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, Kerry Packer told Don Burke to pull his head in, self-identifying urban ‘indigenous’ are depriving their needy northern brethren, and Mt Agung builds up a head of steam in Bali.

Kerry Packer reportedly phoned Don Burke to tell him to behave himself.

Pack it in, Don: Packer

Media titan Kerry Packer personally called one of his biggest stars, Don Burke, and ordered that he behave himself. The Daily Telegraph reports today that Packer, the then owner of Nine, phoned Burke after Olympic swimmer Susie O’Neill lodged a formal complaint against the Burke’s Backyard host in 2000. O’Neill claims Burke made crude and belittling remarks during a visit to her Brisbane home ahead of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The Telegraph reports Packer phoned Burke as a result of O’Neill’s complaint, casting doubt on Channel 9 assertions the network was ignorant of the claims surrounding Burke at the time. It has also been reported that Burke was banned from flying with Qantas during the peak of his fame because of his inappropriate conduct.

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Labor Senator Sam Dastyari reacts during the Same Sex Marriage debate in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Tuesday, November 28, 2017. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) NO ARCHIVING

Shorten slapdown for Dasher

Labor leader Bill Shorten has slapped down Sam Dastyari saying he expects it to be the last time the NSW senator’s judgment is called into question following reports he passed on classified security information to a Chinese political donor. “I have made it clear to Senator Dastyari that this is not the first time his judgment has been called into question but I certainly expect it to be the last,” the Opposition Leader said in a statement. Attorney-General George Brandis has declared Senator Dastyari’s position in the parliament was “untenable” following reports the key ally of Mr Shorten passed on classified information. Senator Brandis demanded Senator Dastyari explain what he told the Chinese Communist Party-linked Huang Xiangmo, who had been a past political donor to the NSW powerbroker.

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Andrew Broad at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

‘Sneaky’ PM cops SSM broadside

Nationals MP Andrew Broad has accused Malcolm Turnbull of showing a “complete lack of leadership” as conservative Coalition MPs show dismay at the likelihood the Dean Smith bill will be passed through the parliament with no amendments. Mr Broad said the Prime Minister had walked away from enshrining religious protections in a “sneaky way” as the Senate last night rejected all amendments to the Smith bill. The bill is likely to pass the upper house without changes today. “In my view, there’s been a complete lack of leadership,” Mr Broad told the ABC. “All the assurances both by the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader were that religious protections would be protected, they believed in those.” Peter Van Onselen, however, believes the PM is showing leadership against bullying from within his own party.

“(They) seemed to be walked away from in what I think is quite a sneaky way.”

Andrew Broad

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Bob Beadman prepares his Eulogy for Leigh Bruce "Tracker" Tilmouth's funeral.

‘Ripping funds from our pockets’

Cosseted urbanites who belatedly self-identify as indigenous are ­ripping much-needed funds from the pockets of their disadvantaged brethren in remote communities farther north, according to one of the nation’s highest-profile Aboriginal bodies. The Yothu Yindi Foundation, which runs the annual Garma Festival in Arnhem Land, yesterday told the Productivity Commission that counting indigeneity in the formula used to allocate GST revenue might be hurting those in areas with the highest need. YYF representatives said “exponential” growth in the indigenous-identifying populations of southern states — over and above that attributable to natural factors — was “draining away” money from the Northern Territory.

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A red glow can be seen on Mt Agung

The long read: Mt Agung ‘off the richter’

A chilling red glow from the lava in the crater of Mt Agung has been seen in photographs as vulcanologists in Bali warn the volcano could be just hours from a potentially explosive lava eruption after a massive “over the scale” tremor shook surrounding villages and a key observation post. Indonesian volcanology and hazard mitigation centre senior scientist Gede Suantika told The Australian the tremor, which hit at 1.30pm (4.30 AEDT) today was “so big it was literally over the scale and could no longer be recorded”.

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NEW YORK - SEPT 13: Marc Jacobs Spring Summer 2018 collection (Photo by Jonas Gustavsson/MCV Photo For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Bum bag’s back, all right?

Fashion sometimes likes to pull the superfine merino over our eyes, writes Fashion Editor Glynis Traill-Nash. It thinks that by renaming even the most heinous of items with a fancy new moniker, it ­suddenly becomes something new and covetable. Case in point: the “belt bag”. Or the “waist bag”. Even the “hip bag” in some circles. However, to those of us born before 2000, these ­accessories will be forever known as something quite different: the bum bag. To our American friends: the fanny pack.

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Comment of the day

“Dear LNP, do not ask me for donations, to man a polling booth or otherwise support you ... you have abandoned your base.”

Jason, one of 815 comments and counting in reply to today’s most-read story, ‘Liberal fury as freedom laws denied in same-sex marriage bill’.