Your noon Briefing: ‘We’ll fight asylum bill tooth and nail’

Your 2-minute digest of the day’s top stories and a long read for lunchtime.

Hello readers. Kerryn Phelps risks infamy starting the boats again if her bill to water down offshore processing of asylum seekers is passed.

‘We’ll fight bill’

Matt Canavan says voters endorsed the Coalition’s border policies but Labor warns the PM can’t “simply ignore” the Phelps’s bill if it passes. Chris Kenny writes that if Kerryn Phelps’s ill-considered bill to water down offshore processing is passed she risks infamy as the person who unleashes the people-smuggling trade — again.

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This image released by ABC shows Irish actor Liam Neeson on "Good Morning America," Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019, in New York. The 66-year-old actor appeared on the morning program one day after he told an interviewer that he had violent thoughts about killing a black person after learning nearly 40 years ago that someone close to him had been raped. Neeson says he's not a racist. The actor, who was promoting the revenge film "Cold Pursuit," says we need to talk about these things because bigotry and racism exist. (Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC via AP)

‘I’m not racist’

Liam Neeson sparked a furore after admitting he wanted to attack and kill a black man when his friend was raped 40 years ago.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 05: Children wear pig costumes while ushering in Chinese New Year on February 05, 2019 in San Francisco, California. San Francisco city officials held opening ceremonies to usher in the Chinese New Year and the month-long celebration of the Year of the Pig. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

Labor pigs out

It was Year of the Pig in 2007 when Kevin Rudd toppled John Howard, and in 1983 when Bob Hawke knocked off Malcolm Fraser, writes Peter Van Onselen.

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Female real estate agent giving the house key

The long read: Finally going for brokers

Mortgage broking became a huge industry with no legal requirement for advisers to act in clients’ best interests, writes Anthony Klan.