Your noon Briefing: ‘Turnbull support will help us keep seat’ in Wentworth

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.

Liberal party pre-selection candidate Dave Sharma is seen at the Liberal Party pre-selection meeting for the seat of Wentworth in Sydney, Thursday, September 13, 2018. The Liberal Party will pre-select its candidate for former prime minister Malcolm Turbull's seat of Wentworth on Thursday evening, ahead of a by-election on October 20. (AAP Image/Brendan Esposito) NO ARCHIVING

Sharma karma

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says it’s “great to see” Malcolm Turnbull strongly supporting David Sharma, who last night won Liberal pre-selection for Wentworth, as his replacement in the blue-ribbon Sydney seat.

“Obviously that is extremely helpful in helping us to retain the seat at the by-election coming up,” Mr Cormann told Sky News today. Despite being pressured to make way for a female candidate, Australia’s former ambassador to Israel emerged victorious after a six-and-a-half-hour preselection battle at Easts Rugby Club in Rose Bay.

-

Former Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop (right) and Liberal MP Julia Banks react during House of Representatives Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra, Thursday, September 13, 2018. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) NO ARCHIVING

Politics of bullying

Julie Bishop blew new life into the gender war, writes Ticky Fullerton. And in all this bullying banter there is a large elephant in the room. Why oh why is this stuff only about women?

“As I understand it, having talked to several journalists backgrounded by women in the Liberal party who have felt leant upon in the ugly battle for leadership — people like Linda Reynolds, Julia Banks and Lucy Gichuhi — these women have been pressured, call it bullied if you like, to support one candidate over another.”

Ticky Fullerton

-

TOPSHOT - Serena Williams of the US argues with chair umpire Carlos Ramos while playing Naomi Osaka of Japan during their 2018 US Open women's singles final match on September 8, 2018 in New York. - Osaka, 20, triumphed 6-2, 6-4 in the match marred by Williams's second set outburst, the American enraged by umpire Carlos Ramos's warning for receiving coaching from her box. She tearfully accused him of being a "thief" and demanded an apology from the official. (Photo by Eduardo MUNOZ ALVAREZ / AFP)

Simple fact

In the morass of Op-Eds scrawled in the wake of the US women’s Open final, focus quickly became lost and one rather simple fact was ignored, suggests Jack the Insider: The umpire is always right.

-

Treasurer Scott Morrison shows his support for Malcolm Turnbull as they both enter the chamber for Question Time today in the House of Representatives, Federal Parliament, Canberra.

The long read: Inside the Liberals’ war rooms

Pamela Williams goes deep inside the corridors of power in part two of her Inside Story on the coup that ousted Malcolm Turnbull.

-

Comment of the day

“How insulting is it to women to suggest that our voting intentions are so shallow! The issue is that, as a rule, women are less interested in a career in politics than men are, in the same way that they are less interested in a career in engineering or manual labour.

“Gender targets or quotas just mean you are choosing half your candidates from a much shallower pool. Given the behaviour of a number of the current female members of the Coalition, this point is clearly illustrated.”

Louise, in response to ‘Boost women or pay the price’.