Your midday briefing
Hello readers and welcome to your lunchtime briefing on what’s making news and how the day has played out so far.
Hello readers. Here’s what is making news this morning, plus a lunchtime long read.
Top Stories
RAMS founder John Kinghorn may face jail after being charged with dishonesty and $30m in tax fraud after allegedly concealing his ownership and control of a series of companies. Mr Kinghorn is named on court lists as appearing at Sydney’s Downing Centre this morning for a mention. Federal Police said they have charged a 76-year-old Sydney man with one count of dishonestly influencing a Commonwealth public official and one count of defrauding the Commonwealth, both of which carry jail terms of up to 10 years.
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Meet anti-Adani protestor Moira Williams, who stormed the stage during Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s first speech of the state election campaign is a former inner-western Sydney campaigner who defends the hiring of professional anti-coal demonstrators and has ties to GetUp!. And don’t miss our live coverage of Day 3 of the Queensland state election campaign, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk hoping to avoid more anti-Adani protests on her northern safari to Townsville today, while Katter’s Australia Party chimes in and ousted One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts predicts he’ll easily steal the very safe Queensland seat of Ipswich from Labor. GetUp! is under fire, meantime, from Victorian Special Minister of State Scott Ryan, who says the group “crossed the line” in attacking the independence of the Australian Electoral Commission “in a way I’ve never seen someone do”.
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Robert Gottliebsen takes aim at the current bad behaviour of the Australian Tax Office in small business court cases. Behaviour which, he writes, in the long term threatens the level of collection of Australian taxation revenue and has caused a senior Federal Court Judge to make history in warning the tax commissioner that potentially in future he could face charges for offences that carry a 10-year jail penalty.
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The long read
Peter Craven shines a light on The Light Horse and the Battle of Beersheba. It’s a strange story, though an old one, of how we turn the slaughter of war into the stuff of legend. But there’s a truth, as well as a myth, in the idea that this country came of age with Gallipoli. If Gallipoli speaks to the sorrow and pity of war, the Battle of Beersheba, that extraordinary charge by the Australian Light Horse, the centenary of which we celebrate today, evokes the other side:
“the exultation of how a nation of sport and sun, of good diet and bush prowess created some of the great warriors of modern times.”
Police seek help to crack missing mum mystery
In its first public response since the launch of a new investigative podcast, NSW Police says a strike force investigation into the suspected murder of Bronwyn Winfield is open and ongoing.
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