Your noon Briefing: Tariffs hurt consumers, says Birmingham

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.

US President Donald Trump speaks during the inaugural meeting of the President’s National Council for the American Worker at the White House in Washington, DC, on September 17, 2018. (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP)

‘Tariffs hurt consumers’

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has warned that tariffs result in consumers paying more as Donald Trump hits China with a $200 billion impost on their imports. Just before the US President confirmed he would escalate the trade war with China, Senator Birmingham told the ABC that “disruptive trade practices” hurt economies.

“Tariffs ultimately result in consumers paying more and disruptive trade practices ultimately hurt economies rather than help them.”

Simon Birmingham

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Labor ‘hiding’ in Wentworth

City of Sydney councillor Christine Forster says Labor is hiding behind independent Wentworth by-election candidate Kerryn Phelps because they know they can’t win. The Australian revealed today that gun Labor campaign operative Darrin Barnett would be heading the campaign team of Dr Phelps in the race for former PM Malcolm Turnbull’s seat instead of helping the ALP candidate Tim Murray.

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Catherine Marriott has given an interview to ABC TV over her Joyce compliant.

Nats ‘leaked my letter’

The woman who accused Barnaby Joyce of sexual harassment says she believes the Nationals leaked her confidential letter of complaint. Former West Australian Rural Woman of the Year Catherine Marriott lodged a complaint against the former deputy prime minister in February, before he resigned from cabinet over his affair with former staffer Vikki Campion.

Ms Marriott will break her silence tonight in an interview with the ABC’s 7.30.

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A iPhone using the latets version of Apple's iOS 12 software.

The long read: No need to buy new iPhone

Apple’s most important upgrade this year doesn’t cost $US1000, and you don’t have to go to the Apple Store to get it, writes David Pierce, who has tested iOS 12 — the latest version of the software that powers iPhones and iPads — and reckons people should skip buying a new phone altogether this year.

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Comment of the day

“Sadly I have no confidence that universities can find the courage to support free speech without being forced to. They have gone too far down the Marxist collectivist rabbit hole and now the radical post-modernist ideologues rule academia.

“Universities are making themselves more irrelevant by the day. Who wants to employ a graduate of gender studies who is indoctrinated with all the latest radical leftists’ orthodoxy?”

Gavin, in response to ‘Freedom before feelings’.