Your noon Briefing: Adani attacks could cost ‘swag of seats’

Your 2-minute digest of today’s top stories and a long read for lunchtime.

Hello readers. A former MP has warned the last-minute attack on Adani could cost Bill Shorten seats in Queensland, and plummeting foreign demand is fueling a housing slump.

12/04/17 Former Senator Stephen Conroy has taken up a role as head of Responsible Wagering Australia. Aaron Francis/The Australian

Adani attack ‘could cost swag of seats’

Former MP Stephen Conroy has lashed Queensland Labor’s “last-minute attack” on a planned coalmine, warning of the damage to Bill Shorten. Keep up with the latest from parliament in our live blog, PoliticsNow.

“I thought the Queensland government had been behind this project and right at the last minute, when it’s cleared all hurdles, suddenly we’ve got a (problem with a) finch.

“Bill Shorten has a swag of seats in northern and central Queensland that rely on this development and the message he would send would be very poor if the Queensland government continues to sabotage it.”

Stephen Conroy

-

Landing of Convicts at Botany Bay" from Captain Watkin Tench's A NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION TO BOTANY BAY. First published in 1789

‘Receptacle of felons’

The moral case to continue transportation in the 1850s was probably stronger than that to relax border security laws today, argues Adam Creighton.

-

This photo taken on June 17, 2016 shows a worker holding a stop sign in front of an apartment block under construction in Sydney. Sydney is imposing new taxes on foreigners buying homes amid growing concerns that a flood of mostly Chinese investors is crowding out locals and killing the "Great Australian Dream" of owning property. / AFP PHOTO / WILLIAM WEST / TO GO WITH Australia-China-property-tax,FOCUS by Glenda KWEK

Foreign plunge fuels slump

The collapse in foreign demand for housing will drive prices lower and could push the RBA to slash rates, warns UBS.

-

Jeremy Corbyn is rocked by the resignation of seven of his MPs.

Corbyn ‘on brink’

Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal to take a clear stand on Europe, combined with his failure to tackle antisemitism and the take over by the hard Left, has ignited a rebellion.

-

A comparison diptych generated on Wednesday, July 4, 2018 shows Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young during a debate on the Company Tax Bill in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Friday, March 31, 2017 (left), and Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm addressing the media during a press conference in the Mural Hall at Parliament House in Canberra, Friday, September 11, 2015. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas, Sam Mooy) NO ARCHIVING

Leyonhjelm legal blow

Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm has failed in his second bid to have a defamation action by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young thrown out by the Federal Court. Senator Hanson-Young launched legal proceedings against Senator Leyonhjelm in August, accusing him of repeatedly falsely accusing her of being a hypocrite and a man hater who believed all men were rapists in media interviews in June and July.

-

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks during House pf Representatives Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, February 18, 2019. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) NO ARCHIVING

The long read: Floating ScoMo’s boat

Border security and the budget could turn the tables on Labor’s lead. Dennis Shanahan reports.

-

Comment of the day

“The toxic chemicals in solar panels include cadmium telluride, copper indium selenide, cadmium gallium (di)selenide, copper indium gallium (di)selenide, hexafluoroethane, lead, and polyvinyl fluoride. Additionally, silicon tetrachloride, a byproduct of producing crystalline silicon, is highly toxic.

“Doesn’t sound clean to me. Forget the subsidy cost, we haven’t even started to comprehend the disposal cost of all these panels when they are shot (5 to 15 years).

“The only thing I can be certain is we’ll be paying for it.”

Aaron, in response to ‘Households’ $2bn hit for solar panels’.