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 light read for lunchtime.
How to win
It’s the year’s first sitting day and already Tony Abbott is advising government on what it should be doing. The former PM says the result in today’s Newspoll shows the next election is winnable for the government, as long as it “sharpens” the policy difference with Labor. The former prime minister said policy changes were needed to compliment the government’s stronger rhetoric against the opposition. He said the government should build a new coal-fired power station and cut immigration levels. Follow all the latest from parliament in our live blog, PoliticsNow. Peter Van Onselen writes that Liberal Party reactionaries haven’t been able to wreck the Prime Minister’s start to the year.
“It is good that government ministers from the Prime Minister down are on the front foot against Labor, pointing out the fact that if Shorten were to win the election you would have the Greens in charge of social policy, you would have the unions in charge of economic policy.”
Tony Abbott
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Waste of time
The Prime Minister was right to say too many students are studying law, writes Adam Creighton. Lawyers and law graduates are massively over-represented in almost every field: the parliament, bureaucracy and big business. The three longest serving prime ministers — Robert Menzies, John Howard and Bob Hawke — were lawyers, as are the present Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader. If only more of us understood that the cost of enforcing even well-meaning laws often outweighed their benefits — let alone the inevitable unintended consequences that come with them — we’d all be better off.
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$20bn wipeout
Australian shares opened as much as 1.5 per cent lower, wiping more than $20 billion from the market, following the sharp sell-off on Wall Street on Friday as concerns of rising interest rates swept through equity markets. At 10.25am (AEDT) the S&P/ASX200 index had pulled back slightly and was trading 1.4 per cent lower at 6,036.1 points with mining, real estate and utilities stocks leading losses. In futures trading, the SPI200 futures contract was down 86 points, or 1.42 per cent, at 5,985 points. BHP was down 2.4 per cent, Rio Tinto sank 1.9 per cent and South32 dropped 1.5 per cent. Commonwealth Bank was 1.1 per cent lower and ANZ had given up 1.4 per cent. Key to the direction of the local market will be Asian shares with Hong Kong yet to open.
Why market cracked
Of course, markets have a habit of being surprised by the obvious, usually because of those four dreaded words: “It’s different this time”, writes Alan Kohler. Thing are always different in some way and this time it’s technology, but as Mark Twain is supposed to have remarked, even though history doesn’t repeat, it often rhymes. Inflation following wage rises following a tight labour market is the basic economic rhyme.
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Eagles soar
A good looking Eagles drive comes undone on the first truly unbelievable play of the day, after a deep shot to Alshon Jeffrey is bobbled and somehow lands in the waiting arms of Patriots safety Duron Harmon. Philidelphia’s dominance on both sides of the ball is really starting to make a difference though. New England needs to find a way to slow down a very dominant pass rush that’s really limiting their ability to call anything other than fast developing pass plays. Keep up with the action in our live Super Bowl blog.
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The long read: Let the battles begin
Political games, policy contortions and party infighting look set to be the defining features of the start of the parliamentary year, writes Peter Van Onselen. Bill Shorten sought to get the jump on the government with last week’s National Press Club address. Light on detail but strong on positioning, the Opposition Leader announced Labor’s support for a federal corruption watchdog and followed up relentless summer campaigning by the union movement by putting wages and working conditions at centre stage.
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Comment of the day
“Outrageous Mr Deng, how dare you! When I last checked, Mr Dutton and Mr Turnbull have not been bashing and robbing people on the streets and in their homes. You are part of the problem, not the solution.”
Terryd in response to ‘Dutton and Turnbull need to be deported, says African leader’.
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.