THE gang of three independents who promise to work as a bloc in supporting a new Government have a long list of unresolved issues.
They claim to be after a shake-up in rural health, broadband, supermarket power, free trade, irrigation water use and ... oh yes ... competition policy.
The logic may be twisted at times though.
The free trade issue is about blocking food imports which are dealing constituents of regional NSW and Queensland out of markets for their produce.
But the biggest industries in Bob Katter's far north Queensland seat are beef and sugar - which depend entirely on the ability for Australia to access and retain export markets.
We can't have it both ways.
Tony Windsor is an impressive spokesman about the inequity that has developed in the treatment of rural and regional Australia.
Windsor has long pushed for an overhaul to competition policy to recognise "distance, smallness, remoteness" of regions.
The three amigos can have the greatest impact on rural infrastructure investment in telecommunications via the National Broadband Network.
This subject of political promise is one where there couldn't have been any greater distance between the two parties, and the compromises to appease the independents on addressing this genuine need for investment in regional Australia will be worth studying.
The power and influence of supermarkets will be a focus during this term of Government.
This issue reappears on the political agenda as Woolworths announces record profits and increases food retail profitability - to a level that is almost double those of its major rival Coles.
Woolworths boosted its bottom line by a little more than 10 per cent.
This comes, however, when food inflation is at near zero and when most consumer goods sales areas remain in decline.
The wider issue of competition policy however is a more complex challenge which has dogged the conservative parties for years with the unanswered issues about the structure of supply chain arrangements from the ACCC's inquiry into grocery prices and the recent Senate Review into dairy industry dealings now back on the table. It will be interesting to watch where those recommendations are taken as this story unfolds.
