The Nationals Leadership Team of Leader Warren Truss, Deputy Leader Nigel Scullion, Senate Leader Barnaby Joyce (that's me) and Senate Deputy Fiona Nash toured northern NSW this week to hear what the people in the electorates of Page, Richmond, Cowper and Lyne had to say about the ETS and other issues.

Guess what? I couldn't find one person who wanted the ETS, or the CPRS as the Rudd Government now calls it. The Employment Termination Scheme and the Extra Tax System are now called the CPRS, that's CP for Cunning Plan to take us to a double dissolution election and RS is the state the economy will be when we get there.

We met people who are working hard to secure their futures, we met employers who are responsible for hundreds of families and we met people interested in what the Nationals have to offer for Regional Australia.

We will not as a party support any policy or legislation that puts the 7 million people who live in Regional Australia at any disadvantage to those who live in the major urban areas.

The CPRS will do exactly that and we cannot support it.

The other major issue affecting people in the regions is health and the state of the hospitals. The Nationals released a Regional Health policy at the Federal Council in Canberra in August that calls for a Regional Health Minister and the return of local hospital boards. The health of regional hospitals will continue to ail while decisions are made at arm's length. Local knowledge is the best cure for bad spending decisions that are made by incompetent state governments.