Your noon Briefing: Turnbull refuses to deny mocking ScoMo

Your 2-minute midday digest of the day’s top stories and must-reads.

Hello readers. Here is your 2-minute digest of the top stories plus a long read for lunchtime.

28/11/18: Former PM, Malcolm Turnbull walks in the rain near his home at Point Piper, Sydney. John Feder/The Australian.

Turnbull refuses to deny mocking PM

Malcolm Turnbull has refused five times to deny he mocked Scott Morrison to NSW Liberals by saying that the PM was trying to “keep his arse on C1” for as long as possible. The Australian revealed today that Mr Turnbull contacted state executive members urging them to defy Mr Morrison by voting against a plan to prevent conservative MP Craig Kelly losing preselection — and possibly retaliate by defecting to the crossbench — saying the Prime Minister just wanted to retain the prime ministership. The brazen power play was calculated to trigger an early federal election. Keep up with the latest in our live blog, PoliticsNow.

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2 December 2018 - Karl Stefanovic and Jasmine Yarbrough arrive at Sydney airport to catch a flight to Mexico for their wedding next week. Media Mode. ©MEDIA-MODE.COM

Seven ratings win

As Nine breakfast kingpin Karl Stefanovic jetted out yesterday for his star-studded wedding to fiancee, Jasmine Yarbrough, at an ­exclusive Mexican resort this week, his rivals at Seven were celebrating a win in the hotly contested television ratings. Seven’s line-up, including Sunrise and Better Homes and Garden, plus news and AFL coverage, ensured the network was the most-watched TV network for the 12th straight year.

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Labour Party Arts policy launch. Paul Keating & Gareth Evans. Pic by Matt/Munro. laughing headshot Jul 1998

Follow the money

We are witnessing the biggest Australian peacetime revolution in our financial system in the last hundred years, writes Robert Gottliebsen, who suggests the power of the revolution and its enormous implications are being obscured by gender and carbon politics, the noise that surrounds the royal commission and the turmoil in Canberra.

“The revolution started in the 1980s but its great acceleration stems from the current massive transfer of funds out of the bastions of institutional equity power — AMP, MLC and Colonial — into industry superannuation funds. Any major company in Australia looking to raise equity capital or to promote their shares must now first target the fund managers for the

industry funds in Melbourne.”

Robert Gottliebsen

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(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 05, 1988 US President Ronald Reagan, left, raises his arms in the air with presidential hopeful George Bush, center, whilte First Lady Nancy Reagan, left, and Barbara Bush, right, smile, after President Reagan announced endorsement for Bush as the next president of the United States in Washington DC. - George H.W. Bush -- the upper-crust war hero-turned-oilman and diplomat who steered America through the end of the Cold War as president and led a political dynasty that saw his son win the White House -- died Friday. He was 94. (Photo by MIKE SARGENT / AFP)

The long read: Oilman helped shape the world

George Herbert Walker Bush was the last US president to serve in World War II. Gerald F. Seib considers his life and legacy.

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Comment of the day

“How can the Liberal Party have anything to do with this despicable former Prime Minister Turnbull? Is it possible to descend any lower politically than this? I hope Liberals realise now the kind of wretched character they once elected to lead them. This is an abomination.”

Peter, in response to ‘Malcolm Turnbull tells MPs to defy Scott Morrison to save Gladys Berejiklian’.