Your noon Briefing: Kelty’s tax cut call ‘strong message for ALP’

Your 2-minute digest of the day’s top stories.

Hello readers. The government has seized on Bill Kelty’s call for a lower top tax rate, and why would anyone visit North Korea?

Bill Kelty and Sarah Hanson-Young at the launch of her 2013 campaign for re-election to the senate.

‘Strong message for ALP’

The government has seized on Bill Kelty’s push to lower the top tax rate, saying Albanese’s reluctance is against “old Labor values.”

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Barnaby Joyce and Israel Folau

Folau’s right to air ‘dopey views’

Barnaby Joyce says contracts that stop sports stars from voicing contrary views are “ridiculous”.

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LIUZHI COUNTY, CHINA - FEBRUARY 7: A newly built Chinese state-owned coal fired power plant is seen on February 7, 2017 in Liuzhi County, Guizhou province, southern China. A history of heavy dependence on burning coal for energy has made China the source of nearly a third of the world's total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the toxic pollutants widely cited by scientists and environmentalists as the primary cause of global warming. China's government has fast-tracked deadlines to reach the country's emissions peak, and data suggest the country's coal consumption is already in decline. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A cold fact of life

Change has been with us forever; earth has been much hotter and much colder so let’s shift focus, argues David Shelley.

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NSW coal power upgrade

EnergyAustralia will boost the capacity of its Mount Piper coal power station in NSW and is investigating options to expand coal supplies to safeguard against disruption to its existing mine.

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Australian student Alek Sigley with is wife Yuka - Alek has been arrested at a university in North Korea. Facebook posted 10 November 2017

The long read: Why visit this pitiless country?

Alek Sigley should be buying lottery tickets by the score: trying to shed even a positive light on North Korea put him in grave danger. Remember Otto Warmbier? Rowan Callick reports.