It is hardly the political shrills from the Treasurer surely:

Alan Moir

It is mostly the political shrills from Nationals that can be heard around Canberra these days. They are tearing themselves apart over the independence shown by Senator Barnaby Joyce and the defection of Senator Julian McGauran. The latter joined the Liberals because he judged that the Nationals had no future in regional Australia.

And they don't. They only pretend they are the party of the bush, or even regional Australia. In reality they are an appendage or tail of the Liberal Party. The Nationals do not have a clear independent sense of direction or a future that is worth fighting for. That's why they are on the decline into political irrelvance, for all their huff and puff. They are going to be wiped out by the LIberal Party because there isno distinguishable philosophical or policy difference between the two parties.

Senator McGauran had admitted as much at a media conference.