He has vision, is forward looking and most importantly he achieves what he has set out to do.

All the people standing for the Nationals can only hope that their ideas will be heard in the party room and hope that they get a chance to bring the attention in Canberra to the issues in the Mallee since the melting pot of all the issues in the party room is not focused on the Mallee.

The same applies for the Liberals.

Therefore – Ray Kingston for the Mallee. 

Astrid van den Akker-Luttmer, Warracknabeal

IN ORDER to satisfy his obsessive interest in carbon dioxide emissions and climate change impact, Ron Fischer (Letter to the editor, Wimmera Mail-Times, January 11) might like to visit the Climate Council website.

Otherwise he’d better tune up his worn out violin as band practice starts in half an hour.

Gary Howard, Quantong

WE HAVE been seeing and hearing of the young Saudi Arabian woman with perfect English and obviously money to afford a flight from Saudi Arabia to Thailand in an attempt to seek asylum in Australia or elsewhere.

She had denounced her Islamic religion, telling us she would no doubt be killed if she was returned to Saudi Arabia.

She used Twitter – about which I know nothing – to make contact with people while barricading herself in her hotel room.

Australia was certainly considering her plight seriously. However Canada offered her asylum first and she is already there. 

Sarah Hanson-Young, our senator, of course blames the Morrison government for its ineptness.

However I’ve been listening for months to see if the ABC or any mothers who have a lot to say in this country when it suits them and have high profiles, if anyone at all speaks up for the plight of a young Pakistani  Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who not only has been jailed, but persecuted for some trumped charge of blasphemy in her Muslim country. 

There has been not one word from the Sarah Hanson-Youngs of this country or the Julie Bishops or the Tanya Pliberseks.  Not one.

They are all silent. I’ve had a newspaper cutting of this young woman for months. It is a tragic story. 

But give us a young progressive girl from a Muslim country who wants to escape and the news is full of it every day.

Shame on the young and not so young women of this free country who have high profiles and can speak up when it suits them.

Talk about bigger quotas of women in the Liberal Party. Who cares? Not me.

I am ashamed of you. Yes, all of you.

At long last two journalists, both male not female, have spoken up this weekend which I discovered just after I had started this letter. Due to other pressing issues I hadn’t even opened the weekend newspaper.

Things are desperate for this young woman, a mother – but the women of this country are silent. 

Forgive me if I’ve missed your pleas for this Christian woman.

Ruth Shepherd, Horsham 

LET’S be honest – how much time did you waste on clickbait lists in 2018?

You know the ones, like “seven ways to look ten years younger”.

In the interests of short attention spans everywhere, the below list will be the most important one you will read this year. I guarantee you won’t get to number three and give up because it’s rubbish.

But be warned, what I am about to say will shock you.

A recent study has found one-in-four people will have a stroke in their lifetime.

Yes, one-in-four people will have their lives turned upside down by a disease that attacks the brain – the vital organ responsible for our thoughts, movements and feelings.

Stroke does not discriminate. It can strike anyone, at any age and any time.

It impacts everyday people – mums, dads, brothers, friends, colleagues or even you.

There will be more than 56,000 strokes in Australia this year.

But there is hope – and it is called prevention. About 80 per cent of strokes can be prevented, and we can all take simple steps to reduce our risk.

Remember this list and take your first steps towards reducing your stroke risk in 2019. It could save your life.

Associate Professor Seana Gall, Stroke Foundation Clinical Council