The mining industry supports farmers in the lean times

It has been my experience over many years that the mining industry is an employer and supporter of farmers and rural workers during periods of drought or economic downturn. Farmers are employable because of their skills and work ethic.

Clearly the Adani coal mine and the other developments in the region is the best form of assistance for local farmers to get back on their feet.

The arrogance of the Bob Brown cavalcade (“Adani protest sent packing by an angry town”, 29/4) who use the drought as an excuse for banning coal exports shows a disregard for a solution that gives farmers support.

Wilson Tuckey, Ascot, WA

Climate change pawns

Chris Kenny asks “when will green-left delusionists see through the falsehoods of the climate change argument?” The answer might be when they can no longer afford electricity (”Won’t save planet but we will destroy our own economy”, 27/4).

Climate change defines them and gives meaning to their lives. It is the rationale for them to tell the rest of us how to live. They are pawns in the game of self-interest while the rest of us are pillaged by green-power providers. The propaganda they scream about the “impending global crisis” and the plangent emotional blackmail about our grandchildren’s future is just twaddle.

David Bidstrup, Plympton Park, SA

Intangible assets

You quoted former prime minister John Howard telling a Liberal Party rally the “only real asset you have is your family home” (“Howard lashes the ‘economic madness’ of class warfare”, 29/4). Surely our good health, our time, our families and our friends are our greatest assets. Our education and our life in a free country such as Australia (whatever we might consider its faults) are other beneficial resources. It is obvious that we should always be thinking of ways to protect and enhance our assets, but the fact that we’re experiencing a typical election campaign is no reason for pessimism or blindness to our real assets.

John Carmody, Roseville, NSW

Battler Abbott

As Ross Fitzgerald (“Abbott a punching bag for Liberal-hating activists”, 29/4) makes clear, Tony Abbott is leading not only a battle for his Warringah seat but also the battle for the future of conservative politics.

It is important not to forget that Australia is fundamentally conservative. And, even if Labor wins it will only be in for three years and it won’t be so bad.

Indeed, exposure to a short spell of Labor government may be the opportunity to remind us that conservative values are as relevant to 21st-century Australia as they were in the Howard years.

Whatever the result in May, one thing is certain: we can continue to count on Abbott remaining as the leading champion of an Australia underpinned by conservative values.

Peter Smith, Lake Illawarra, NSW

Demolition of GetUp

Paul Kelly performed a brilliant demolition of GetUp (“Twin blights on our democracy”, 27/4). It is impossible to understand the politics of the Left without acknowledging its driving force of malice that displaces moral consistency — and that makes it all the more incomprehensible. The virtue signallers are so often shown to be devoid of virtue.

One of GetUp’s targets, Tony Abbott, who displays virtues they conspicuously lack, is ridiculed by this group. This is hypocrisy on steroids, and we see it all around us every time they raise their fists in anger or imitate fascist mobs to denounce fascism; every time they exclude someone on the grounds of inclusiveness; every time they discriminate in the name of non-discrimination.

Peter Davidson, Ashgrove, Qld