Your noon Briefing: ‘Impossible to maintain offshore processing’

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

Hello readers. Tony Abbott says doctors shouldn’t decide who comes to Australia and claims a Bill Shorten government will guarantee the boats resume. In the Second Test, Mitchell Starc finds rich form to strike twice.

1/2/19: Tony Abbott member for the seat of Warringah at Manly Beach. John Feder/The Australian.

‘Impossible to maintain’

Tony Abbott says doctors should not decide who comes to Australia as he warns of the consequences from a Labor-crossbench medical transfer bill.

“Now I have a lot of respect for the medical profession but we all know that doctors always err on the side of compassion. Doctors are always, almost inevitably, going to say it would be better to treat someone in Australia than in PNG or on Nauru.

“It will be impossible to maintain offshore processing of illegal arrivals by boat if we say that doctors will have control of the whole thing.”

Tony Abbott

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The aftermath from this morning's blaze.

Alarms covered

Many of the apartments in the Melbourne blaze building had their smoke alarms covered up and rooms were over-occupied.

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19/11/2018: Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn (C) leaving the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry in Sydney on Monday. Hollie Adams/The Australian

Walk the talk

The success of the bank inquiry hangs on whether talk of putting customers first becomes more than mere lip service, writes John Durie. Robert Gottliebsen writes of how the switch to a hard-selling culture helped prime the financial sector’s powder keg of problems. And in a stinging rebuke that hits CBA on many fronts, ASIC has demanded its financial planning arm cease charging fees.

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Australia's Mitchell Starc celebrate's his wicket of Sri Lanka's Dinesh Chandimal during Day 4 of the second Test match between Australia and Sri Lanka at Manuka oval, Canberra. Picture. Phil Hillyard

Starc strikes twice

Mining his rich vein of rediscovered form, Mitchell Starc picks up a second wicket of the morning to leave Sri Lanka reeling at 2-28. Keep up with all the latest from Canberra on Day Four of the Aussies-Sri Lanka Second Test in our live Test Match blog.

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TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump (R) gets into a heated exchange with CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta (C) as NBC correspondent Peter Alexander (L) looks on during a post-election press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on November 7, 2018. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP)

The long read: Age of wisdom and foolishness

US journalists should act as impartial watchdogs rather than anti-Trump campaigners willing to play fast and loose with the truth, writes Cameron Stewart.

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Comment of the day

“I feel a degree of compassion for Ms Ford. I have no doubt that she means well and that some of her views are founded in fact. However, her extreme interpretation of these facts simply doesn’t line up with the experiences of everyday Australians.

“If I were to describe Ms Ford’s approach, I would call it ‘cumulative radicalism’. As she passes each successive plateaux of anxiety and anger, her views shift and become more extreme. Just as there is no really no place for frankly racist views in a decent caring Australia, there is also no place for extreme mysandrist (or mysoginist) views either.

“However, and I say this tongue in cheek, perhaps there’s spot for Ms Ford as a guest presenter on the ABC’s Q&A.”

Glen, in response to ‘Clementine Ford’s not-so-fond farewell’.