Your noon Briefing: Abbott digs in on energy policy
Welcome to your noon digest of what’s been making news and what to watch for.
Hello readers. Here is your noon roundup of today’s top stories and a long read for lunchtime.
Abbott digs in
Malcolm Turnbull will go toe-to-toe with Tony Abbott this morning when he asks the Coalition partyroom to support the final design of the national energy guarantee. Mr Abbott has dug in on his opposition to the NEG while the PM hopes to sway the partyroom in its favour. Keep up with all the latest from Canberra in our live blog, PoliticsNow.
-
Baklava brouhaha
The first Muslim MP in the NSW parliament has sparked a row overnight, refusing entry to a respected Jewish leader to a Labor party multicultural launch. Upper House MP Shaoquett Moselmane refused entry to Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff at the launch of the Labor Union Multicultural Action Committee launch last night saying, according to Mr Alhadeff, that he was not a Labor party member before offering him a baklava on the way out. The baklava was declined.
“While I appreciated the goodwill in receiving an invitation from Kaila Murnain and Mark Morey, it is unfortunate that Mr Moselmane would defy his party leadership and deny entry to a leader of the Jewish community.”
Vic Alhadeff
-
Any old iron
Barnaby Joyce is not the first National Party leader to write a memoir with his new tome, Weatherboard and Iron. Earle Page’s memoir, Truant Surgeon, was published posthumously in 1963, notes Troy Bramston. Arthur Fadden wrote one of the best political memoirs, They Called Me Artie, published in 1969. John McEwen had his oral history interview with the National Library turned into a memoir, His Story, and privately published in 1983.
“These former leaders were giants of Australian politics ... achievers (who) left significant policy legacies ... Joyce’s book is a joke by comparison. If Page, Fadden or McEwen were alive today they would be appalled by the damage done to their party by Joyce.”
Troy Bramston
-
Capp in handover
The Lord Mayor of Melbourne has admitted the city should be safer after the Victorian capital lost the crown of most liveable to Vienna. The two metropolises have been neck and neck in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index for years, with Melbourne clinching the title for the past seven editions. This year, a downgraded threat of militant attacks in western Europe as well as the city’s low crime rate helped nudge Vienna into first place in the annual survey of 140 urban centres.
“They’ve got a very good safety rating, that’s one of the areas where ... we can continue to do better.”
Sally Capp, Melbourne Lord Mayor
-
The long read: Battle for survival
With the chances of an early poll now low, Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten jostle to build political momentum — and avoid the killing season, writes Peter Van Onselen.
-
Comment of the day
“Malcolm Turnbull has been unable to lay a glove on Bill Shorten. In a sense that’s surprising because while Turnbull is no good at nurturing talent or gathering ideas or stimulating policy development especially from the senior ranks of the party, he’s very good at undermining people.”
George, in response to ‘Odds shorten on Labor to take out next election’.
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.