With three other MPs he formed "the Dries" which were then a backbench group which advocated economic conservatism and soundness in public finances and rejected short-term populism.

Among his campaigns was to stop the two-airline monopoly and various subsidies to the aircraft, shipping and car industries (former Navy Minister and "Dry" Bert Kelly, author of "The Modest Member" and "The Modest Farmer" columns in various papers, had described the aircraft and shipping industries in Australia as "Our flying and floating feather beds.").

Indeed, although a competent and professional politician and a hard-working electorate member, his outspoken and independent attitude and readiness to express his strong economic convictions, probably affected his career within the Liberal Party adversely.

Despite his undoubted high abilities, his frequent outspoken opposition to Fraser probably prevented him being considered for the Ministry which his intelligence and grasp of affairs would ordinarily have warranted.

In 2002 he wrote a book, Dry,[1] published by the IPA and mainly concerned with the fight for public economic conservatism during the years of the Fraser Government, and the elimination of uneconomic tariffs and bounties.