Your noon Briefing

Welcome to your noon digest of what’s been making news and what to watch for.

Hello readers. Here is your noon roundup of today’s top stories and a long read for lunchtime.

One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson leaves after speaking on the government's personal tax cuts in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Wednesday, June 20, 2018. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING

Hanson schtum

Pauline Hanson has refused to reveal her position on Malcolm Turnbull’s $144 billion income tax package, but has given a strong indication she will side with the government. The One Nation leader gave a 20 minute speech in the Senate but refused to outline her position, saying it would be revealed when the vote took place, which is likely tomorrow. Keep up with developments from parliament as they happen in our live blog, PoliticsNow.

-

A man speaks on his phone as he walks past a Telstra store on Melbourne's central business district on June 20, 2018. Australia's dominant telecommunications company Telstra on June 20 announced plans to axe 8,000 jobs -- a quarter of its workforce -- as part of a drastic new strategy to cope with an increasingly competitive industry. / AFP PHOTO / William WEST

Telstra to axe 8000 jobs

Telstra will shed over 8000 jobs the next three years and split its infrastructure and mobile business as the telco moves to slash an additional $1 billion of costs by 2022. The flagged job cuts will make an appreciable dent on Telstra’s total workforce of 32,000 employees. Telstra shares have dived as much as 7 per cent in mid-morning trade to a 7-year low.

-

Eric Lobbecke Higher Ed cartoon for 20-06-2018Version: Higher Ed (1280x720 - Aspect ratio preserved, Canvas added)COPYRIGHT: The Australian's artists each have different copyright agreements in place regarding re-use of their work in other publications.Please seek advice from the artists themselves or the Managing Editor of The Australian regarding re-use.

In defence of Ramsay

It’s not the gift horse I’d have designed if given a free hand, but it’s not a Trojan horse either, writes Robert Phiddian, whatever Tony Abbott’s dreams for it. Only if you really believe that students are stupidly impressionable can you believe that studying a curriculum based on the Ramsay Centres’s plans will turn out robot warriors for Western civilisation.

-

Image from HWT book 'MOMENTS IN TIME'. Portrait gallery. Golfer Peter Thomson with his daughter Peta Ann. Australian PGA championshion at Metropolitan.

Golf great dead

Australian golfing great Peter Thomson has died surrounded by his family after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. The five-time British Open champion had been fighting the disease for the past four years. Based in Melbourne, Thomson was 88.

-

The World Press Photo Foundation announces the winners of its renowned contests, the 60th annual World Press Photo Contest and the 7th annual World Press Photo Digital Storytelling Contest. Spot News - Third Prize, StoriesPicture: Mathieu Willcocks Title: Mediterranean Migration Libyan fishermen throw a lifejacket at a rubber boat full of migrants . Migrants are very often not given any life jackets or means of communication by their smugglers. More often than not they only have some water, food and not enough fuel to make it to Italy.The central Mediterranean migration route, between the coasts of Libya and Italy, remains busy. According to reports by the UNHCR, 5,000 people died while attempting to cross the Mediterranean in 2016. NGOs and charities such as Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) continue their efforts to patrol the patch of sea north of the Libyan coast, in the hope of rescuing refugees before the potential of drowning. The rescue team on board the MOAS’ Responder are there to mitigate loss of life at sea. Operating like a sea-born ambulance, they rush to assist and rescue refugee vessels in distress, provide medical assistance, and bring the refugees safely to Italy2016 was a deadly year of migrants and refugees trying to cross the mediterranean from Libya's coasts to Italy's. With ever increasing numbers of unseaworthy boats attempting the crossing, charities and NGOs like MOAS are often overwhelmed. MOAS, together with medical teams from the red cross, operates two rescue vessels, the Responder and the Phoenix, just off the coast of Libya. They sit in international waters and await either the distress call from migrants lucky enough to have been given a satellite phone by their smuggler, or to visually find migrants boats - often in the dead of night. Then the race to rescue them before it too late starts. © Mathieu Willcocks/MOAS.eu 2016, all rights reserved.

The long read: Europe echoes Tampa moment

All of a sudden, Australia doesn’t seem quite so far out on a limb with its treatment of boat-borne asylum-seekers, writes Jamie Walker. Among the Europeans, public opinion that once ran in favour of accommodating Middle Eastern and African refugees has turned sharply in favour closing the borders, culminating in their very own Tampa moment.

-

Comment of the day

“As Margaret Thatcher noted, socialists are fine until they start running out of other people’s money.”

Jennifer, in response to ‘Trump hysteria on the rise’.