Richard Conlan, Port Fairy

Poverty in society and the health and longevity prospects of our elderly are important issues that most would say should be seriously prioritised by government at all levels. It's therefore highly regrettable that in recent letters to The Standard some have chosen to link these to the growth of renewable sources of energy as part of the global response to the threats of climate change. Michael Cane claimed that renewables lead to poverty and then extended that to elderly people dying of hypothermia due to the switch to renewables. His elderly deaths assertion was endorsed by Anthony Cane in his "green madness'' attack on Warrnambool council and its recognition of a climate change emergency. Poverty and elderly deaths demand proper consideration and should not be debased and devalued by ideological crusades linking them to renewables in a climate change context .

Tony Delaney, Warrnambool

If ever an offer of a state (taxpayer-funded) funeral was justified, it would be for volunteer firefighters who lose their lives in the performance of their (unpaid) duties.

Michael J Gamble, Belmont

Not surprising the Prime Minister returns home and stubbornly refuses to address climate change. When polls show a majority of Australians are concerned about the topic, one can only wonder why there appears to be not one member of the government prepared to publicly challenge the government's ( i.e. Morrison's) position. One can only conclude the government comprises a bunch sycophants, more concerned with preserving their future retirement benefits than preserving the future of Australia for the next generation. Morrison may as well have stayed in Hawaii, nothing can rescue his reputation now.

Charles Cowell, Wangoom

Re Mr Delaney's tripe (December 13) about duck shooting having such devastating effects on the pending extinction of water birds. From over 50 years experience I can tell you that waterfowl, especially ducks will up and disappear overnight from huge wetlands when a sudden flood occurs up north in QLD or NSW. There they will stay until our wetlands refill as they do. This is fact and the only ducks that die during drought are the weak birds, leaving the stronger birds to breed up again and will have multiple nestings each year in the flooded areas. Shooting accounts for less than one per cent of the population. I have seen numerous times thousands of ducks rafting as it is called, just on dark, which is great mobs of ducks on the water fluttering up all together to about six feet then settling, then up again numerous times and settling again. The following morning, not a duck to be seen. Then to hear that huge rains have fallen somewhere else, usually up north, it's called instinct. Don't ask how they know but they do.

Terry Manley, Kinkella

In response to my call for the testing of international drivers at airports before they use our roads, Daniel Andrews insisted that he only takes advice from the experts. When it comes to bushfire risk management, the premier should listen to the experts. Not the self-proclaimed experts of the former fire-chiefs who formed the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action Group, who overlook all other contributing factors that do not support the 'climate emergency' agenda, but real scientists and researchers, like Mr David Packham OAM. Mr Packham has been studying bushfire seasons for decades both as a CSIRO researcher and as a resident of country Victoria, and contends that a primary causal factor in this year's intense nationwide bushfire season is that "you need fuel to have a fire and due to gross mismanagement of our forests we have way too much of it." This is why I have continuously tried to raise concern over the locking up of our state forests and our designation of roadside vegetation as 'wildlife corridors' and 'conservation zones' instead of safe places. It is integral to our bushfire management that we proactively reduce fuel loads in forests and on roadsides so the intensity of potential fires is reduced. The reality is, bushfires are an unfortunate part of our Australian landscape and the preoccupation with so-called bio-diversity concerns and native vegetation protection will not save vast acreage, livestock, homes, wildlife, native vegetation and even people from being burnt in an out of control fire. Instead, we should be looking to burn-off fuel loads like Indigenous Australians had been doing prior to European settlement, and encourage droving on roadside vegetation to ensure roads act as necessary firebreaks not fire wicks.

Beverley McArthur, Member for Western Victoria Region