Your morning Briefing: Labor split risks killing energy deal
Hello readers and welcome to your two-minute digest of the day’s top stories.
Hello readers and welcome to your two-minute digest of what’s making news this morning.
Energy deal at risk
The Victorian and Queensland Labor governments are poised to scuttle Malcolm Turnbull’s signature energy policy at a make-or-break COAG meeting on Friday as the party’s influential environmental wing warns that outright rejection risks a repeat of Kevin Rudd’s aborted 2009 attempt at an emissions trading scheme. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has all but declared the proposed national energy guarantee dead, saying he had told the Prime Minister that Victoria would not sign up without guarantees the plan would survive the federal Coalition partyroom.
Judith Sloan suggests the real reason the Andrews government is threatening to block the National Energy Guarantee has very little to do with policy and everything to do with local politics.
“There are a number of inner-city Labor seats that could easily fall to the Greens in the upcoming election. An issue such as the NEG could tip the balance.”
Judith Sloan
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Lombok quake
At least 82 people have been killed after a massive earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale hit the Indonesian tourist islands of Lombok, Bali and the Gili chain, just one week after another quake killed 17 people and left hundreds of hikers stranded on Lombok’s Mount Rinjani. The shallow earthquake, which struck north east of Lombok at a depth of just 10km at around 6.46pm (8.26pm AEST), briefly triggered a tsunami warning which was lifted less than an hour later but sparked widespread panic across the islands, with residents and tourists running into the street. Home Minister Peter Dutton was among officials attending a two day regional security and counter terrorism conference who were evacuated after the quake struck.
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Left intolerence
Social media and reporting of it in mainstream news are producing intolerance not seen since anti-communist senator Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1940s and 50s, writes Chris Mitchell. The free-thinking rebelliousness of the 60s grew out of a backlash against McCarthyist repression of what was regarded as seditious activities, literature, plays and movies inspired by communism to undermine American values. Today it is the storm troopers of the student Left and musicians and actors who lead a daily barrage of threats against people whose free thought they can’t tolerate.
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BuzzFeed’s secret weapon
He has won a Pulitzer and distinguished himself as an investigative reporter at The Village Voice, the Wall Street Journal and ProPublica. So when Mark Schoofs, 55, was approached about joining the news and entertainment site BuzzFeed, famous for its listicles (“12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Music”), he had to be honest: “I did not know what Buzzfeed was.” Five years on, no investigative reporter remains in ignorance about BuzzFeed, in no small part because of the investigative unit that Schoofs was asked to create. Media Diarist Stephen Brook chats with Schoofs in his latest Behind the Media podcast.
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Spate of teen injuries alarms rugby
Rugby Australia has announced a review of safety measures imposed on schoolboy football following a series of spinal injuries involving teenagers in Queensland’s Great Public Schools competition. The code’s chief executive, Raelene Castle, yesterday said the review would reassess the various measures that have failed to protect four teenage players, each of whom suffered serious neck and spine injuries in recent weeks. The move comes as Alexander Clark, 15, last night remained in intensive care following a tackle during an under-15s match between his school, St Joseph’s Nudgee College, and visiting Ipswich Grammar on Saturday morning.
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Kudelka’s view
China’s great wall of silence
China deliberately concealed information about the coronavirus, and now it is fighting an inquiry. So what is Beijing hiding?
Your noon Briefing
Your 2-minute digest of the day’s top stories.