Last year in the immediate aftermath of the Queensland fires I visited the Miriam Vale evacuation centre. The people I met there had just lost land, property and pets. Their understandable frustration spilled over and almost every person raised with me that if only they had been able to do more cool burns, or clear fire breaks, this would not be as bad. Read more

To develop our resources for the nation we need politicians to work together A couple of months ago Bob Brown thought it was a fantastic idea to invade Queensland with an army of hypocritical and condescending activists.   Read more

Our wealth is built on the endeavours and resources of neglected ground-level Australia I am so proud of the Nationals. We are fighters. We are battlers. And, yes, sometimes a blue is a little scrappy. Read more

Adani opponents won’t accept indigenous Australians wish to think for themselves. On November 27, 1861, a group of white settlers set out to take revenge against an Aboriginal tribe that had killed 19 people. At least 60 Aborigines from the Wangan and Jagalingou tribe were shot, but the true number was likely much higher. In the ­aftermath, the Wangan and Jagalingou were dispersed to missions, often hundreds of kilometres away. Read more

Earlier this year I visited the Qenos plastics manufacturing facility in the southern suburbs of Sydney at Botany. The factory supports more than 300 Sydney jobs and demonstrates that Australia can house world-class manufacturing facilities that provide high paying and rewarding employment. That factory, and those jobs, are here in Australia because we traditionally have had secure access to resources such as gas, which is a key input to making plastics. Read more

Despite their best efforts the Labor-Green alliance haven’t killed the Adani mine. Eight years on from when it was first slated – through a dozen legal challenges, unsubstantiated vilification, ill-informed protests across the nation and a recalcitrant Labor Party at the state and federal level – the project is financed and ready to roll. Read more

Science is telling us agriculture, if managed properly, can work in a tropical climate. There is a myth that we can’t grow food in our north. Those peddling this are wrong and often have not set foot north of Gympie. Read more

AUSTRALIA has had five prime ministers since Longreach last saw a proper wet. PMs can’t make it rain but we can build dams that help us store water in wetter areas to relieve drier areas. Not all of Queensland is in drought. Last year, the small town of Kowanyama in the Cape, recorded just under its average annual rainfall. On average the Mitchell River (right), which flows near Kowanyama, has the largest annual streamflow of any river in northern Australia. Read more

The prosperity of developing nations depends on fuel we can supply. When the Hazelwood power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley shut down last year, the Australian Conservation Foundation claimed its closure was a signal “the era of polluting coal is coming to an end”. Read more

Memory of beef pioneer trashed as ALP thieves sell their souls for Green votes A legend and pioneer of the Australian cattle industry, Maurice Binstead, died last month. Read more