Perhaps they’ve been bouyed by the party’s success at the past two state elections but some Nationals – including their state leader Troy Grant – now appear to be losing their way. Indeed, Mr Grant should be the first hauled into the refresher course.

This week Mr Grant warned voters in his Dubbo electorate against voting for an independent candidate at the 2019 election because, he argued, independents could not be effective members of parliament.

While acknowledging Dubbo had recently been served by two popular independents in Tony McGrane and Dawn Fardell, Mr Grant said they were both “great people who achieved bugger all”.

“Dubbo was left in the dark ages and went backwards because governments don’t support independents,” Mr Grant said. “The history is strewn throughout our country.”

Sorry, come again?

What the deputy leader of our state is saying there is this: “If you don’t vote for us, don’t expect to get anything from us.”

It’s an extraordinary statement, one that’s breath-taking in its petulance and baffling in its sheer unconstitutionality.

No, Mr Grant, governments are not elected to work for those who voted for them - they are elected to work for everyone.

If your government thinks otherwise, then it’s not just the people of Dubbo who should be concerned.

At the same time as Mr Grant was trying to rewrite democracy, a handful of his own MPs were considering withdrawing from democracy altogether over the premier’s proposed ban on greyhound racing.

Mike Baird’s announcement that greyhound racing would be banned from July 1, 2017 has put the heat on a number of Nationals MPs throughout the bush, and a few of them are melting under the pressure and suggesting they might abstain from the vote when it hits the floor of parliament this week.

Again, wrong. The people of NSW do not elect MPs – and pay them handsomely – only to have them sit on their hands when the going gets tough.

MPs are elected to make decisions, not shy from them, and if Nationals abstain from the greyhounds vote then they should be handing back their pay packets this week.

It’s time for a change of thinking with the NSW Nationals, and the change must start at the top.