Your noon Briefing: Christensen’s Japan coal mission

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.

Nationals Member for Dawson George Christensen during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Tuesday, May 8, 2018. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING

Coal mission

Maverick Nationals MP George Christensen has been sent on a mining industry-funded mission to Japan to ask its government to build new coal-fired power stations in Australia. Resources Minister Matt Canavan has tasked his fellow Queenslander with hand-delivering letters to major Japanese companies and government leaders.

“We’re asking the world leaders in clean coal technology in Japan to consider investing here.”

George Christensen

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Federal Minister for Education Simon Birmingham speaks at a Catholic Schools Parents Forum at Saint Columban's College in Caboolture, 44 km northwest of Brisbane, Tuesday, July 24, 2018. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING

Birmo ‘toxic’

Liberal backbencher Tony Pasin says Education Minister Simon Birmingham’s relationship with the Catholic school sector has “become toxic” and “been allowed to fester”, and he welcomes an intervention from Malcolm Turnbull. The Prime Minister has moved to secure a deal to restore a funding shortfall of up to $1.7bn to prevent the closure of up to 350 schools.

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National Broadband Network - NBN rollout generic

NBN ‘falling short’

A big chunk of NBN customers are still not getting the speeds they are paying for despite cuts to wholesale prices, with the competition regulator saying retail telcos still have some ground to cover on service quality. According to the second iteration of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Measuring Broadband Australia (MBA) report, almost 7 per cent of consumers are receiving less than half of the maximum speed promised in their plan.

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26/07/2018: (L-R) HMAS Yarra (87), HMAS Huon (82), ______, HMAS Norman (84), HMAS Gascoyne (85) docked at HMAS Waterhen in Sydney. A third of Australia's $1.1 billion mine hunting fleet has been mothballed despite a growing threat from the Chinese navy which has amassed an arsenal of over 100,000 mines that could be quickly deployed into the South China Sea or used to cripple Australian ports. Hollie Adams/The Australian

Enemy mine

A third of Australia’s mine-­hunting fleet has not left port for years and is to be sold off despite a massive build-up of mine-warfare capability by the Chinese, who have tens of thousands of the ­devices that could cripple key ports and block vital sea lanes. The sell-off has been condemned by a former senior mine-warfare commander who has warned that Australia’s counter-mine capacity is untested and under strength.

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Huge Aerial Panorama of the Brisbane Skyline, Queensland, Australia. Converted from RAW.

The long read: All things being equal

While politicians and commentators bray about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, fresh data on the economic wellbeing of Australian households is suggesting otherwise, writes Rebecca Urban. Indeed, the latest HILDA Survey shows inequality across Australia is not as bad as it may appear.

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Comment of the day

“I am a member of the grey army and so fed up with Turnbull. He is destroying everything we believed in, worked so hard to build and results of our sacrifice just handed over to millions of immigrants riding our social security while pensioners are freezing in their homes.”

Ted, in response to ‘How Malcolm Turnbull risks losing grey army’.