The National Party has suffered under the iron hand of the free trade capitalism of the Liberal Party. The National Party has not produced a leader who will stand up to the Liberals since Black Jack McEwen, therein lies the problem.

The only way for the National Party to survive as I see it is independent of the Liberal Party, while they are in coalition the party will continue to suffer and suffer badly. 38 out of the bottom 40 federal seats are held by the National Party, not a good look, and becoming worse because of Liberal Party policies.

3 months before the Latham election it was painful to visit construction sites.
Clearly a surge was on away from the ALP some times for the first time in those voters life's.
Now it is quite different and in National heartland, seats Labor would truly need massive swings to win ,movement I never thought I would see is taking place.
Newly trained farm owners and workers ,prawn fisher men, people who have never voted other than National are turning.
Unheard of 91 out of 107 have joined the union!
Speak openly of change in this election wives of these now first time unionists are hurting, country low income jobs are lower than ever before.
A shift is on if I wanted improvement from the Nationals ,and I do not Joyce would be leading not the Liberal they have now.

Isn't it time that the Liberal National Coalition became a Party rather than a coalition ? They could even call themselves "the Coalition" for short.

Anyone with small "l" liberal tendancies could join the ALP or the Democrats if they hate unions.

Gosh, I thought the National Party had vanished long ago and was now just a front for secretive but powerful Cotton Growers Party, whose sole policy is to suck up all the water in the Darling River for their private gain ;)

A lot of the coastal areas the author refers to have also attracted a lot of urban people making the sea or tree change. They're highly unlikely to vote National.

"The Nationals may be heading into the wilderness, forever."
All repeat all, the political parties espouse economic nationalism including the trade unions. And all of them are in a deepening crisis as they are being undermined by global multi-nationals. The firms went global in order to take a greater share of the wealth off the nation states. Today, Labor, Liberal, Democrat and Green are the spearhead for the multi-nationals. In consequence, behind the scenes they are all intent on lowering living standards, weekly earnings and filling up their own pockets and their masters. All of them have signed up with Bush and Wall Street for the 'war on terror' and the war on workers. Although the Greens or Labor Party generally for electioneering huckstering, espouse some mealy mouthed oppositional words whilst in practice, bolster every parliamentary bill. This is why none of them explain the real criminality of US and Australian operations that have caused a death toll that has now passed 1 million deaths in Iraq. All done, to dominate this particular region of the world, check the ambitions of their trade rivals and steal the oil. These crimes all fit the Nuremberg definition of an unprovoked war of aggression, the central crime for which the Nazi regime was found guilty in October 1946.
"Kevin Rudd's industrial appeal is not to militant unionists but to conservative working-class non-union members." This is incorrect, Rudd appeals daily, on his hands and knees to the ruling elite, and lately, is crafting an appeal to the Christian right. On and before election day, after consultation with his advisors he will say anything to get elected.