SOME people just find a way to go the extra mile even when it seems like there is no time to do so, and John Anderson - who has just been awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), is certainly one of those.
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Living at Mullaley and running his own farm has not stopped Mr Anderson, who led the Nationals and was Deputy Prime Minister from 1999 to 2005, from putting everything he has into making the world a better place for others.
He has received the AC for for service to rural and regional development, leadership in international agricultural research and food security, social commentary, and contributions to not-for-profit organisations.
Mr Anderson, who is also an Officer of the Order of Australia, said the new honour is a result of a collective effort by many people in the industry.
"I deeply appreciate that this is not about political recognition or business recognition or any of those things, but it's what I share with Australians who do incredibly good things here and overseas," he said.
"Some of them are recognised, most of them are not, so I share it with them."
On top of his regional development work, Mr Anderson also runs a popular podcast called John Anderson: Conversations, which is incredibly popular.
"It's very, very dear to my heart because I've found there's a huge appetite, we've got 180,000 subscribers and over the past four years we've had around 20 million YouTube downloads," he said.
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"It shows there's a great appetite for clear thinking, and I believe we have a great difficulty in Australia getting good policies established because we don't have good debates.
"You can't get good policies without good debates, and good debates means good information and hearing one another respectfully and following the facts and the evidence, and that's what my video podcasts are designed to do."
While podcasting may not have been on his radar in the late 1990s and early 2000s while he was in politics, he was already thinking about how he could make a difference, post-politics.
His list of roles since then is extraordinary, and includes work with the Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia, Inland Rail Implementation Group, Rural Fire Service and Indonesia-Australia Dialogue, among many others.
Mr Anderson said while he didn't anticipate just how many organisations he'd get involved in, he was overwhelmed by the amount of groups doing great things while he was Deputy Prime Minister.
"I've always wanted to make a contribution, I've always believed that to whom much has been given, then much might be expected, and we ought to do whatever we can," he said.
"I don't think I foresaw everything I would be able to do, but it is true that the fact that I was deputy PM has helped me help others.
"The simple example is, I was acting Prime Minister when Australia contributed $1 billion to Indonesia [post the 2004 tsunami], and when I left politics there was a lot of projects that Australians were involved in within Indonesia that I was able to go and draw alongside and help with."
The 65-year-old isn't done yet though, and is keen to continue making a difference, particularly in the social commentary and food security sectors.
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