Your morning Briefing: Minister tells first-home buyers to chance the market

Your 2-minute digest of today’s top stories and must-reads.

Hello readers. Minister urges first home buyers to act now, and Lib MP Nicolle Flint tells of how GetUp and unions tried to break her.

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Housing Michael Sukkar addresses the media during a press conference at a Duralift business in Croydon South, Melbourne, July 8, 2019. (AAP Image/James Ross) NO ARCHIVING

‘Buy now’

Michael Sukkar has urged first-home buyers to try and snap up a property now, warning housing prices are likely to increase. Nerida Conisbee looks at the pulling power of hipster suburbs. And Karen Andrews warns cladding is a problem for states to fix.

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17/7/19: Member for Boothby in SA, Nicolle Flint MP. Pictured in Sydney. John Feder/The Australian.

‘GetUp, unions tried to break me’

Liberal MP Nicolle Flint has revealed her fear as the victim of “a concerted attack to destroy me mentally” by a GetUp campaign.

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(FILES) In this file photo taken on December 4, 2016, actor Kevin Spacey acknowledges another guest during a reception for the 2016 Kennedy Center Honorees at the White House in Washington, DC. - Prosecutors dropped sexual assault proceedings against Spacey on July 17, 2019, after the case against the Hollywood star collapsed over his alleged victim's refusal to testify. William Little had accused the 59-year-old actor of groping him in a bar on the resort island of Nantucket in July 2016. But Massachusetts prosecutors filed a formal notice of abandonment of indecent assault and battery charges due to "the unavailability of the complaining witness," who had declined to give evidence due to fear of self-incrimination. (Photo by CHRIS KLEPONIS / AFP)

Spacey charges dropped

US prosecutors have dropped a case accusing Kevin Spacey of groping 18-year-old man in 2016.

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Eric Lobbecke Op Ed Cartoon for 18-07-2019.Version: Ozoped Artwork (1280x720 - Aspect ratio preserved, Canvas added)COPYRIGHT: The Australian's artists each have different copyright agreements in place regarding re-use of their work in other publications.Please seek advice from the artists themselves or the Managing Editor of The Australian regarding re-use.

Dems Trumped

More confected outrage? Yawn — President Donald Trump wins again, writes Holman W. Jenkins.

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Israel Folau speaking to the media before Wallabies rugby training at Sydney Olympic Park. Picture: Jonathan Ng

‘We couldn’t match Folau’

South Africa’s coach says he’s relieved the Wallabies are without the aerial skills of the axed superstar.

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Stage winner Australia's Caleb Ewan (L) celebrates, followed by Slovakia's Peter Sagan, wearing the best sprinter's green jersey, his victory on the podium of the eleventh stage of the 106th edition of the Tour de France cycling race between Albi and Toulouse, in Toulouse on July 17, 2019. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)

Caleb Ewan wins stage

The Australian says victory “almost” made up for leaving his wife and baby behind to race his first Tour de France, where he has won Stage 11.

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Kudelka’s view

Jon Kudelka Letters Cartoon for 18-07-2019. Version: Letters Cartoon (1280x720 - Aspect ratio preserved, Canvas added)COPYRIGHT: The Australian's artists each have different copyright agreements in place regarding re-use of their work in other publications.Please seek advice from the artists themselves or the Managing Editor of The Australian regarding re-use.