– Bill Guest, Hepburn Springs

In, “This is why we celebrate on January 26” (The Age 26 January) Scott Morrison stated, “Our First Australians walked here long before anyone else, loving and caring for these lands and waters. They still do. We honour their resilience and stewardship across 60,000 years”. Stewardship, though, was the last thing on Morrison’s mind when, as a climate change denier himself, he appointed climate change deniers to the most crucial climate relevant ministries: Angus Taylor to Energy, Melissa Price to Environment, Matt Canavan to Resources and Northern Australia and David Littleproud to Agriculture and Water Resources. Climate change denier Barnaby Joyce was appointed Special Envoy for Drought Assistance and Recovery. Climate change presents the most serious threat our nation has confronted. Yet we have six conservative boofheads determined to dishonour 60,000 years of stewardship and loving and caring for these lands and waters to ensure no serious action is ever taken. Conservatives are hard-wired to pursue wealth and power at any cost and to dismiss any notion of caring for the natural environment even if it means killing the future. Conservative responses to the global and Australian kids’ climate change rallies were revealing. According to Morrison, "We don't support the idea of kids not going to school to participate in things that can be dealt with outside of school", and Canavan, "The best thing you learn about going to a protest is how to join the dole queue”. You have to be pretty thick and desperate to be this dismissive of the views of the smartest, most articulate and most passionate generation of kids ever. Kids and parents everywhere are looking at the appalling catastrophes unfolding in our Murray-Darling life support system. They know what it predicts for the future of the rest of our nation devoid of stewardship, and they know it was caused by people with the same mindsets as Morrison and his cronies. – Dr Lawrie Wilson, Ballarat