Your noon Briefing
Hello readers. Here’s the latest on how the day is playing out plus a long read for lunchtime.
Hello readers. In your noon digest, the PM slams ‘China-phobic’ claims, Borce Ristevski is arrested for his wife Karen’s murder, and Janet Albrechtsen hands out her annual pollies’ report cards.
‘China-phobic’ claims absurd: PM
Malcolm Turnbull says Labor’s claim that the government has been using “China-phobic” rhetoric is “desperate and absurd”, citing his own family links through his Chinese daughter-in-law. The Prime Minister’s defence comes after Australia’s first Chinese-born parliamentarian, Helen Sham-Ho, said she believed the Liberal Party could suffer in the Bennelong by-election on Saturday as a result of the government’s “anti-Chinese” rhetoric over the Sam Dastyari donations scandal. However, Mr Turnbull admitted today the government is “fighting to hold” Bennelong ahead of this weekend’s crucial by-election.
“To suggest that somebody whose granddaughter is one of those one million Australians of Chinese ancestry is anything other than a friend of Chinese people is absurd, completely absurd.”
Malcolm Turnbull
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Borce Ristevski arrested
The husband of Karen Ristevski will contest allegations he murdered the Melbourne mother. Borce Ristevski, 53, was arrested at 7.20am this morning by detectives from Victoria Police’s Missing Persons Squad. The arrest marks a major breakthrough in the case which has captured national attention since Ms Ristevski went missing from her Avondale Heights home on the morning of 29 June 2016. The 46-year-old mother of one was last seen by her husband, who told police she had left their Oakley Drive home on foot after the couple argued about finances.
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Scorcher’s power spike
Victorian energy use is predicted to spike more than four times its usual daily demand to 9000 megawatts today as the state battles the first heat blast of the summer. Victorian temperatures are expected to soar above 40 degrees in some parts of the state in a one-day scorcher in which temperatures in Melbourne are predicted to hit 37 degrees. Energy demand will peak between 4pm and 5pm, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator, which says the hot weather will test energy supplies but will not cause a blackout.
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Schooled: Pollies’ report cards
Some ministers in the Turnbull government have been slogging away this year, putting together policies that could lift the government’s fortunes. Others outside the ministry have worked equally hard to that end. So who in the government performed well, and who bombed, in 2017? Janet Albrechtsen hands out the grades, after giving the PM a ‘D’.
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The long read: Done his dash
In his resignation speech yesterday morning, Sam Dastyari made one remark that, when you think about it, is a pretty big admission, and pretty funny: “I love the Labor Party — it has always given me more than I have given back.” For Dastyari, writes Ean Higgins, whose nickname in political and journalistic circles is “Dasher”, the ALP was the party that just kept on giving. It gave him the chance to start stacking ALP branches almost immediately after joining the party at age 16. The party gave him a series of backroom jobs as a political staff member and ultimately the most powerful ALP position in NSW as general secretary at the age of just 26. It even gave him a stint as senator without having to stand for election.
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Comment of the day
“So it’s a win-win! Slippery Sam out of the parliament, but still in the party.”
John, in response to ‘Shorten facing ALP split as powerbroker Dastyari departs’.
China’s great wall of silence
China deliberately concealed information about the coronavirus, and now it is fighting an inquiry. So what is Beijing hiding?
Your noon Briefing
Your 2-minute digest of the day’s top stories.