Kenneth Graham [Ken Baxter], “Some sound advice from a modest farmer,” The Bulletin, December 12, 1978, p. 123.

The “Modest Member” and his successor the “Modest Farmer” are institutions of Australian journalism and agriculture. The man who has been writing the columns, Bert Kelly, is an unintentional but important part of the rural sectors’ propaganda apparatus.

Week after week for years, Bert Kelly wrote articles for The Australian Financial Review and a number of important rural weeklies. The articles are still appearing. Although they range over a vast number of subjects the basic theme is the same. Kelly believes that as long as an Australian Government does not lumber Australian agricultural export industries with the high costs of tariff protection and generally minimises its interference in the economy there is a reasonable chance that Australia will have a pretty reasonable future.

Kelly has published a most readable narrative entitled One More Nail, appropriately, it is dedicated to “that bitch Mavis” who was so much a part of the “Modest Member” columns.

As would be expected, the book restates lucidly the arguments in favour of lower tariff barriers and points out the idiotic results of Australia pursuing the notion that higher tariff protection will solve our unemployment problems and leave us with a “viable” manufacturing sector.

The book effectively deals with the nonsense which has been trotted out by the Australian Chamber of Apparel Manufacturers and shows that the costs in many cases arising from the ridiculous levels of protection granted to the apparel, textile and footwear industries has probably cost Australia more in terms of jobs and trade than if the protection had never been given.

For those who a broader interest in agriculture, the book is significant for three other reasons. The first is that it gives about the best insight I have read into the real problems of providing overseas aid for agricultural projects to underdeveloped countries.

Kelly describes in some detail his footslogging through the sterile, rocky hills of Nepal and how he reached the conclusion that a vast quantity of superphosphate was needed along with a revolution in sheep-farming practice if Australian sheep were to grow in Nepal.

With a candour lacking in many assessments of overseas aid projects involving Australian funds, expertise or both, Kelly reached the conclusion that the project was dubious and the best answer would be no!

The proponents of aid for overseas agriculture without any questions should have the first 80 pages of One More Nail beside their beds as a basic text.

The second reason the book is significant is that it appeared at a time when most of Australia’s primary producer organisations are obsessed with connubial matters prior to the formation of the National Farmers’ Federation early next year. Bert Kelly makes the important point, “One thing I had to learn early on was that the farmer organisations did not always speak for the majority of farmers.”

The point is then expanded and a series of examples given to establish the relationship between the farmers, the farm organisations and the politicians. Had the book been published six months ago there would have been a number of organisational leaders who might have been stopped in their tracks and asked whether a single organisation meant necessarily that the farmers would have their views better heard in Canberra.

If the Kelly argument is correct, I suspect it will enable more politicians to speak with the commendable bluntness which became a part of his reputation when dealing with farmers and their organisations. If the highly protection manufacturing sector thought they were treated roughly at his hands they should read the book to satisfy themselves that he did not discriminate between farmers and manufacturers.

The chapter on his dealings with the rural sector is also important because it shows that in many cases the Country Party fawned unnecessarily at the feet of the farm organisations rather than standing up for what it believed to be the most suitable policies. There have been instances when the ALP has followed the Country Party example very closely.

The Kelly argument has credibility because as he says: “A member should be able to tell his people that he will not do things that he knows they want, but which he thinks will be bad for them. Having my farm to go home to was always a great comfort. And knowing farming as I did was always helpful because my farmers knew that I knew what I was talking about.”

The third reason the book is significant is that it deals with a number of the policy sacred cows and destroys some of the myths which circulate around the bush about the way in which the parliament runs.

To the better informed, the sections on the book dealing with Kelly’s experiences in the electorate and parliament may seem superficial but they would only have to read Kelly’s “Modest Farmer” columns to know that this is the way in which he has been able to transmit relatively complex matters to an uninformed electorate.

These chapters should be read carefully because they provide farmers and their leaders with some very useful advice about how to deal with politicians. It is appalling to see the poor standard of many primary industry approaches on matters of policy and having watched Bert Kelly and some of his more intelligent comrades at work on a parliamentary committee it is possible to understand why some of the farmers and their leaders have to be led by the nose to extract the nub of any submission.

Many farmers who are advocates of the lower tariff line will buy it out of loyalty and as a biblical text to pull out occasionally to re-enforce their faith.