I think when the Prime Minister says "I will deliver for regional Australia", what she really means is:

"I will deliver up regional Australia to large corporations, once I have starved regional areas of funding. Only then will I deliver plenty of taxpayer funding to those who wish to take most of the food from the mouths of all Australians, and then charge them a fortune for the leftovers."

How does a Govt with such a slim margin get these things through?
Where is the opposition?

That's easy, Barry.

Labor, Greens and "Independents" combined have very slightly more than half of the seats in the lower house. Since none of them are allowed to vote against the ideas coming from the greedy corporate sector, the likelihood of corporates getting their own way is almost guaranteed, unless the electorate gives them a massive hiding they won't quickly forget.

This is why we must all be on their cases with threats of expulsion from their seats in the parliament on the next federal polling day.

I hope the likes of Oakshotte and Windsor are out on their ears at the next election, for the crime of NOT supporting regional Australia. In the meantime, voters must sock it to them at every opportunity.

At the same time, we must not tar all Independents with the same brush, as some people are doing elsewhere. However it is really important to find out what Independents support before voting for them. For example, some are "plants" passing preferences to The Greens.

On election days, people would be wise to collect all of the available how-to-vote cards to determine exactly where preferences are being passed, and even to ask the big question: "Why?"

At the last federal election, an Independent I was thinking of putting second ended up well down my list, after I found out she was passing preferences to The Greens. She also supported home births, which I think is a risk to both mothers and babies.