents. Adam Bandt may follow the ALP over the Coalition but he seems the only sure thing at the moment. Wilkie is very much his own man and will on the face of it choose the party that he believes will act with integrity, the rural independents will act in the interests of their electorates which is why they were voted in. It is like a competition - those with the most points wins regardless of who gets the last say on the matter.

The fate of rural Australia is linked to the fate of urban Australia in many ways including addressing the issues of congestion and pollution in our cities. Issues of biosecurity and supporting locally grown is tied up very much with the security of our agricultural sector.

The current situation presents us with numerous opportunities for decentralisation in conjuction with a sophisticated NBN and better business opportunities in regional areas. It also provides an optimistic prospect for our farmers who are struggling to earn a wage over the costs of production forcing many to sidestep the middlemen and all power to them if they can pull it off.

Also, as someone else suggested in another thread it is very hard to bring about change if those in power benefit from the status quo.

We have an opportunity to take advantage of the situation for much needed parliamentary and electoral reform.

Jilting the independents is anything but prime ministerial unless arrogance is considered an attribute above courage in our representatives. What would be prime ministerial would be to recognise the great opportunities that lie before us over the self-interest of career politicians.