Your afternoon Briefing: Plastic bag ban damaging supermarket sales

Good afternoon, readers. The plastic bag ban is damaging supermarket sales and Scott Morrison names the new Productivity Commission chief.

Good afternoon, readers. The plastic bag ban is starting to damage supermarket sales and Scott Morrison appoints another former Liberal Party staffer to a key economic role.

A shopper is seen carrying bags at a Coles Sydney CBD store, Sydney, Monday, July 2, 2018. Woolworths says it will hand out free reusable bags for the next 10 days as its customers get used to its ban on single-use plastic bags. Woolies stores in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia stopped providing free single-use plastic bags on June 20. (AAP Image/Peter RAE) NO ARCHIVING

Supermarkets match bag reward scheme

The elimination of single-use plastic bags from the nation’s supermarkets, which has led to shopper confusion and frustration, is starting to damage sales for Woolworths and Coles.

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Deputy Secretary of Fiscal Group at Treasury Michael Brennan meeting Treasurer Scott Morrison as he arrives at the Treasury Building in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

Morrison names next PC head

Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison has appointed former Liberal Party staffer Michael Brennan to be the chief of the Productivity Commission.

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Louise Spiteri-Ahern returns to Parramatta local court. Committal hearing due to begin for April Barber, the pregnant scorned lover of Raymond Pasin. She is charged with accessory before the fact to murder. Pasin is the father of her first child. Another scorned lover Louise Spiteri-Ahern, 23, was charged with soliciting Daniel Haile to carry out the murder also has her hearing listed for today. Haile was charged soon after Pasin's October 2013 death and is said to be the hitman. Apparently the two women joined forces to have him killed.

Bikie’s former lover sentenced

Rebels bikie Ray Pasnin’s former lover Louise Spiteri-Ahern has been sentenced to 18 years jail non-parole for organising a hit man to kill him.

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Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese holding a press conference at the Port of Botany in Sydney. Picture Kym Smith

Shorten, Albo’s migrant mix-up

Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese mixed their lines in Labor’s response to a migrant cut, after a crackdown on dodgy claims.

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Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic

The rivalry that tops them all

Forget Roger Federer, this is the most contested rivalry in tennis. And the latest Nadal-Djokovic chapter is the most unlikely.