As a member of the opposition, you would expect nothing different.

But an opinion piece Mr Fitzgibbon wrote for Fairfax Media’s Farm Online website raises many salient issues which should particularly interest Bathurst residents.

The first is the reality that regional universities cannot simply hike up their fees to compensate for funding shortfalls in the same way the “sandstone universities” of the capital cities can.

Mr Fitzgibbon quoted figures that showed just 3.5 per cent of students at the Australian National University come from low-income families, while the figure is also very low at Sydney University (7.3 per cent) and Melbourne University (8.4 per cent).

By contrast, about one-in-four students at Charles Sturt University (24.1 per cent) come from low-income families.

If CSU is forced to dramatically raise its fees, then these students will simply drop out.

That robs the current generation of the chance to improve their lot in life, and also their descendants.

The other concern for Bathurst people should be the impact university cuts could have on the broader community.

As Mr Fitzgibbon says, regional universities help shape the social fabric of their towns, and that’s certainly the case in Bathurst.

CSU is also a major economic driver in the region as one of the city’s biggest employers, while the students who come to Bathurst to study contribute millions every year to local shops.

Any government policy that potentially hurts CSU would potentially hurt the rest of Bathurst as well.

No one expects a return to the days of free university education, but access to tertiary study must not be all about dollars, either.

Nationals MPs within the coalition government were elected on a platform of ensuring the bush had a voice at the table when big government decisions were made. But that voice seems to be little more than a whisper in this case.