Your noon Briefing

Welcome to your noon roundup of what’s making news and how the day has played out so far.

Hello readers. Here is your noon digest of what’s making news today plus a long read for lunchtime.

Federal Opposition Minister for Infrastructure Anthony Albanese speaks to the media at the Adelaide train station in Adelaide, Wednesday, January 3, 2018. Albanese discussed the Federal Government's savage cuts to investment in Adelaide's rail, road and public transport infrastructure. (AAP Image/David Mariuz) NO ARCHIVING

Albo’s refo

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has downplayed Bill Shorten’s refusal to support his proposal to hold a joint referendum on the republic and indigenous constitutional recognition on January 26, refusing to say whether or not he had discussed the issue with the Labor leader. Mr Albanese’s idea, revealed in The Weekend Australian, proposed the joint referendum as a way of creating a national “platform of unity” and ending divisions over the date of Australia Day, contradicting Labor’s current policy on the issue. Mr Shorten’s office would not be drawn on the proposal from the former leadership rival. Albo also suggests a cabinet leak indicating the Abbott government considered cutting off welfare to under-30s is designed to cause pain to the former prime minister as part of the “ongoing warfare” within the Liberal Party.

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This is a picture from the DFAT website on modest fashion.

Memo to DFAT

Wearing normal clothes does not make you immodest or immoral as DFAT would have you believe, writes Caroline Overington. DFAT has this week launched a thrilling new exhibition, in both Malaysia and Indonesia, showcasing, wait for it, “modest Australian fashion.”

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The sun sets behind powerlines in the west of Melbourne, Victoria. *power, electricity, energy* Picture: Mark Stewart

Burnout

Sweltering conditions have caused energy chaos across Victoria as more than 17,000 homes remain without power, with blackouts expected to continue today. A spokesman for United Energy, CitiPower and Powercor said fuse faults at their substations were to blame for the majority of outages, the demand for power increasing as temperatures soared into the 40s across the state. Robert Gottliebsen writes that maybe we need more power blackouts to teach the community it has been misled about energy policy.

“The prolonged high temperatures and humidity through the weekend significantly increased electricity demand at many locations across the network.”

United Energy, CitiPower and Powercor spokesman

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**WARNING HERALD SUN EXCLUSIVE IMAGE - PLEASE CONTACT HERALD SUN PICTURE DESK BEFORE USE** AFP have arrested Isa Kocoglu. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Pension plan

A disability pensioner accused of funding Islamic State fighters in Syria will test the digital evidence against him in court. Isa Kocoglu, 43, allegedly sent almost $4,000 using online payment system PayPal and cash deposits at the Kogarah branch of the Commonwealth Bank in Sydney’s southeastern suburbs between November 2013 and August 2014. Mr Kocoglu, from Hampton Park in Melbourne’s southeast, appeared briefly in the Melbourne Magistrates Court this morning as his lawyers made further arrangements for a committal hearing in July.

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15/01/2018. Matthew Woon, a single dad based between Vanuatu and Sydney, pictured at his home in Narrabeen on Sydney's Northern beaches. He invested in building a beach club in Vanuatu for cruise ship tourists but he has had to put the project on hold after the promised cruise ship wharf was built with major faults. The wharf was built with a Chinese loan. Britta Campion / The Australian

Club dead

Australians have abandoned tourism businesses in Vanuatu after a cruise ship wharf built with a Chinese bank loan was afflicted with “mistakes and miscalculations”. Sydney businessman Matthew Woon, who lives in Vanuatu with his son, said he had to shut down the tourism side of his Lapita Plantation business and close his newly built beach club because of the setback.

“I built a beautiful beach club. Lucky for me, I own the land so the outlay for me was only a couple of hundred thousand Australian dollars and the land cost about $800,000,” Mr Woon told The Australian. “But the Vanuatu people who have bought new buses, who have got loans from the bank for them, and we’re talking $60-70,000, they aren’t going to be able to make the repayments.”

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A visitor takes a photo of a piece of a series of nine panels titled "Untitled I-IX" by American artist Cy Twombly at the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum on November 11, 2017 during its official opening to the public on Saadiyat island in the Emirati capital. More than a decade in the making, the Louvre Abu Dhabi opened its doors bringing the famed name to the Arab world for the first time. / AFP PHOTO / GIUSEPPE CACACE / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION

The long read: Louvre of the Sands

When the Louvre opened its first outpost in November, President Macron declared that the $5.2 billion museum in Abu Dhabi would be the repository of “creation, reason, intelligence and fraternity”. Less than two months after opening, the Louvre of the Sands, as it has been nicknamed, has become a tool of the ruling Al Nahyan family, which also owns Manchester City football club, critics say. Adam Sage of The Times investigates.

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Comment of the day

“Surely her words can only be interpreted as ‘hate speech’. Where is the HRC? As an ordinary Australian I feel both offended and threatened.”

Rod, in response to ‘Aboriginal activist called a ‘hypocritical hater’’.