Your noon Briefing: Church resists call to alter confessional seal

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.

Mark Coleridge Archbishop of Brisbane, Christmas Day Mass, The Cathedral of St Stephen, Brisbane. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

Confessional sealed

The Catholic Church has refused to alter the seal of the confessional but agreed to 98 per cent of the child sex royal commission’s recommendations. Archbishop Mark Coleridge today stridently defended the church’s decision to defy the royal commission on the grounds it would have no impact on the safety of children.

“The seal is a non-negotiable element of our religious life.’’

Archbishop Mark Coleridge

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Carla McGrath, Deputy Chair of the activist group GetUp!. Supplied

GetUp!’s McGrath gone

The Australian Press Council has removed Carla McGrath as a member because her position as Deputy Chair of GetUp! was “incompatible with her continued role as a public member of the Council”, according to a statement from the Council.

“At its meeting in May, the Australian Press Council resolved that Ms McGrath’s position at GetUp created an ongoing and irreconcilable conflict of interest with her role on the Press Council.”

Press Council statement

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Online Artwork . Gillon McLachlan, Peter Dutton and au pair Alexandra Deuwel.

Au pair intervention ‘appropriate’

AFL boss Gillon McLachlan insists his personal intervention in the visa case of a French au pair was fair and appropriate. In 2015, Mr McLachlan lobbied then-Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to stop the deportation of a young woman after authorities became suspicious she was intending to work in breach of her tourist visa. Mr McLachlan, who was asked for help by a cousin who wanted to appeal that decision, denied he got special treatment because of his high public profile.

The au pair saga has been leaked as “payback” for the role Mr Dutton played in “wrecking” the Liberal Party, according to Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese.

“I think this has just been treated on its merits, as the minister said.”

Gillon McLachlan

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A fisherman on the Mekong River, Vietnam.

The long read: Rolling down the river

Between the gentle pace of life on the water and reminders of past horrors, the Mekong is unforgettable, writes Penny Hunter.

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Comment of the day

“Everyday Australians are far more interested in when the government is going to slash massive damaging immigration numbers than a couple of au pairs who left the country years ago.”

Terryd, in response to ‘AFL boss insists au pair intervention fair and appropriate’.