Your morning Briefing
Welcome to your morning roundup of what’s making news and the must-reads for today.
Hello readers. Here is your two-minute digest of what’s making news today.
Joyce reprieve
Barnaby Joyce has been granted a temporary leadership reprieve after colleagues agreed to “let the dust settle” following a dramatic intervention by senior party figures led by Nationals president Larry Anthony. After a tense 48-hour standoff, senior Nationals MPs fell in behind the Deputy Prime Minister to fend off a partyroom insurgency that continues to threaten Mr Joyce’s leadership. Nationals MPs yesterday warned that the stay of execution “does not exonerate” Mr Joyce and said he would be “cooked” if further disclosures “from left field” emerged. Mr Joyce stood firm in the face of the crisis triggered by his relationship with former staffer and mother of his unborn child Vikki Campion. Niki Savva writes that the Nationals can resolve their crisis only by picking a successor to Barnaby Joyce and moving on. Dennis Shanahan believes Joyce is hanging on to his party’s leadership by ‘the skin of his teeth’. In the Sketch, James Jeffrey writes that not even token niceties got much of a look-in during yesterday’s question time. Keep up with all the latest in our live rolling blog from parliament, PoliticsNow.
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Poll Lamb
Labor MP Susan Lamb will contest the next election without taking further steps to renounce her British citizenship, as the Barnaby Joyce saga “diminishes” internal concerns about her status. Ms Lamb confirmed yesterday she would ask her constituents to re-elect her “whenever Turnbull decides to call the election”, vowing to fight for health, education, infrastructure projects and jobs. It is understood Ms Lamb believes she is eligible to be elected despite still being British because she took “all reasonable steps” to renounce her foreign citizenship ahead of nominating for the 2016 federal poll.
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Fine mess for unions
Union officials can be hit with orders stopping unions paying fines on their behalf under a landmark High Court ruling that employers predicted would undermine the militant tactics of the CFMEU. In a second blow to the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, the Federal Court yesterday imposed $1 million in fines for its campaign against concrete supplier Boral, the highest penalty awarded for a breach of the secondary boycott provisions of the nation’s competition laws.
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Inside Story: The sorrows of young Umbers
There aren’t many CEOs who survive three profit warnings in a row, and Richard Umbers wasn’t going to be one of them. It was in the depths of winter last year that a beaming Umbers, the former British Army officer turned retail boss, was walking the floors of Myer Frankston, one of the department store’s far-flung outlets in Melbourne. He was about to unveil the latest plan to get the retailer on the front foot once more.
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Tick for snowboard cross
In the rough and tumble sport of snowboard cross, it pays to have some options.
Australia are fortunate in that they have at least three when the sport is run and done in a day today. Alex Pullin, Jarryd Hughes and Adam Lambert have all stood on the World Cup podium in the discipline — a kind of motocross on snow. With jumps, banked turns and racing strategies, it makes for exciting viewing and sometimes unpredictable results. Pullin has frequently worked out how to sort his way through traffic to become one of the best racers in his sport. Follow all the action in our live blog of the Winter Olympics.
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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.