THE country kingmakers will likely produce a mixed bag of parliamentary reform and gains for rural areas writes LESLIE WHITE

Renewable energy, agriculture, fast affordable broadband for rural areas and a more cohesive and transparent parliament are the priorities for the three rural independents.

All three are passionate about farming.

Monash University political expert Nick Economou said independents deciding hung parliaments tended to want either parliamentary reform or "regional brokerage".

"In 1999 in Victoria, the independents wanted parliamentary reform and they got that," Mr Economou said.

"But regional brokerage fell by the wayside and (Mildura independent) Russell Savage couldn't deliver local projects."

The Nationals took the seat back from Mr Savage two terms later.

The three federal rural independents, all former Nationals, have some goals in common but have very different personalities and priorities. As media from around the nation and the globe scrambled for interviews, New England MP Tony Windsor and Lyne MP Rob Oakeshott said they would make meeting each other and the two aspiring PMs the priority instead.

However Queensland independent Bob Katter, noted for his eccentricity and hatred of the National Party, took a different approach.

On Monday morning, probably the biggest morning of his political life, The Weekly Times contacted his office.

His staffer advised the weekend had been busy for Mr Katter and so he had decided to take the morning off.

The afternoon he would dedicate to local media at the exclusion of the national media, because his local media reported on him every week of the year.

Mr Katter was asked at the weekend why he had left the Nationals.

"Have you got two hours?" Katter asked.

He went on to detail his angst at the dropping of tariffs on agricultural imports and deregulation of agricultural industries while the Nationals "stood by".

He is pro-nuclear energy and pro-ethanol - Katter's electorate is home to one-third of Australia's sugar growers.


Mr Oakeshott has nominated the "revival of local agriculture through food security planning" and investment in country roads as his big-ticket items.

He said voters were tired of party politics and has flagged the idea of pollies from both sides combining to form a new government.

He also laments that the findings of cross-party senate committees are ignored and labels the current parliamentary system "too adversarial".

Both Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor, a farmer who studied agriculture, think the delivery of high-speed affordable broadband to rural people is important.

Both say stable government is a priority and are keen on renewable energy.

Mr Windsor takes the "precautionary approach" to climate change - he says if we clean up our carbon pollution and the scientists turn out to be wrong, then we've only "wasted a little bit of money", but the consequences of ignoring the science if it turns out to be correct are dire.

He stated again this week that renewable energy could provide employment in regional areas.

Mr Oakeshott can't understand why following a definitive inter-governmental report on climate change and the commissioning of the Garnaut Report, in which eminent economist Ross Garnaut modelled how to transition Australia to a low-carbon economy, that Garnaut's report was effectively discarded.

When Greens deputy leader Christine Milne introduced a bill into the Senate for a gross solar feed in-tariff - which meant businesses such as farms could set up solar panels to supply their energy and be paid for the power they produce  - Mr Oakeshott introduced her bill to the House of Representatives.

He said this week he believed private members should be able to force a vote on a private member's bill - at present the member can introduce the bill, but parliament is not forced to vote.

Senator Milne said entering negotiations with a list of demands would not work for the kingmakers.

"I've been in balance (of power) twice ... you need to work in a collaborative way rather than holding people to ransom," Senator Milne said.

"It just doesn't work; at least not in the long term."

Both Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor have said Labor's broadband policy was superior to the Coalition's.

However Mr Windsor has noted having a policy and delivering it are "different things" and Mr Oakeshott has suggested the outcome could be a combination of the best elements of the two policies.

A plan to ban corporations, companies and unions from making political donations - limiting donations to individuals and capping them at $5000 - is understood to be supported by the trio.