The Right Way
to Save Australia

Dear Central Councillor,

I am writing to seek your support for the upcoming Senate preselection for the NSW Nationals.

There will be one short email sent every morning for the next sixteen days outlining who I am, the skills, policies, solutions, qualifications and experience I can bring to this role to serve you and all the people in regional NSW and Australia.

I will not be sending anything via the post or paper mail.

I will not be making any individual phone calls trying to sway your vote. There will be no pressure put on you by me at all.

However I want to let you know that you are welcome to contact me at a time convenient for you if you want to know more about me and my suitability for this role. It is ok if you call me, txt me or email me. Likewise it is completely fine if you choose not to contact me as well.

I hope you find these emails informative, interesting and insightful.

It is undeniable that on so many objective measures, our country (outside of a world war) and our party have never been in a worse state. It is the time for serious thinking, discussion and debate.

I want this preselection to be a battle of ideas, policies and vision for our future. That will be my focus, not photos.

Tomorrow I will send a bio and keep my powder dry for what comes after that.

Kind regards,
Nathan Jones

Good morning NSW Central Councillors (there might even be a Queenslander on this email list).

Today as promised is my brief bio. I try to keep every email as a 20-second scan of the main headings or about a 2–3-minute read if you are more like me and like to read each word.

In the National Party

I am coming up to my 3rd election in the Tweed — campaigning strongly for Geoff Provest MP since 2019, the longest-serving National Party MP in NSW Parliament and one of the longest in any parliament in Australia. Currently and/or in the last three years I have served as:

• Tweed Coast Branch Chair
• Tweed Coast Branch Secretary
• Tweed SEC Chair
• Richmond FEC Vice Chair
• NSW National Party Central Council — member, various policy committees (Energy, Finance, Nuclear & Technology, Health, Education, Sport & Tourism, Infrastructure & Development)
• NSW National Party Central Executive 2025/2026 — Membership and Campaign committees

Education

• Masters of Economics, University of New England
• Bachelor of Commerce, Macquarie University
• Graduate Diploma of Education, Excelsia College
• Graduate Diploma of Divinity, SMBC

Career

• Business owner and property developer, 2008–2026 — currently building four homes under approved DA in Queensland
• Business owner and farmer, 2017–2026 — over 14 million sweet potatoes grown and taken to market
• High school teacher (Humanities), full-time 2008–2015, contract/casual 2018–2026
• University economics tutor and lecturer, UNSW, 2015–2017
• Accountant, 2001–2007 (tax and audit, public and private sectors)

Other roles along the way: sporting and debating coach, personal carer for people with disability, retail and factory work, P&C treasurer, rotary and church boards — and 33 years as a volunteer surf lifesaver, patrolling NSW beaches.

I'm a husband of 20 years, father, uncle, brother, son, cousin and friend of many, and I still get out for a walk or a jog on the Tweed Coast at sunrise or sunset when I can.

All of that in one potential senator for the NSW National Party!

Till tomorrow.
Nathan Jones

As great a man as he was and still is, we need a treasurer (far) better than Peter Costello to tackle the task ahead.

Compare Costello's Conundrum to Canavan's

Costello, when he entered the job as minister for the first time, faced a Federal Government debt of just over $100 billion. The GDP of the nation was around $500 billion. Gross debt was officially 20% of GDP.

In this financial year 2026/27, Labor and Chalmers' cabal will kindly leave Australians with $1,051 billion in Federal debt obligations — $51 billion above $1 trillion, or almost 35% of GDP. And that's just the federal debt, with a decade of forward deficits already trending towards $1.5 trillion.

Australia's productivity has flatlined for a decade, the Federal Government has almost no assets left to sell (unlike Costello's Telstra and Commonwealth Bank sales), and the states are collectively $700 billion in debt with little left to sell either. Add a demographic transition — from 7.5 workers per retiree in 1970 to a projected 2.7 by 2050 — and the next treasurer inherits a far harder job than Costello ever did.

Matt Canavan and the Nationals need people on the team who understand this problem properly. More on this over the coming weeks.

Nathan Jones

One of my favourite TV shows when I was growing up was the US sitcom "Family Ties".

Michael J. Fox played genius teenager Alex P. Keaton — a right-leaning economics nut in an otherwise very left-leaning family. One of my favourite episodes was when Alex came down from his bedroom and announced to his family: "I just calculated our nation's Foreign Debt." As someone studying Economics at the time, I wanted to be just like him — and that curiosity has kept me teaching or studying Economics for 33 years.

Another favourite episode was when Alex took over his little brother's pre-school class and told the kids about the "Terrible Tax Monster" — "the only thing that can stop this terrible, hairy, liberal monster is a Republican… now who wants to be a Republican?" Every hand shot up. We need membership officers taking notes!

It made me think — with a little help from AI — about how to explain government to a group of pre-schoolers:

The Sandpit and the coloured buckets:

Imagine Australia is a sandpit. There's a Prime Minister — the head sandpit captain — plus Ministers who each look after one job: schools, hospitals, roads. A quiet supervisor, the Governor-General, makes sure everyone follows the rulebook called the Constitution. Every few years, everyone votes again to pick new captains.

Every grain of sand is a voter — millions of them — and there are six teams, each with its own coloured buckets: red (the biggest, at the moment), blue, green, yellow, orange and teal. Each day, every team tries to build as many sandcastles as it can, while sending its toughest kids to kick down everyone else's. It's constant chaos, with a few tears when sand goes in the eyes — and the Governor-General has chosen to look away since 1975.

That's the end of the AI prompting — I hope no politicians are offended by a summary of modern politics a small child could understand. Though you might agree some of them act like unruly children (not you, of course!).

One thought of my own: it wouldn't surprise me if the red team arranges for a delivery of new sand — call it immigration, well over a million new arrivals in the last few years — dumped neatly in their own corner. More easy sandcastles for them.

My book "The Right Way to Save Australia" is like a drone above the sandpit — a much bigger view than the daily squabbles over sand, votes and who's holding which bucket.

I see a dangerous tidal wave of debt heading for that sandpit, and those playing in it blissfully unaware that borrowed money has to be repaid one day. Politicians need to look up from their buckets — there's something far more dangerous coming from another direction.

I almost made the book's front cover a picture of a sandpit with coloured buckets!

Nathan Jones
rightwayaust@gmail.com
www.rightwayaustralia.com

Imagine crime was lower and community spirit was higher.

Imagine there were more babies and less divorce.

Imagine more Australians living in the regions, not squeezed into several overcrowded cities.

Imagine the National Party for regional NSW having a NSW Senator who actually lives in regional NSW, unlike every other Senator.

Imagine, for the first time in 24 years, a National Party office and strong advocacy in the electorate of Richmond. (This would help all of NSW, but it would especially improve our chances of winning that seat.)

Imagine that office on the main street of Ballina, or Byron Bay, or Mullumbimby, or Murwillumbah or Tweed Heads.

Imagine that seat, that region once held by three Country/National Party Federal leaders (and Deputy Prime Ministers) finally getting some National Party presence back.

Imagine an economist with a good heart and mind, bringing new ideas to Parliament that can save this country.

Imagine a party that remembers it was built by farmers, not the shoe-polished political establishment.

Imagine a farmer who has grown 14 million sweet potatoes standing up in Canberra for our farmers.

Imagine a $1,051 billion Federal debt and $700 billion in State debt getting smaller, because someone in the Senate knows how to do it without any frontline services being adversely affected.

Imagine young families in Casino, Cootamundra or Coonabarabran buying a first home without $100,000 from the bank of mum and dad.

Imagine a Senator who has already spent twenty years in classrooms investing in the most important part of our nation's future.

Imagine a Senator who has spent thirty three years as a volunteer lifesaver, ensuring fun and safety can coexist at some of our favourite places.

Imagine small business owners keeping more of what they earn than they hand over to Canberra.

Imagine tens of extra billions flowing into the regions of Australia each year rather than being wasted on layer upon layer of capital city administrative head office waste and duplication.

Imagine regional hospitals fully staffed.

Imagine women in the regions having their first (not last) choice on where they deliver their baby.

Imagine our schooling system that produces students with more hope and less hopelessness.

Imagine our children are all taught to love this country, not to be ashamed of it.

Imagine a Senator, one voice for regional NSW, who starts work at 4am each day and loves to serve.

Imagine your grandchildren affording a home in the town they grew up in.

Imagine young generations filled with love and purpose rather than filled with screen time, addictions, medical pills, anxiety and depression.

Imagine a Senator living on a large working farm, surrounded by 100-acre farms, yet being 12 minutes from the busiest non-capital-city airport in regional Australia (Coolangatta) - meaning I can visit your town or anywhere faster than most.

None of this happens by accident. It takes hard work, honesty, clear policy, a preselection win and a strong vote at the next Federal Election. Twenty years teaching, three elections for Geoff Provest and thirty three years as a lifesaver were not wasted years. They were preparation. Imagine regional NSW with someone in the room who is actually from here, knows its heart and has a heart for the people.

Nathan Jones
rightwayaust@gmail.com
www.rightwayaustralia.com