My father throughout his whole life was a huge lover of the bush and of our country, and made himself unpopular at times, standing up for what he could see was in the nation’s best interests.

On our long drives together in the bush to check windmills and cattle – I was the gate opener and tool carrier – Dad would sometimes tell me jokes. One he especially liked was told by Dr Edward Teller – scientists who knew both Teller and Einstein said that Teller had the greater mind. Dr Teller’s joke concerned  his own daughter, a wonderful lady and dear friend of mine, who was aged about five at the time of the joke. The joke goes: ‘Wendy came home from school one day looking very puzzled, so Dr Teller asked her what was the matter. Wendy replied, “Well, last week my teacher was telling me that 2 and 2 make 4, but now my teacher is trying to tell me that 3 and 1 make 4!”’ My Dad was delighted that a genius like Teller could enjoy such a dear and simple little joke.

I was fortunate to inherit this incredible friendship from my father. Indeed, Dr Teller, who, knew a thing or two about the nuclear industry, visited Australia several times as our, and later my, guest, to provide information on the comparative safety of nuclear power plants.

Very sadly the world has lost this incredible mind and gentleman. He did, however, leave us with amongst many other things another rather telling joke, scientifically calculated, and still relevant today.

It goes like this: ‘If a man spent a year standing alongside a nuclear power plant, and sharing a bed with his wife, he would receive only a little more radiation from the nuclear power plant.’ However,and remember this is scientifically fact-checked, ‘If a man stood next to that same nuclear power plant for a year, and then went home to share a bed with two wives, he’d get more radiation from sharing that bed than standing next to the nuclear power plant all year.’

It’s time to realise we need nuclear power in this country. Instead of punishing many farmers with bird-killing wind generators and massive solar panel stretches, we need to urgently allow clean, safe, nuclear energy for the well-being of this nation.

For years, iron ore was the single biggest contributor to Australia’s revenue, but now we are number two to that other popular commodity – in Treasury circles at least – King Coal. Apart from switching to nuclear, there are many other urgent changes we need to make to achieve the 2023 Bush Summit’s theme of ‘improving the lives of regional Australians to create a better Australia’.

I hope the following list brings a smile to many concerned faces

1. The federal government needs to get rid of the limit on work hours so that veterans, pensioners and university students can work without onerous paperwork burdens. Imagine the smiles when we can finally fill those jobs in the bush, and see hospitals and health centres’ hours and effectiveness improved. And at the same time, remove some of our unnecessary taxpayer-funded bureaucracy.
2. We need to see more of the monies earned in the bush returned to the bush. For instance, in addition to connectivity, we should have the best-equipped and most luxurious hospitals in Newman, Tom Price, Dampier, Cape Lambert, Port Hedland and in other mining towns, thanks to the revenue we create in the Pilbara and other mining areas. We also need to see 24-hour, 365-days-a-year airstrips, so that the better equipped and fastest Royal Flying Doctor Service planes can always arrive to ensure the safety of our people in the Outback.
3. Agriculture doesn’t usually have the financial resources that the mining industry enjoys, yet net-zero policies will require a massive financial investment from farmers. Switching to electric vehicles, including lawn mowers, motor bikes, utes, 4-wheel drives, tractors, harvesters, trucks, bulldozers, graders and front-end loaders will cost a fortune, on top of which will be required approximately $650,000 for solar plants with huge batteries for when the sun doesn’t shine, and solar panels to replace multiple bore pumps, essential for daily water. Do our politicians understand the extent of the financial burden this will place on everyday farmers? They will need real assistance to ensure that those in agriculture are not required to spend, for example, any more than $200,000 on net-zero requirements. Anything above that amount should be met by government, or waived. Otherwise most farmers and others in agriculture will simply not survive. They will leave agriculture and Australians will then see huge food price increases and fresh food shortages.
4. There is a mind-boggling amount of federal and West Australian government tape that urgently needs cutting. My first preference is the immediate termination of all listed. And/or sunset laws, such that after four years, all government tape automatically goes, and bureaucrats in each relevant department must sign their names and provide reasons as to why the tape should be reinstated, if they believe it should be. If more than, say, 75 per cent of that department recommend reinstatement, then those views must be published, with a suitable committee formed to review and make a final decision.

The Institute of Public Affairs has identified an astonishing and somewhat frightening list of all the excess and onerous government regulations, federal, state and territory, which can be viewed here: https://ipa.org.au/research/ipa-red-tape-research

5. We also need to bring in Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision (ANDEV) policies, initially for the north above the 26th parallel, then spreading to other bush areas. ANDEV is an organisation of unpaid volunteers I started more than 10 years ago, that seeks to establish special economic zones that cut both government tape and tax.

Please check out the ANDEV website here, https://www.andev-project.org/.

There are now more than 8,000 of these types of economic zones operating successfully around the world. Yet none in Australia.  I don’t know of a better way to improve the lives of regional Australians.

I’m not the first to come up with the idea of cutting taxes for those employed in or investing in the north. My Dad did so, too. As you often do living in the bush, where you either make do or do without, he came up with many practical ideas. After finding significant iron ore deposits, he decided to lobby for the lifting of the government iron ore export embargo, which took him some eight years of persistence to achieve. He then had to push the WA government to lift its ban on pegging iron ore areas, making it possible  to obtain title for iron ore claims, to risk money to explore, to study and ultimately if positive to invest. These two practical changes helped turn WA from a mendicant state to one that could stand on its own feet, and indeed, provide tax revenue and opportunities to other states.

For more information about celebrating agriculture and mining go here: https://www.nationalagricultureandrelatedindustriesday.com.au/ and here: https://www.miningday.com.au/

My Dad was a huge and exceptional contributor to our north, to our state and to this country. We certainly need more common sense policies, like the removal of government restrictions he was able to achieve to open the gate and improve Aussies lives.