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.

SA Liberal leader Steven Marshall after his victory in the state election poses at Henley Beach.

Power boost

A change of government in South Australia over the weekend has boosted the federal government’s hopes of passing its national energy guarantee and could slow the state’s investment in new renewable power. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the chances of the reform passing had “improved considerably”, while Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, who led development of the policy, used the result to put pressure on Labor to drop plans for a higher renewable energy target.

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NORTHCOTE ,AUSTRALIA 18 MARCH 2018; Photo of Nathan with wife Vanessa and children Nikita 7yrs , Zahra 5yrs and Xavier 2.5 yrs in in Northcote on Sunday 18 March 2018. PHOTO LUIS ENRIQUE ASCUI

Catholic intervention

Bill Shorten has privately hailed a Catholic education sector ­campaign days before the Batman by-election as a key factor in Labor’s win. The Catholic intervention, which helped fuel the nearly 8 per cent primary vote swing to Labor, is already being taken as a warning to the Turnbull government that it could lose seats over the school-funding issue at the next federal election.

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*****DAILY TELEGRAPH EXCLUSIVE*************FEES APPLY*********IMAGE PURCHASED BY DAILY TELEGRAPH*********MUST CREDIT AS BELOW***** Houses burned in the Tathra fire.Picture by Philip O’Driscoll / O’Driscoll Aviation

Great escape

As many as 35 homes are believed to have been razed in a “hellish” bushfire on the NSW south coast, but hundreds of people were spared by a last-minute wind change that pushed flames away from them as they sheltered on a beach. Strong winds combined with temperatures close to 40C to turn a fire that began near the township of Tarraganda into a ferocious blaze which jumped the Bega River, tore through a housing ­estate and gutted the town of Tathra.

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The Australian ONLY: pics of outgoing Coles boss John Durkan at the beach, Brighton bathing boxes .Picture andrew Tauber

‘Stand still, you’re dead’

Ask John Durkan what it was like to pull the nation’s second-biggest supermarket chain from the mess it was in 10 years ago to a position of strength, and the British grocer talks as if he has returned from some ghastly jungle battle. “There is always stuff you need to do and you never leave the job finished, you never ever leave it finished, you always have that sickness in your stomach that says, ‘if I had a little more time to do something this is what I would do’.

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Jake Trbojevic (right) for the sea eagles off-loads a pass to Lachlan Croker to score during the Round 2 NRL match between the Manly-Warringa Sea Eagles and the Parramatta Eels at Lottoland in Sydney, Sunday, March 18, 2018. (AAP Image/Brendan Esposito) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Sea Eagles skewer Eels

The comments of Parramatta coach Brad Arthur were as emphatic as the scoreline. “We were blown off the park,” Arthur said after his side’s 54-0 loss to Manly at Lottoland yesterday afternoon. “We weren’t playing the same game. We just didn’t play. We did not have a go. Me going in there (the dressing room) and carrying on like a pork chop is not going to help anyone. We’re all hurting, we’re embarrassed but we need to make sure we do something about it. The attitude wasn’t great. You don’t play like that if you come ready to play.”

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Kudelka’s view

Jon Kudelka Letters Cartoon for 19-02-18Version: Letters Cartoon (1280x720 - Aspect ratio preserved, Canvas added)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.