Last Post, December 1

Schoolchildren are deluding themselves if they think they can change government policy.

If schoolchildren think they can force a change in government policy, no matter how well-intentioned they think they are, I’m afraid the world has really gone mad.

Peter Sussman,
Brighton-Le- Sands, NSW

I agree with Liberal vice-president Karina Okotel that the Victorian election was a disaster for the party (“Leaked email: how Libs marched off cliff”, 30/11). But Okotel need not worry about the federal election if Bill Shorten is still Labor leader. According to opinion polls, his popularity stays in the far south, giving the Coalition a chance.

Bill Mathew, Parkville, Vic

The scale of Labor’s triumph in the Victorian election suggests larger reasons than just a badly run Liberal Party campaign.

Norm Neill, Darlinghurst, NSW

If the threat to expel Malcolm Turnbull from the Liberal Party is successful, what is to stop him from joining the ALP and becoming a candidate for Wentworth?

Con Vaitsas, Ashbury, NSW

Despite increased hostility, Scott Morrison is coming out strongly and showing he can rise above it. All he needs to do now is dump Paris, put climate change and renewable energy targets on the back burner, and go in hard with the policies that really matter.

George Spencer, Camillo, WA

The last thing the country needs is an ex-military man in parliament. We need more doves and fewer hawks in Canberra.

D. J. Fraser, Currumbin, Qld

Hey, Greens, here’s some free advice: if you are going to virtue signal, then you have to be virtuous (“The Greens’ MeToo woes”, 30/11).

Meg Davis, Corinda, Qld

The Greens have been pointing the finger at others and suffering from premature expectations about their impending elevation to power. They could learn from a couple of new-age proverbs: people who live in carbon-neutral glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones; and don’t count your gender-fluid chickens before they hatch.

Glenn Marchant, Pascoe Vale, Vic

Bill Shorten has pledged to ramp up research and development at the same time his party policy on energy denies the greatest technical advantage in modern times — nuclear power. Labor thinks old technology is the answer.

Neville Wright, Kilcunda, Vic

Richard Sicree (Letters, 30/11) suspects the Bureau of Meteorology is exaggerating the frequency of extreme rainfall. The ABC is in cahoots aiming to justify the climate change story by repeatedly broadcasting BoM’s warnings.

Peter Condon, Southport, Qld