Last Post, February 4

Looking forward to morning dose of Leak every morning.

Apologies to your wonderful reporters and feature writers, but I’m back to my old habit of opening the newspaper and looking at the Leak cartoon first.

Tony Adams, Barretta, Tas

The decline in the need for golf courses is hardly surprising (“Golf estates face sport’s decline”, 2-3/2). With both parents working, and attending their offsprings’ activities on the weekend, a round of golf is too time-consuming. Gone are the days when stay-at-home mums let their spouses have “me-time” for five or six hours on a Saturday or Sunday, or played themselves during the week.

Roseanne Schneider, Toowoomba, Qld

Fresh from his experience at the helm of the so-called Turnbull Coalition, Malcolm seeks retribution through his “Turnbull independents”, with help from GetUp.

Gerard Barry, Roseville, NSW

Peter Jennings’ article (“West will find 2019 a turning point in its dealings with China”, 2-3/2) was an excellent briefing on concerns about cyber infrastructure suppliers and their obligations to the Chinese intelligence. Who can blame the Chinese for ingenuity that enabled them to hack into Parliament House so effectively that our MPs thought the Chinese Ministry of State Security was an IT help desk in Canberra? No doubt our MPs tried to claim a pay rise for outsourcing services to low-cost alternatives.

Rick Atkinson, North Curl Curl, NSW

A very moving story from Gary Hughes (“The eternal echoes of Black Saturday hell”, 2-3/2). His account of the 2009 fires in the Kinglake-Marysville district had me groping for my handkerchief. Congratulations to Gary for having the nerve to write it, and also for the Gold Walkley Award he received for his original articles.

Brian Pymont, Frenchs Forest, NSW

It’s nothing new; there has long been something fishy about the Murray-Darling Basin management.

Elvis Kipman, Killara, NSW

It occurs to me that if Murray-Darling water was made available for irrigation at its true market value there would be enough left over for the health of the lower Darling and the environment. Scarce water is liquid gold in our dry continent.

Peter Crammond, Kadina, SA

With North Queensland experiencing “catastrophic record-breaking floods”, Innisfail resident Dale Ellis (Letters, Feb 2-3/2 ) reaffirms that global warming denial is a cult of impenetrable ignorance impervious to observable reality, while proving beyond doubt that you can lead a cult to water but you cannot make them think.

Chris Roylance, Paddington, Qld