Minor parties may seem a good idea at the time, but the last three years show they are often something you wake up to regret. Who would have thought members from two conservative seats in NSW would vote for a Labor-Green government but that's what happened.

This election we can draw a line under the past three years but to do that the LNP needs two votes not just one. To remove the carbon tax, to fix the budget, to build the roads we need and to better protect our borders we need a vote in the lower house and in the Senate.

Let's not push the replay button this election. Clive Palmer is preferencing the Greens and Bob Katter is preferencing Labor. It's all a recipe for another rainbow government that we don't need.

Don't risk your vote with minor parties on the weekend.

Matthew lives with his wife live in Toowoomba and they have three boys. Before running for the Senate, Matthew was Barnaby Joyce’s chief of staff. He has helped develop policies to provide tax concessions for vital infrastructure and to encourage people to move to the regions; worked on a Senate inquiry that recommended tougher environmental controls on coal seam gas developments and on a Coalition report on the potential to invest in new dams throughout Australia.

6 September 2013