COMMENT
It's almost election time and both major parties are reaching for the cheque books to make grand promises to electorates.
The coalition has opened the bidding with a couple of nice cheques for the reef and the koalas.
Along with the cheque comes the obligatory media headline that these treasures require "saving from our merciless farmers".
Further feeding the non-government organisations (NGO) and pay-per-paper scientists is a little like feeding baby crows - you will endure the squawking for years to come.
Trick is, the reef is actually flourishing - with coral growth at record levels.
Koala populations in Central Queensland are also actually healthier than ever.
It took 15 years post the landing in 1788 for us to sight one koala in this country.
But friends in Central Queensland, while recently holding a field day, have them in such abundance they were able to proudly advertise "come and see our koalas" - and see them the crowd did.
At the moment, many of our rural areas are enjoying a rare time of sensational seasons coupled with sensational commodity prices.
As I've said in this column many times before, the great thing about producers earning a little profit is the rate at which they reinvest to future productivity-driving measures.
All over the bush, people are investing in people, equipment, genetics and land improvement - with a little bit of flow over into the odd handy black mare and matching campdraft rig.
So, I'd like to suggest to the political parties considering their next splash target to consider trading in the cheque book for a set of scissors or a tube of white out.
Set some real goals when it comes to regulation.
Let us cut the cheques. You just need to clear a little brush out of the way.
Firstly lets pick a date, say 1972 for kicks.
Let's look at the number of regulations that existed in 1972 and make that our goal.
There are three elements to good regulation, that it needs to be reasonable, relevant and enforceable.
Let's undertake a national audit and assess every regulation based on those three deliverables.
Is it reasonable, and does it have a definitive target that is achievable?
Is it relevant, designed to specifically address a public good and is it actually achieving that particular public good?
And, lastly, and maybe most importantly, is it enforceable?
Is someone actively policing it right now and do they have the resources to do so consistently?
That's a pretty big goal to set for our political machine when so much of its energy is focused on the latest opinion poll or leaked text message.
In that precious spare time, have a look at the State-Federal relationship.
States aren't meant to be a tool to circumvent the constitution.
Act with integrity. Confidence will follow.
Farmers do confidence better than anyone.
If we weren't eternal optimists, none of us would still be in business.
While we focus on doing more, breeding better bullocks and yielding more per hectare, we want you, the politicians to just focus on how to do less, breed smaller bureaucracy and minimise your interference.
- Josie Angus is a beef producer from central Queensland.