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.

Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg talks to the media in Melbourne, Sunday, December 10, 2017. (AAP Image/Mal Fairclough) NO ARCHIVING

Electric dreams

Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg is facing a partyroom showdown over his support for electric ­vehicles in Australia, amid industry calls for $7000 tax breaks and concerns the vehicles could have a bigger carbon footprint than ­internal combustion vehicles. Mr Frydenberg came under ­attack from conservative colleagues yesterday after predicting the number of electric vehicles would grow from 4000 to 230,000 within seven years, and to one million by 2030. He also foreshadowed more support for the electric vehicle ­industry, working towards “better co-ordination of existing and ­future activities to support low emissions vehicles”.

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Senator Sarah Hanson-Young at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

SHY does Davos

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young — who campaigns against company tax cuts and was late to pay back taxpayer-funded bills — has travelled to the Swiss Alps to rub shoulders with the world’s top chief executives and political leaders. The Greens’ spokeswoman for finance and trade, who was named a World Economic Forum young global leader in 2016, is in Davos for the summit after paying her way to attend the conference. Rival South Australian senators yesterday questioned her­ ­attendance at the summit after The Australian revealed earlier this month that she had left government invoices unpaid for more than 120 days on numerous occasions and overspent on staff travel by up to $20,460.

“Pay your bills on time before pretending to have a clue about any financial matters. Sea Patrol, whale watching, Davos, they are all the same to Sarah.”

Senator Cory Bernardi

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African youth loiter outside The Ecoville Community Park in Tarneit. Tarneit. All the town worried by the "Gangs" who are running rampant.

Merchants of menace

If ever a story highlighted the disconnect between Twitter’s moral vanity and the real world it was the silly season uproar over African gangs in Melbourne, writes Chris Mitchell. Leading the charge against federal Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton over his comment on Sydney Radio 2GB on January 3 that people in Melbourne were too afraid to eat out for fear of confronting African gang violence was ABC 7.30 reporter Louise Milligan, who wrote: “Never met anyone worried about African gangs. Never heard anyone mention ­African gangs. Not once.” Melburnians piled in on Twitter on the hashtag #Melbourne­BitesBack. Many posted photo­graphs of their restaurant meals. All good fun but some serious commentators argued the whole thing was a stunt to help the state election prospects of the Victorian Coalition on November 24 this year, and that News Corp and Dutton were fanning the flames of ­racism for political reasons.

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Illustration: Eric Lobbecke

Anchors aweigh

See it through the eye of a spyglass. Eleven British ships at full sail ­cutting across the Atlantic. Arthur Phillip’s majestic First Fleet flotilla en route to a place where a troubled bush kid named Ned Kelly will one day hammer a bulletproof breastplate and a golden girl named Betty Cuthbert will set fire to a running track and a bronzed larrikin named Paul Hogan will crack jokes atop the Sydney ­Harbour Bridge. Trent Dalton and Eric Lobbecke present the story of the First Fleet and Australia Day like you’ve never seen it before, in part two of their ground-breaking series, “Mother of all voyages”.

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Generic realestate images from the Queensland suburb of Stafford, in Brisbane, Saturday, January 6, 2018. (AAP Image/Glenn Hunt) NO ARCHIVING

Secret shoppers

The corporate watchdog is set to unleash hundreds of undercover shoppers on Australia’s mortgage brokers as part of an investigation into lending standards in the $1.7 trillion home loan system. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has ramped up its scrutiny of lending behaviour of the bank and mortgage broking sectors amid surging house prices. The review of 17 lenders, 14 aggregators and more than 40 broker businesses found the commissions structure could be pushing customers into loans that exaggerated their needs and on to particular lenders that offered greater bonuses.soaring household debt levels and sliding lending standards at the major banks.

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Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov (R) speaks with Australia's Nick Kyrgios after winning their men's singles fourth round match on day seven of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 21, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / SAEED KHAN / -- IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE --

Great Wall

Shortly before Grigor Dimitrov took to Rod Laver Arena for his sensational performance against Nick Kyrgios, he was pictured staring intently at a white wall, writes Courtney Walsh. The Bulgarian was deep in concentration, his gaze unbroken. Then, abruptly, he turned on a dime and dashed like a startled gazelle up an internal corridor. And for much of a sublime display that culminated in a 7-6 (3) 7-6 (4) 4-6 7-6 (4) victory over the Australian, a blip when serving for the match aside, he epitomised those attributes. Dimitrov proved as close to a human brick wall as one could imagine for much of the opening two sets, in part due to the supremacy of his speed and movement around the court.

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Kudelka’s view

Jon Kudelka Letters page cartoon for 22-01-2017Version: (650x366)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.