Your noon Briefing: Palaszczuk free service demand ‘disgraceful’

Your noon 2-minute digest of the top stories and must-reads.

Hello readers. Telstra boss blasts Queensland’s demand for free emergency texts, and the tech titans unleash on Australia’s strict new anti-encryption laws.

Queensland Premier Anna Palaszczuk announces her new economic team in Brisbane, Sunday, December 10, 2017. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has given the treasury portfolio to her deputy Jackie Trad in a reshuffle of cabinet following the election. (AAP Image/Glenn Hunt) NO ARCHIVING

‘Disgraceful’ demand

Telstra chief executive Andy Penn has blasted as “ridiculous” and “disgraceful” the Queensland Labor government’s demand that it provide emergency text messages as a free community service. The state government has signed a commercial contract with Telstra to use its network to warn residents of imminent dangers bearing down on their communities, such as bushfires and cyclones.

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SAN JOSE, CA - JUNE 04: Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during the 2018 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) at the San Jose Convention Center on June 4, 2018 in San Jose, California. The WWDC runs through June 8. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

Encryption anger

US tech giants Apple, Microsoft and Google have joined forces to decry Australia’s controversial ‘anti-encryption’ bill that passed the federal parliament last week. A coalition of tech companies, which also includes Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Snap and Yahoo parent company Oath, called the law “deeply flawed” and said it will undermine the privacy of users.

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12/4/18 3 Men (not police) leave the home of Rosemary Rogers in Williamstown. Aaron Francis/The Australian

Home raided

Police have raided the home of Rosemary Rogers, the former chief of staff to NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn, in the midst of a bribery investigation going to the heart of Australia’s big for banks with over $110 million in payments now being investigated. NSW and Victorian fraud squad detectives executed search warrants at Ms Rogers’ Melbourne home this morning, confiscating large amounts of files and computers from the Williamstown address.

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British Industrialist Sanjeev Gupta is seen before addressing the Energy Storage Conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre in Adelaide, Wednesday, May 23, 2018. Producing cheaper, lighter electric cars means Australia can again be a competitive vehicle manufacturer, a leading British industrialist says. Sanjeev Gupta, whose company, GFG Alliance, recently bought Whyalla's steelworks, has committed to producing small-scale electric cars in the country. (AAP Image/Kelly Barnes) NO ARCHIVING

The long read: Gupta’s iron will

Early last year, Sanjeev Gupta was an unknown interloper in the race to buy the assets of the collapsed steelmaker Arrium. Fast forward to this week and Gupta is being hailed by Scott Morrison as a saviour who will make Whyalla “the comeback city” in the “turnaround state” of South Australia.