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.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, February 12, 2018. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING

‘Fix your mess’

Former Nationals leader John ­Anderson has called on Barnaby Joyce to take “direct responsibility” for resolving the political damage inflicted by his affair with former staffer Vikki Campion, as pressure mounts on the Deputy Prime Minister to resign. Mr Anderson, who served as John Howard’s deputy prime minister, warned the current Nationals leader and his colleagues that, unless they took matters “into their own hands”, the issue would spiral out of control and “end even more messily”. Mr Joyce is due to make a statement today. Stay tuned to all the developments in our live rolling blog, PoliticsNow.

“Barnaby Joyce is dangerously out on a limb. What’s more, the bough is bending and Malcolm Turnbull, Liberal MPs, Nationals and the Labor Party are all sharpening their saws.”

Dennis Shanahan

“Barnaby Joyce is a complete dud when it comes to policy matters.”

Judith Sloan

“He has turned himself into a massive political handicap for the government. He’s embarrassed his Prime Minister. Next week to the horror of many ... Barnaby Joyce will be Acting Prime Minister of this country.”

Chris Kenny

“The man who once managed to single-handedly energise the government benches with a thunderous and semi-metaphorical tirade about weaponising herpes against mud-sucking carp now had the benches behind him looking like a wake.”

James Jeffrey

-

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber, at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

Indigenous voice

Bill Shorten has pledged to legislate to create an indigenous ­“advisory’’ voice to parliament ahead of putting the plan to a constitutional referendum if Labor wins office, declaring the “lived experience’’ of seeing how such a body operated would defeat scare campaigns against it. The Opposition Leader used the pledge, in his Closing the Gap response, to set a sharp point of difference to Malcolm Turnbull who has rejected the advisory voice to parliament being ­enshrined in the Constitution.

-

‘ISIS girl’

The international student ­accused of stabbing a man in an alleged terrorist attack in ­suburban Melbourne attended the same university as four men linked to Bangladesh’s worst act of terrorism. Momena Shoma, 24, attended a top English-language school in Dhaka — the Mastermind School — and then studied for a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English, at the private North South University until last year. Bangladeshi authorities 18 months ago revealed students and former attendees of North South University were among a group of Islamic State-linked extremists killed during and after an attack on a restaurant that left 29 dead. The Australian does not allege that Ms Shoma knew or is linked to any of those people.

-

*Fairfax Pool Images* The Royal Commission into the Financial Services Industry. 12 February 2018. The Age News. Photo: Eddie Jim. ( The Commissioner Kenneth Hayne )

Bruising for banks

The major banks are wearing bruises from their first public ­encounter with the Hayne royal commission, and were scrambling Monday night to meet a deadline of 4pm Tuesday for responses to further issues identified in their 50-page confession statements. A testy Ken Hayne targeted an unnamed, large institution for ­requesting an extension of time to answer additional questions in relation to misconduct over the past five years when the original ­request almost two months ago covered a 10-year period. That institution is understood to be Commonwealth Bank, which its rivals will privately say is almost single-handedly responsible for the inquiry after a long ­sequence of poor conduct and misbehaviour.

-

Matt Graham has won Australia's first medal at #Pyeongchang2018, taking silver in the men's moguls! 🇦🇺 @7Olympics pic.twitter.com/2reGCXmSaB

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) February 12, 2018

Matt’s mogul silver

Australian skier Matt Graham was preparing a wild party long into the night in Bokwang after winning the first PyeongChang Olympic medal for Australia, a silver in the moguls. And after a few beers and putting his tired legs up he intends to return to his Narara, Central Coast home to enjoy some sunshine and compete in his other sport — sailing.

-

Clement’s view

Rod Clement Letters cartoon for 13-02-18Version: (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.