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 reverses course and calls a banking royal commission, pressure grows for Dasher to go, and Chris Kenny has his day in court.

Treasurer Scott Morrison and PM Malcolm Turnbull at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

PM’s backflip on banks

Malcolm Turnbull says a $75 million banking royal commission was a “regrettable but necessary action” as the government backflipped on its opposition to the inquiry and will establish a powerful probe into the financial services sector. The Prime Minister said the constant speculation of an inquiry was starting to undermine the financial system and the economy, making one necessary. The announcement sent banking shares tumbling. Dennis Shanahan suggests the about-face speaks volumes about the PM’s political ineptitude, lack of preparation and depth of desperation.

“The government’s policy remains the same until it is changed.”

Malcolm Turnbull

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TWAM-20171020 embargo for TWAM 20 OCT 2017NO RE-USE WITHOUT PERMISSIONJames Packer (R0 in meeting with Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu Pic : Channel 10, Israel

Packer quizzed in Netanyahu probe

Australian billionaire James Packer was interviewed in Australia yesterday as part of a corruption probe of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Times of Israel today reported that according to a Hadashot TV report, Mr Packer answered the questions of Australian investigators who had been briefed by Israeli police officials, as the Israelis listened in. A spokesman for Mr Packer confirmed today that the report was correct.

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Yuhu Group chief executive Huang Xiangmo and Sam Dastyari at a press conference for the Chinese community in Sydney in June, 2016 - at the Commonwealth parliamentary offices in Sydney.

Dasher’s woes grow

The government is intensifying pressure on Sam Dastyari to quit the Senate after the embattled Labor Senator agreed to a demand from Bill Shorten that he resign from key parliamentary roles and sit on the backbench. Senator Dastyari formally resigned as the Opposition’s deputy whip in the Senate and as chair of the parliamentary committee on the future of journalism over accusations he passed classified information onto a Communist Party of China-linked donor, Huang Xiangmo.

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Chris Kenny arrives at the memorial service for Bill Leak, at Town Hall in Sydney, Friday, March 17, 2017. Leak was an editorial cartoonist and artist at The Australian newspaper, and passed away last week aged 61from a suspected heart attack. (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts) NO ARCHIVING

Chris Kenny’s day in court

“Perhaps I could assist the court, your honour?” Find out what happens when a star columnist decides to contest a traffic fine at Sydney’s Downing Centre and finds himself pitted against the learned friends of the legal profession.

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14/11/17: Chris Jordan, Australian Commissioner of Taxation at Roseville in Sydney. John Feder/The Australian.

The long read: Tax beat’s tough cop

Tax commissioner Chris Jordan has never run from a fight, writes Nick Tabakoff. Having spent his childhood as the sixth of seven kids in a two-bedroom house in the shadow of Sydney’s Kingsford Smith airport, the top taxman learned to scrap for everything: from bedroom drawers to food. That appetite for a scrap is now fed by his toe-to-toe battles with multinational giants such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Chevron.

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Comment of the day

“Laughter at the self-important misandrists of the left is the best antidote to their sanctimonious piffle.”

Peter, in response to self-proclaimed “internet supervillain” Milo Yiannopolous’s guest column on defeating bossy left-wingers with laughter and facts.