Your morning briefing

Welcome to your morning roundup of what’s making news and the must-reads for today.

Good morning readers. Here is your two-minute digest of today’s top stories and analysis.

We risk being marooned on our own tax island: ScoMo

Desert island risks: Treasurer Scott Morrison has a stark warning on Trump’s push to slash corporate tax in the US. Picture: AAP

The full rollout of the Turnbull government’s company tax plan will deliver a $30 billion revenue return to the federal budget, effectively halving the claimed total cost of the policy, according to an official Treasury report to be ­released today. The report also warns that Australia could suffer a “permanent reduction in the level of GDP and real wages” if it fails to ­respond to the changing global tax environment — fuelled by Donald Trump’s renewed push to cut the US rate to 20 per cent.

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Essendon crash pilot Max Quartermain.

Why was Essendon crash pilot at the controls?

Doubts about the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s ability to conduct critical investigations have deepened with the revelation that it will have been 2½ years ­before the agency reports on a ­potentially catastrophic near-collision of two aircraft at Mount Hotham in Victoria. The pilot allegedly at fault, Max Quartermain, was killed, along with four American passengers, when his plane crashed near Melbourne’s Essendon airport in February this year. Former Civil Aviation Safety Authority chairman Dick Smith says if the ATSB had completed its Mount Hotham investigation within a reasonable timeframe, and concluded that Quartermain had ­engaged in poor airmanship, ­endangering lives, he might have been grounded or given retraining.

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Kroger cross: Victorian Liberal president is furious about MPs’ clandestine GetUp! meeting. Picture: AAP

Kroger lashes Libs for meeting GetUp! on the down low

Senior Liberal Party officials have condemned federal Liberal MPs for conducting secret meetings with left-wing activist group GetUp!, accusing them of undermining their own government. Victorian Liberal Party division president Michael Kroger is seething over revelations backbench MPs Tim Wilson and Trent Zimmerman had met GetUp! over the same-sex marriage vote.

“It is fair to say that people in the organisational wing are furious. They consider GetUp! as a mortal enemy of the Coalition.”

Michael Kroger, Victorian Liberal Party division president

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La Cage aux Folles: Myer chief executive Richard Umbers with Jennifer Hawkins in the Myer marquee in the birdcage. Picture: Aaron Francis

Myer row rekindled: Margin Call at the Cup

Sure the springtime weather was cooler than a polar bear’s toenail, but there was a spark to Melbourne Cup 2017. Things seemed noticeably sunny inside Richard Umbers’ Myer marquee. Or was it the afterglow of incoming Myer chairman Garry Hounsell’s explosive claim, made in a letter to shareholders the day before, that he had been sounded out by the retailer’s billionaire nemesis Solomon Lew to chair Premier Investments?

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Corey Brown rides Rekindling, left, to win the Emirates Melbourne Cup. Picture: Getty Images

Melbourne Cup’s triple threat

A record-breaking Melbourne Cup has culminated in Rekindling leading an international domination of the race that stops a nation, with rookie Joseph O’Brien the youngest-ever winning trainer. The Irish colt gave leviathan owner Lloyd Williams a second-straight Melbourne Cup and sixth success overall with a beautifully-time run for Sydney jockey Corey Brown on a horse still considered a three-year-old in Europe but running as a four-year-old here — the youngest in the field.

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Flagging fortunes: Jon Kudelka’s view

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Analysis: PM’s poor instinct pushes him to the brink

For a Prime Minister on life support, the rolling citizenship crisis is like the power cutting in and out on the ventilator; it hasn’t yet killed him but the chances of recovery are fading by the minute, writes Peta Credlin. How it got this bad is a potent example of Malcolm Turnbull’s lack of political nous.

“He might have been a successful businessman but politics is a profession, and judgment, along with temperament, are mandatory requirements.”

Peta Credlin

Swept away: Illustration by Eric Lobbecke