Your morning Briefing: Treasurer’s super war on activists

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

Hello readers. Josh Frydenberg has declared war on financial activists pressuring super funds, and Warren Entsch admits he was wrong to vote for Julia Bishop in the Liberal leadership spill.

Monday 20th February 2019.The Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and the Assistant Minister for Treasury and Finance, the Zed Seselja during a press conference in Parliament House, in CanberraPicture Gary Ramage

Super war

The Treasurer has sounded the alarm on financial activism, warning unions are “pressuring superannuation funds”. The Morrison government is weighing up new powers to ­prevent industry super fund managers, responsible for $630 billion in retirement savings, from using their financial leverage over ­publicly listed companies to advance the political ­objectives of militant ­unions.

-

Liberal Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Wednesday, February 13, 2019. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING

Bishop vote ‘wrong’

Warren Entsch, one of just 11 ­Liberal MPs to vote for Julie Bishop in the August leadership spill, says he should have voted for Scott Morrison as colleagues emphatically rejected her ­declaration she could have beaten Bill Shorten at the upcoming election.

“I voted with my heart and not with my head ... My second vote went to ScoMo and, in hindsight, I thought I should have voted first for him.”

Warren Entsch

-

Malcolm Turnbull, Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop during question time. Question time in the House of Representatives in Parliament House in Canberra.

End of line for Pyne

The Liberal veteran, said to be the “master of the double doublecross”, has more ­enemies inside his party than outside it.

-

13/02/2018: Ita Buttrose speaking to Stephen Brook about her time as a newspaper editor on the Behind the Media podcast. Hollie Adams/The Australian

ABC seduction

Don’t be duped by the love, Ita. What follows is gentle counsel from someone who has seen the internal workings of Aunty, writes Janet Albrechtsen. And Nick Tabakoff in Media Diary looks at the long family ties between Ita Buttrose and ScoMo’s family.

-

Kudelka’s view

Jon Kudelka Letters Cartoon for 02-03-2019. 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.