Your noon Briefing: Burnside backs death tax in poll push

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

Hello readers. Greens convert Julian Burnside wants to bring back death taxes, and how the US got back in the space race.

Human rights and refugee lawyer and advocate Julian Burnside will be part of three sessions at the 2018 Cairns Tropical Writer's Festival.

Death and taxes

Greens convert and barrister Julian Burnside wants the return of death duties as he aims to unseat Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

“We used to have death duties and then Joh Bjelke-Petersen got rid of them and then all the other states fell into line. We’ve got a spectacular budget deficit and I really think we need to take the world a bit more seriously.”

Julian Burnside

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Alan Jones (left) and Michael Daley and Allianz Stadium.

‘Out of his depth’

Alan Jones hit back at Michael Daley after the Labor leader promised to sack him and the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust board. Andrew Clennell writes that Mr Daley’s fight with Jones c ould win him as many fans as it loses him votes.

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18/10/2018: Incitec Pivot workers (L-R) Phil Everso, Des Smith, Kelsey Hutchinson and Hilda Freibergs, workers inside Incitec Pivot's Gibson Island ammonia plant, Murarrie, Brisbane .The plant can't find any gas supplies for 2020-21 which may force the facility to shut down. Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

Energy shutdown

Heavy industry will shut down on the nation’s east coast if high gas prices persist, the competition regulator has warned.

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Minister for the Environment Melissa Price visiting the Snowy Hydro Tumut 3 Power Station, in NSW. Picture Kym Smith

Bushfires ‘linked to climate change’

Environment Minister Melissa Price has linked this week’s devastating bushfires in Victoria to climate change, saying there is “no doubt” of its impact on Australia. As Victorians in the state’s east survey the damage done to their properties by bushfires, the Environment Minister said Australians across the nation had suffered from the nation’s hottest summer on record.

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This video grab taken from the Nasa - Space X webcast transmission on March 3, 2019, shows a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket docked with the International Space Station (ISS) during the Demo-1 mission. (Photo by HO / NASA / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / NASA" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ---

The long read: Back in the space race

With success in the first stage of the SpaceX mission to the ISS, the US is on the cusp of launching its astronauts into space again, writes Cameron Stewart.

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Comment of the day

“Here are a few facts about Bishop’s ‘phenomenal’ popularity with the voters of Curtin. In 1998 when she first contested the seat, one of the other candidates was Allan Rocher who had been a Liberal Senator before winning the seat for the Liberals in 1981. He had previously lost the Party’s endorsement for the seat in 1996 and stood as an Independent and won.

“He re-contested the seat as an independent in 1998 and lost to Bishop, but managed to pull nearly 18pc of the primary vote. When he did not contest future elections, these votes went back to the Liberal Party, hence Bishop’s apparent steady rise in voter popularity.

“Once again, the true story about Bishop’s appeal to voters is mundane. She increased her vote only because there was no credible conservative opponent taking votes from her.”

Rosalind, in response to ‘Curtin’s up, revealing Liberal bloodshed’.