Your morning Briefing: Showdown on energy as Turnbull slides
Welcome to your 2-minute briefing on the day’s top stories and must-reads.
Welcome to your 2-minute update on the day’s top stories and must-reads.
PM powers down
Malcolm Turnbull’s popularity has plunged, and the Coalition’s primary vote has softened, as the Prime Minister and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg prepare for a high-stakes showdown with rebel MPs tomorrow over the national energy guarantee. The Australian has confirmed Mr Turnbull has asked Mr Frydenberg and Scott Morrison to “fast-track” a detailed plan for the energy subcommittee of cabinet within weeks that would give the green light for the government to underwrite new-generation power sources, including the potential for coal.
Simon Benson, meantime, writes that the Turnbull government lacks policy coherence and remains crippled by a failure of political management. And keep up with all the latest from Canberra in our live blog, PoliticsNow.
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Low blow
Allegations that Australia’s most decorated soldier, Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith, had been violent towards a woman after a function attended by Malcolm Turnbull were denounced last night by former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson as “the lowest” slur he had encountered in public life. Dr Nelson, the director of the Australian War Memorial who as defence minister signed off on one of Mr Roberts-Smith’s bravery awards, defended the Afghanistan war hero as the Prime Minister came under pressure to withdraw a claim that the police had been called in.
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Cook’s Hicks-up
The first point of the Great Southern Continent that James Cook saw has been incorrectly named for almost 250 years, according to an Australian historian who is campaigning for changes to other place names to honour the legendary explorer’s legacy. As the anniversary of Cook’s departure on August 25, 1768, from Plymouth in England approaches, historian Trevor Lipscombe hopes the occasion will provide a chance to correct the record. He has submitted a detailed proposal to rename what he says was the first verified Australian landmark.
While it is often said the first land Cook saw was Point Hicks in southern Victoria, Mr Lipscombe says from the co-ordinates Cook noted at the time, land would have been too far away to see. Cook, he argued, must have mistaken a low-lying cloud bank for land.
“Cook was a stickler for accuracy, everybody knows that. He’d be mortified if he knew more than a third of the places he named on the coast were either in the wrong place or people locally believed they were somewhere else.”
Trevor Lipscombe
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Gas bans on nose
A majority of Labor voters has called on states and territories to open up gas development to drive down energy prices, with more than one in two Australians demanding that moratoriums on gas exploration be lifted. In an exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian — compiling survey results based on 1607 interviews with voters — 55 per cent of Australians support scrapping restrictions on gas development.
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Hot tables
If you missed it on the weekend, catch up now on our exclusive new list of Australia’s hottest 50 restaurants. Critic nonpareil John Lethlean guides you through what’s hot and what’s not in the gustatory galaxy, in a year when the big end of town got fancier, the small end got creative, icons were reinvented — but not all arrows hit the bullseye.
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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.