Your noon Briefing
Welcome to your noon roundup of what’s making news and what to watch for.
Hello readers. Here is your noon digest of what’s making news and a long read for lunchtime.
Shorten’s lucky ‘escape’
Bill Shorten has revealed he was asked to be an altar boy by notorious pedophile priest Kevin O’Donnell, only to be stopped by his mother because she did not like the man. The Opposition Leader said he was “lucky” to have not fallen into the trap of the disgraced priest, who abused two of the daughters of sex abuse campaigners Anthony and Chrissie Foster. O’Donnell died in 1997 and was a child abuser from 1942 to 1992. Stay abreast of all the developments in parliament as they happen in our live rolling blog, PoliticsNow.
“I used to say to my mum ‘why don’t we go to (another) mass, there are four other sessions?’ It turned out she took us to that service because she didn’t like the priest, Father O’Donnell.” Bill Shorten
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Protection racket
For all the personal turmoil and political intrigue of the Barnaby Joyce affair the one point that should never be in question is that this was a legitimate story for reporting, asserts Chris Kenny. The fact that politicians and journalists are in high dudgeon about it merely confirms what a self-interested protection racket they sometimes run. Is the Joyce story a major issue? Probably not — there is no suggestion of malfeasance or misdeeds. The personal difficulties, betrayals and grievances of private relationships are none of our business, although they certainly will change the views of some voters about the Deputy Prime Minister.
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Man vs wild
Anthony Mundine has quit I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! after an apparent row with long-time boxing rival Danny Green. Mundine today revealed he had quit the Network Ten’s program, being staged in a jungle in South Africa, saying he missed his family. It follows the abrupt exit of controversial tennis player Bernard Tomic after just a few days. The latest incident came after Mundine and Green, who have fought each other twice in blockbuster boxing events, took part in the “Viper Room challenge”, in which the pair were buried by snakes.
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Porsche plugs in
Electric vehicle demand in Europe followed trends elsewhere in 2017 with a 39 per cent increase compared with the previous year, the latest figures show. A total of 287,270 electrified vehicles were bought, 80,000 more than in 2016, with sales split almost 50-50 between pure battery cars and plug-in hybrids. Porsche plans to double its spending on electro-mobility to €6 billion ($9.4bn) by 2022, split between vehicle development and facilities to build cars.
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The long read: Flying off course
Ean Higgins delves into how a bid to integrate military and civilian air traffic control has hit turbulence. The federal public expenditure watchdog has delved into OneSKY and found it to be running grievously late, bursting at the budget seams, and in danger of not delivering value for money to either Defence or Airservices.
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Comment of the day
“We, the chattering masses couldn’t give a rats about the private lives of politicians. We just want them to do a half decent job of running the country. Is that too much to ask?”
Jonathan, in response to ‘Barnaby Joyce: the secret that inevitably gave birth to turmoil’.
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.