Your noon Briefing: PM reveals extent of defector’s betrayal

Your 2-minute midday digest of the latest stories and must-reads.

Hello readers. ScoMo tells of Julia Banks’ betrayal, PVO says lame government should go to the polls right now, and Sydney battens down as superstorm wreaks havoc.

The Independents, Cathy McGowan, Rebekha Sharkie, Kerryn Phelps with Julia Banks after she stood in the House of Representatives and resigned as Liberal backbencher to join the Independents. Picture Gary Ramage

Defector’s ‘betrayal’

Julia Banks did not tell Scott Morrison in advance that she would defect from the Liberal Party, the Prime Minister says. When asked if Liberal volunteers in Ms Banks’s seat of Chisholm should be upset, Mr Morrison said they would feel the same as her former Liberal colleagues.

What this lame excuse for a government should do for the good of the nation is go to the polls immediately, according to Peter Van Onselen. Keep up with all the latest from parliament in our live blog, PoliticsNow.

“No, no she didn’t (tell me in advance) and of course that’s disappointing, as all our colleagues were disappointed ... But you know, we’re not going to stop Bill Shorten becoming prime minister by sitting around and being disappointed.”

Scott Morrison

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Sydney ahs been hit by a superstorm with more on the way.

‘Horrendous’ superstorms, ‘historic’ bushfires

A man has died, two police are injured and there’s chaos on roads, rail and in the air as “horrendous” superstorms continue to wreak havoc in NSW, with more to come. In Queensland, meantime, firefighters are preparing to battle the worst bushfire conditions in the state’s history, authorities have warned, as more than 1000 people have left their homes near the Deepwater fire, south of Agnes Water on the state’s central coast.

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Leader of the Victorian Liberal party Matthew Guy announces defeat in the Victorian state election during the Liberal Party reception on Victorian State election night in Melbourne, Saturday, November 24, 2018. (AAP Image/David Crosling) NO ARCHIVING

Fall Guy

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has announced his resignation in a press statement, after more than three days of silence following the Coalition’s stunning defeat in Saturday’s state election. Mr Guy’s communications director Tony Barry issued the statement just as Premier Daniel Andrews was beginning a press conference on the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel.

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TOPSHOT - An aerial view shows a massive collage of 125,000 drawings and messages from children around the world about climate change seen rolled out on the Aletsch Glacier at an altitude of 3,400 metres near the Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps smashing the world record for giant postcards, on November 16, 2018. - The mosaic of postcards, measuring 2,500 square metres (26,910 square feet), was laid out in the snow to "boost a global youth climate movement ahead of the next global climate conference (COP24) in Poland", next month, said the WAVE foundation, which organised the event in cooperation with Swiss authorities. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The long read: Cold comfort for action

When world leaders rose to applau­d their efforts to deal with climate change in Paris in December 2015, they kicked the details of how it would be done down the road for later, writes Graham Lloyd. Three years on, later has ­arrived in the colder, less-romantic and coal-fired city of Katowice, Poland, where the urgency of the challenge has been amplified in a new UN climate change report but the political momentum for action weakened to a point of near exhaustion.