The popular myth of Australia being an agrarian country is just that; a myth. It is true that for the first 60 or so years of the 20th century the nation "rode on the sheep's back" in the sense that most of its export income came from agricultural production like wool and meat. There was always plenty of work in the country, and country towns had a thriving, or at least stable population level. Political representation for the country was obtained via the Country Party which was formed in 1920. For most of the 20s, 30s and 40s, it received around 10 to 12% of the vote in national elections. The high water mark was in the depths of the Great Depression in 1937, when it scored 15.5% of the vote giving it 16/74 lower house seats. (That's if one trusts Wikipedia which I don't entirely since its current count is out by 1 seat). In the 1950s to 1970s the vote mostly stayed in the 8 to 10% range, occasionally peeking back into higher double digits. The last time it did that was in 1987 when it scored 11.5% of the vote, but still lost 2 members giving it 19 out 148 in the House. From 1996 onwards, as rural populations fell, urban populations increased, and even the rural population started to feel that the Nationals (as they had rebranded themselves by then) had lost touch with their base, their vote began a long, unending slide and has not been above 5% since 2007.

Even at its peak, the party was never able to form a government but it could certainly influence who did. In the 1950s it teamed up with the urban-based Liberal (conservative) party to form a coalition since neither could achieve government without the other. What does this have to do with this aircraft?

Regional Express (also known as REX) Airlines was formed from the smouldering remains of the collapsed Ansett group in the first years of the 21st century. As its name suggests, its primary intention is to serve the regions, the heartland of the National (formerly Country) Party. Note the motto inscribed on the fuselage; "Our heart is in the country". Would it surprise you to learn that a former leader of the National party, John Anderson (in office from 1999 to 2005), is now deputy chairman of REX?

Would it surprise you to learn that REX received an abundance of government support during the pandemic? Would it further surprise you to learn that the Nationals and their coalition partners the Liberals were in power at the time?

REX denies that it received favourable treatment, despite the fact that it received some payments that its competitors Qantas and Virgin Australia did not. The lack of government support was one of the reasons that Virgin Australia collapsed during the pandemic, and was bought out by a private equity group. (Discussed in image 0264.)

Was there blatant favouritism? It's not a good look when the transport minister of the time was Anderson's successor as leader of the Nationals and therefore deputy prime minister Michael McCormack. It's an even worse look when the amount given to REX is claimed to be more than the amount given to Virgin and Qantas combined.

To be honest I don't have a definite opinion on whether they were given more than they should have been. What I do know is that it enabled them to go from being an all Saab turboprop airline servicing little townships in the Australian outback, to owning (well, leasing) jets to allow them to compete on the Sydney - Melbourne - Brisbane "golden triangle". REX raised $150 million in November 2020 to lease some ex-Virgin 737s including this one, the former VH-VUU. Originally delivered to Virgin Blue when its shtick was "We're a fun airline!" back in April 2010, the plane's original name was Lady Bluetiful. When the airline changed to a more businesslike approach as Virgin Australia in May 2011, it was retitled as Kingscliff Beach.

Did REX's plan work? At the time of the capital raising the goal was to secure 37% of the domestic market by 2025. In 2023 it has only 6%. So it failed? Not exactly. The jets are apparently profitable, probably because Virgin still isn't fully trusted after its collapse (especially considering who or what was appointed as its CEO), and there are plenty of travellers who are heartily sick of Qantas' sh1t, and especially of its (in my opinion) troll-like CEO. (Your humble correspondent is included in that group, as you may have guessed.) It's hard to go broke making a profit, whatever your market share might be.

But back to the aircraft; if your airline name is REX, then obviously the registration VH-REX should be reserved for your flagship! Previously, between its arrival in May 2010 and December 2020, that registration had been held by a Saab 340B+. But now that REX has jets, the flagship registration can't be held by some dinky little turboprop that first hit the air in February 1996 and has had more owners than a 1996 Toyota Corolla in a Parramatta Road car yard. The poor old Saab therefore was unceremoniously booted out of the flagship registration and was rechristened as VH-ZPN. (As of the time of writing on 2 April - yes, I am doing these a bit faster than usual - VH-ZPN had not been in the air for 3 weeks. I imagine it's out for service or something.)

The name REX chose for its flagship aircraft? The Kay Hull. Who? Exactly. She was a National Party member of parliament from 1998 to 2010, representing Riverina in NSW. Apparently another of its jets is about to be named after another Nationals politician, but since it hasn't been done yet I'll keep schtum about that in case it's an unfounded rumour. Even so, you can see why I started this commentary with a description of the Country / Nationals Party.