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.

21/02/2018: Nationals Party Leader Barnaby Joyce enjoying a soft drink at The Royal Armidale after the Nationals Party NSW branch general meeting in Armidale on Wednesday evening. Hollie Adams/The Australian

Joyce digs in

Barnaby Joyce has used his week off from federal politics to defend his hold on the Nationals leadership and rally grassroots supporters, while blaming intrusion into his private life for forcing him to move out of his rent-free Armidale townhouse. Amid the widening political ­crisis triggered by his affair with his former staffer and mother of his unborn child, Vikki Campion, the Deputy Prime Minister has launched an orchestrated media campaign to restore his image and buttress his position ahead of Monday’s crucial party room meeting.

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21-02-18 - Retired West Australian detective David McAlpine who investigated the AWU slush fund scandal pictured in Thailand this week.

AWU fresh probe call

The retired detective who led the police investigation into the ­Australian Workers Union fraud scandal has broken his silence, calling for a fresh probe into an alleged ­conspiracy between former union ­officials and executives from ­construction giant Thiess that he claims extended to Julia Gillard’s old law firm. In an extraordinary development in the long-running affair, former West Australian major fraud squad officer David ­McAlpine claims his investigation into the AWU slush fund 20 years ago was “subverted” due to “political interference”.

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Taxing times

Mathias Cormann will use his platform as the country’s Acting Prime Minister to escalate the government’s campaign to secure company tax cuts, writing to Senate crossbenchers and urging them to protect Australian jobs. Senator Cormann said he would use the “megaphone” of the Acting Prime Minister’s role, while Malcolm Turnbull was in Washington DC, to intensify the case for the Senate to act. “I will use the majority of the next five days of my acting prime ministership to promote the need for tax cuts,” he said.

“It’s business as usual. The PM is still the PM even from Washington. I’m just his representative on the ground if and as required.”

Mathias Cormann

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FILE - In this June 27, 1954 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham speaks to over 100,000 Berliners at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, has died. Spokesman Mark DeMoss says Graham, who long suffered from cancer, pneumonia and other ailments, died at his home in North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. He was 99. (AP Photo, File)

Billy Graham dies

The Rev. Billy Graham, the charismatic preacher who became a singular force in post-war American religious life has died aged 99. Dubbed “America’s Pastor,” Graham was a confidant of presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history. He had suffered from cancer, pneumonia and other ailments and died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina.

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Rod Clement Margin Call cartoon for 22-02-18Version: (Original)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.

Year of the Cat

Life has become more ominous for Fairfax chief Greg Hywood and chairman Nick Falloon after Alex Waislitz’s intervention, writes Margin Call, as rumours grow of a push to bring back the Cat.

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Elizabeth Marian Swaney, of Hungary, finishes her run during the women's halfpipe qualifying at Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Worst, or craftiest, Olympian ever?

Freestyle skier Elizabeth Swaney was compared to Eddie the Eagle yesterday as an Olympics official defended her trickless performance in the halfpipe at the PyeongChang Winter Games.

American-born Swaney, representing Hungary via her mother, turned heads when she performed only basic turns without attempting any tricks in qualifying runs on Monday, when she finished dead last. Swaney’s showing raised questions about her qualification for the Olympics via a loophole. But International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said the 33-year-old deserved her place at the top table of winter sports. Keep up with all the latest in our Winter Olympics live blog.

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Kudelka’s view

Jon Kudelka Letters cartoon dor 22-02-18Version: (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.