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.

Tony Abbott in Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber, at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

PM’s ‘stealth’ carbon tax

Malcolm Turnbull is facing a backlash over his energy policy as conservative MPs including Tony Abbott condemn a proposal to allow power companies to meet emissions targets by buying permits from overseas as a carbon tax by stealth. Mr Abbott has slammed the government’s in-­principle support for including international carbon credits in Australia’s energy policy, arguing that the move will see Australian businesses and consumers shovelling money to foreign carbon traders, with huge potential for rorts.

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Rebekha Sharkie debating citizenship in the House of Representatives Chamber, at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

Coalition’s welfare win

A welfare overhaul that cracks down on people gaming the system and streamlines Centrelink payments is on the verge of passing the Senate after the Turnbull government clinched a critical deal with the Nick Xenophon Team. The key minor party will vote for most of the bill’s measures when parliament resumes next month in exchange for a funding package that will deliver $40 million to rehabilitation services and provide specialist training in drug and alcohol addiction to regional doctors. The agreement is a significant win for the Coalition.

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The attempted rescue effort carried out by Lachlan Hewitt, Kurt Bradbury and Will McGovern and Todd Sellars. The four men attempted to stop the Sydney Seaplane piloted by Gareth Morgan, 44, from sinking after the plane ploughed into water, killing catering tycoon Richard Cousins, his fiancee Emma Bowden, her daughter Heather, 11, and Mr Cousins’ sons William, 25, and Edward, 23. MUST CREDIT: Todd Sellars

Mates tried to save sinking seaplane

Four mates have told of their desperate attempts to save the six people trapped in a seaplane as it sank into the Hawkesbury River in Sydney’s north on New Year’s Eve, describing their frantic ­efforts to keep the plane afloat. Todd Sellars and three friends had been staying in a houseboat on the Hawkesbury for a few nights when they heard the loud thrum of a seaplane flying low above them on Sunday afternoon. Mr Sellars and his friend Will McGovern jumped into a dinghy and sped to the crash site where the aircraft was upside down and sinking rapidly. Seaplane victims Emma and Heather Bowden were the daughter and granddaughter of a prominent Conservative party politician.

“We tried to dive down three or four times, grabbing at the windows and door to try and open something, but the plane was too long and sinking too fast for us to do anything.”

Todd Sellars

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1/1/18 Aluel Kuol with her sons (L-R) Bolis Daw (18), Aleu Deng (3) and Deng Daw (23). She arrived in Australia from South Sudan in 2008. She is a leader in the local Sudanese Dinka community and says there is a real problem with youth disconnecting from their families as well as from authorities. Says families have a central role to play in curbing youth crime. Aaron Francis/The Australian

Crime and punishment

African crime gangs out of control? The solution is simple, writes retired Melbourne barrister Peter Faris. Apply the law to African youth gangs and encourage proper sentencing. African youths, when faced with harsh punishment — any punishment — will cease breaking the law. It’s a simple application of the old law-and-order position: lock a few of them up now and the rest will cease their criminal behaviour. South Sudanese mother Aluel Kuol has another suggestion: she believes gathering her four boys around the dinner table each night to eat and talk together as a family keeps the lines of communication open with her children. The single mother believes this is one of the most ­important factors in keeping them out of trouble. Ms Kuol, the secretary of the Dinka Union Community in Victoria, has joined other South Sudanese leaders in urging parents and elders in her community to do more to address spiralling youth crime.

“Parents have to be connected to their boys, they have to talk to the boys.”

Aluel Kuol

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TWAM- 20170909 EMBARGO FOR TWAM 9 SEP 2017NO RE-USE WITHOUT PERMISSIONOmar al Kutobi and Mohammed Kiad of Fairfield buy knife for terror act Pic : supplied

The long read (Best of 2017): The monsters in the granny flat

For days, Omar al Kutobi and Mohammed Kiad had been planning mass murder, writes Paul Maley. They had no idea how badly it would end.

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Comment of the day

“Engaging with the carbon credit market is just the same as investing with the bankers that gave us the GFC.”

Fred, in response to ‘Carbon war: Tony Abbott fires up for battle’.