What now for Swan Hill, Robinvale, Lake Boga, Nyah West, Nyah and the region’s other irrigation communities following the federal election?

The Nationals vote increased in Mallee and we retained all our seats across regional Australia which speaks of the representation experienced by voters.  The Nationals have a near-record high number proportionately of Coalition seats, so regional Australia has never been in a stronger position to get its fair share of portfolios and responsibility in generations.

I congratulate Sussan Ley on her rise to the Liberal leadership.  Sussan serves the irrigation-dependent NSW federal regional electorate of Farrer just across the River from Swan Hill, Piangil and Robinvale.

A post-election soul-searching has begun in the Coalition to address the losses particularly in urban seats.

After a 1974 election loss to Gough Whitlam, in 1975 MP for Wannon (south of Mallee) Malcolm Fraser took on the Liberal leadership and took the Coalition vote to its highest-ever level since World War II, after the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government.

The Nationals leader John McEwen, member for Murray (which is now part of the seat of Nicholls to Mallee’s east), presided in the latter years of the Menzies era and briefly in 1967/8 served as prime minister after Harold Holt’s tragic disappearance.

Regional Australia has given the nation the leadership it needed in uncertain times. We are the nations’ engine room and wealth generators, unmoved by the winds of city fads or trends or the cheap political games Labor plays to buy votes.

Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese continues to say 'nobody held back, nobody left behind." but

However, Labor is holding back Murray River irrigators. Labor’s continued reckless water buybacks are reducing the consumptive pool of available water and driving up the price for water entitlements. At last check, Labor had bought $210 million in water entitlements during 2025, well up on $14 million bought in the last 6 months of 2024.

The Nationals will be making Swan Hill, Mallee and regional voices heard in the new Parliament to hold the Prime Minister accountable to govern for all Australians.