THE National Party? What have they ever done for us?

While this may be a common sentiment among farmers struggling to make ends meet and wondering where their political voice disappeared to so drastically in the last 30 years, the National Party, according to Linda Courtenay Botterill and Geoff Cockfield, the authors of this book, has done quite a lot for farmers.

  • The National Party: Prospects for the Great Survivors, edited by Linda Courtenay Botterill and Geoff Cockfield. Allen & Unwin, rrp $39.99

Examples include the $1.8 billion dairy deregulation package, the diesel fuel rebate, the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Impact of National Competition Policy on Rural and Regional Australia and the extension of the export wheat monopoly beyond its "use-by date".

"A Liberal Party without a National Party partner is unlikely to have provided this level of safety net to an industry adjusting to the end of regulation," the book's editors conclude.

But these achievements have not translated into more votes and the Nationals' electoral downturn has led several of its leaders to see amalgamation with the Liberal Party as the key to survival.

Previous attempts to broaden its appeal away from farmers to a wider audience by changing its name - from the Country Party to the National Country Party in 1975, the National Party in 1982 and The Nationals in 2003, - have not translated into increased votes.

But despite its poor performance at the polls, the authors consider that the party has a future.

In fact, they propose three roles for the Nationals:

  • Helping to keep production costs down by doing things such as defending subsidised fuel and questioning increases in fertiliser and chemical costs.
  • Promoting market opportunities for existing production by engaging with trade negotiations and agreements.
  • Promoting new 'industries' for farmers, which might range from the sale and management of intangibles such as carbon sequestration.

It seems hardly the road back to the greatness the party once enjoyed under John "Black Jack" McEwen, but a positive path in any case.

The flow of this interesting and easy-to-read book is only interrupted by a curious academic style of putting references - complete with names, date and page number - in brackets in the middle of a sentence.