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.
Andrews told ‘it was wrong’
Victorian Labor MPs have directly challenged Daniel Andrews’ claim that MPs did not raise any concerns with him over 2014 campaign funding rorts.Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is resisting calls for some of his most senior lieutenants to resign in the wake of an explosive report that found Labor had broken parliamentary rules when it used the staff allowances of 21 MPs to pay for campaigners ahead of the 2014 election.
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CEOs’ pitch
The nation’s biggest employers, including Woolworths, Wesfarmers, Qantas and BHP, have formally pledged to invest in creating Australian jobs and delivering stronger wage growth if the Senate crossbench backs in Malcolm Turnbull’s $35.6 billion company tax cuts. As Finance Minister Mathias Cormann last night moved closer to winning the final five crossbench votes the government needs to legislate its enterprise tax plan, 10 of Australia’s biggest companies issued a “Commitment to the Senate”.
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Packer’s pain
It seems entirely fitting that James Packer chose to make the gutsiest call of his life at one of the places in the world where he feels safest, his polo ranch in Argentina, writes Damon Kitney. Ellerstina, with its lonely tree-lined lanes, locked gates and armed security guards an hour’s drive from Buenos Aires, was the place he chose last October to let the world see for the first time something of the private pain he has battled for decades.
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Fed rates hike
The US Federal Reserve said it would raise short-term interest rates a quarter-percentage point and signalled it could lift them at a slightly more aggressive pace in coming years to keep the strengthening economy on an even keel. Fed officials said they would increase their benchmark federal-funds rate to a range between 1.5 per cent and 1.75 per cent and pencilled in a total of three rate increases for this year.
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Smith seethes
Steve Smith has questioned the International Cricket Council’s appeal process after Kagiso Rabada’s two-match ban was dropped. And the Australian skipper dismissed as “garbage” suggestions on Vernon Philander’s Twitter account that he exaggerated contact with the South African bowler. Cynical and quietly annoyed, Smith said it was “interesting” he was not called as a witness in the six-hour appeal hearing and also claimed the bump was more significant than it appeared.
“I certainly won’t be telling my bowlers to go out there and after you take a wicket go and get in their space ... but the standard has been set.”
Steve Smith
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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.