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.

Gina Rinehart with Senator Barnaby Joyce ,as she launches her new book "Northern Australia and then some" , and speaks at a Small Business Assoc of Aust luncheon , at a Brisbane hotel.

‘Numbers with Joyce’

Nationals MP George Christensen has attacked his colleagues who are agitating for a change in leadership, claiming there were only “four or five” National MPs who had lost faith in Barnaby Joyce and he easily carried the support of the party. Ms Christensen said MPs who were agitating for change should call a spill or move a motion of no confidence against the Deputy Prime Minister, saying they would not do that because they did not have the numbers.

Peter Van Onselen writes that the last thing the Nationals need is weak leadership, yet it’s hard to see another outcome irrespective of Barnaby Joyce’s fate. Meanwhile, Gina Rinehart’s estranged son John Hancock has weighed in on the Barnaby Joyce saga, saying the deputy PM is a “danger’’ to Australia. And James Jeffrey, in the Sketch, suggests when Barnaby Joyce mentioned “the standard gauge axle load” in question time, it was hard not to wonder if he was referring to trains or the metaphorical bus he’d been pushed under by his colleagues. Keep up with the latest developments in the Joyce saga in our live rolling blog, PoliticsNow.

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Sally Cray with PM Malcolm Turnbull at the G20 meeting in Germany, July 2017.

Sally forth

Malcolm Turnbull’s principal private secretary, Sally Cray, may be one of the most powerful women in the country but few Australians could pick her in a line-up. The Prime Minister’s right-hand-woman has been thrown into the Barnaby Joyce scandal after it was revealed Mr Turnbull’s ­office, which she runs, signed off on Vikki Campion’s movements across three offices. Ms Cray’s name was splashed across tabloid news­papers yesterday after a text message exchange with former Tony Windsor staff member John Clements was leaked. The exchange involved historic accusations against Mr Joyce, which he has denied, that he pinched a woman’s bottom in 2011.

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01/11/2017 Myer CEO Richard Umbers at Myer HQ in Melbourne. Picture: David Geraghty / The Australian.

Burnt Umbers

Myer is replacing its CEO Richard Umbers, saying it is “impatient” for a turnaround in the company’s performance. Mr Umbers’ departure comes after Myer last week issued its third profit warning since launching a $600 million turnaround strategy in late 2015, and amid a collapsing share price. Myer (MYR) chairman Garry Hounsell said Mr Umbers had today stepped down as CEO and that he would take over as executive chairman. A search for a new CEO would begin immediately.

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Harley Windsor and Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya of Australia perform during the closing gala exhibition of the ISU Four Continents figure skating championships in Taipei on January 27, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Anthony WALLACE

Harley makes history ...

Aussies to watch in the Winter Olympics come thick and fast this afternoon. Harley Windsor makes history when he becomes the first indigenous Australian to compete at a Winter Games. But the 21-year-old isn’t letting the milestone get to him, focused on the task at hand ahead of his appearance with partner Katia Alexandrovskaya around midday.

Scotty James (right), Shaun White (top left) and Ayumu Hirano.

Then the Halfpipe

Then from 12.30pm it’s on to the much-anticipated men’s snowboarding halfpipe final, which is shaping up as a battle in three between American Shaun White, Aussie hope and the team’s flagbearer Scotty James and Japan’s Ayumu Hirano. Keep up with all the action in our Winter Olympics live blog.

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FILE - This Feb. 19, 2013 file photo shows OxyContin pills arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. The maker of the powerful painkiller said it will stop marketing opioid drugs to doctors, a surprise reversal after lawsuits blaming the company for helping trigger the current drug abuse epidemic. OxyContin has long been the world’s top-selling opioid painkiller and generated billions in sales for privately-held Purdue. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)

The long read: Between relief and craving

Sufferers are caught in the crossfire in a war on opioids. Sufferers like Natalie Elliott, who is fed up with being treated like a drug addict, writes Sian Powell. The 35-year-old, from Werribee in Melbourne, has endured a range of serious medical conditions for most of her life, including the incurable chronic regional pain syndrome and severe ­degeneration in her neck vertebrae that requires a spinal fusion, as well as herniated discs and a compressed spinal cord. Without opioids, she has trouble walking, showering, sleeping, sitting and leaving the house. Yet although she is happy with her current doctors, she has had trouble in the past.

“Patients who are responsibly taking opioids are being treated like addicts, having to visit a GP every fortnight to get a prescription for a medication they have been taking for months.”

Natalie Elliott

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Embargoed For The Daily Telegraph only** Do not use without speaking to Nicola Gibson.Exclusive photos of Barnaby Joyce & Vikki Campion taken at Farm2Fork event on Thursday 3rd November 2016 on Cockatoo Island Sydney.

Comment of the day

“Great photo of a powerless Barnaby, bewitched bothered and bewildered, hook line and sinker, lock stock and smoking barrel.”

John, in response to ‘Barnaby Joyce calls time on the pregnant mistress pub test’.