TAX CUTS CUT

Days of failed negotiations has forced the Turnbull government to pull out of its $65 billion company tax legislation, in an effort to keep the policy alive until after the budget.

The Age reports that Finance Minister Mathias Cormann confirmed the last-minute withdrawal last night, after days of negotiations with independents Derryn Hinch and Tim Storer failed to ensure the company tax cuts could get through before parliament breaks tomorrow, but that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is confident he can revive the policy following the May budget. The Coalition was, however, successful in passing their welfare reform bill in the Senate on Monday, so it’s not all bad news (unless you happen to be one of the 80,000 people whose payments are getting cut).

UN REBUKES DUTTON

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has rejected Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s suggested immigration plan for white South African farmers, and instead found that the “very, very shocking” mental health of people on Nauru necessitated they be given priority.

The Guardian reports that UNHCR director for Asia and the Pacific, Indrika Ratwatte, has warned of the “devastating” impact of detention on kids, citing evidence of self-harm, catatonic depression, and suicidal ideation among children as young as 10. Ratwatte has implored the Australian government to prioritise the 1000 refugees still detained by Australia, over any plans to specifically resettle white South Africans.

TAKE YOUR BAT, BALL, GO HOME

Cricket Australia has sent the three players at the heat of last weekend’s ball-tampering incident — Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft — home from South Africa following a preliminary investigation, and ahead of further sanctions, but announced that Darren Lehmann will stay on as coach.

As the ABC reports, Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has announced that the three key players have been reported for breaching Cricket’s Code of Conduct, with further sanctions to be announced over the next 24 hours, but that organisation has found that no other players or officials had prior knowledge to their intention to ball tamper, including Lehmann.

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

“Let’s face it, we should scale back immigration and we should be more proud of our country. We should build new coal-fired power stations because if it’s right to export our clean coal, it’s right to use it here … We do have a problem with Islamism that does require decent Muslims to stand up to the death-to-the-infidel extremists … And we have a welfare class which often needs to be reminded of the importance of having a go … And if over the last two decades we had been more ready to heed the message of people like Pauline Hanson and less quick to shoot the messenger, I think we would be a better country today.”

— Former PM Tony Abbott does his bit to normalise Islamophobia, xenophobia, classism and Luddism by launching Pauline Hanson‘s book of collected speeches. Hanson later went on to compare herself to Nelson Mandela, because of course she did.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Malcolm Turnbull blasts ‘indifference and resistance’ by churches in child sex abuse letter

George Pell hearing: ABC journalist defends sources in book about cardinal

Russians out: Canberra joins West’s Putin revolt ($)

Man who killed Indigenous teenager Elijah Doughty given parole

New Zealand study finds power network threat from electric cars ($)

Turnbull government calls snap review of Australia’s mining industry

Bill Shorten has ‘no interest’ in changing asylum boat turnbacks policy

Labor and Greens fail in first attempt to disallow Coalition’s marine park plans

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra: Russian officials will issue a response to the Australian government’s expulsion of two spies.

Canberra: Nationals’ Senator Matt Canavan will address the National Press Club, and reportedly attract #StopAdani protestors.

Canberra: Senate committee inquiry will table a report into the redress scheme for institutional child sexual abuse.

Melbourne: Victoria’s upper house will consider a motion to send the “rorts-to-votes” scandal to a parliamentary committee, while the lower house reads Treaty legislation for a second time with traditional owners in attendance.

Canberra: A 45th anniversary celebration of the bipartisan Amnesty International Parliamentary Group will include Julie Bishop, Penny Wong, and co-chairs Trent Zimmerman, Andrew Giles, Greens’ Senator Janet Rice and Andrew Wilkie.

Canberra: House of Rep’s Standing Committee on Economics will examine the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

Sydney: Lindt Cafe siege survivor Louisa Hope and NSW Police Commissioner Michael Fuller will, respectively, discuss Hope’s nursing fund for staff at The Prince of Wales Hospital and advances in security.

Perth: Pastoralists Evan and Robin Pensini will present, via horseback, 7000-strong petition calling on the Minister for Regional Development Alannah MacTiernan to change laws they argue hold back tourism in the outback.

Sydney: Former High Court judge Michael Kirby will launch Dr Daniel Ghezelbash‘s book Refuge Lost: Asylum Law in an Interdependent World.

Gold Coast: Rwandan athletes and delegates will visit a local school ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

Brisbane: Australia’s Commonwealth Games bowls team media call will assemble and address media at Windsor Bowls Club.

Canberra: Cartier exhibition will launch at National Gallery of Australia and feature jewellery worn by the British monarchy.

Melbourne: Melbourne Zoo will launch a CSIRO-published kid’s book about the functionally extinct eastern barred bandicoot.

Adelaide: Media preview for Victorian “Age of Elegance” costume exhibition at Ayers House.

London: Outgoing Australian High Commissioner Alexander Downer will deliver an address to the Policy Exchange.

THE COMMENTARIAT

I know our criminal justice system inside out, and it is being misused — Shahleena Musk (The Guardian): “I have seen many families ripped apart, communities drained of men, women and children and lives turned upside down by criminal justice systems geared towards locking people up. These men, women and children are often the most vulnerable in our community and they are disproportionately Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”

Pokies are poison to Woolies but the pollies won’t touch them — Nick O’Malley (The Age): “Now the Woolworths board finds itself in the middle of a PR catastrophe. Having spent untold millions telling Australians they are the Fresh Food People, a cavalcade of angry and disheartened pub staff are coming forward to blow the whistle on the ugly practices they are instructed to use to keep pokies players glued to their machines.”

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

WA courts ‘entirely at odds with what the law requires’ in Elijah Doughty case — Charlie Lewis: “Representatives of the family of Elijah Doughty claim a suppression order covering the man that caused his death hinders their access to justice. Elijah Doughty was a 14-year-old Indigenous boy who died in Kalgoorlie in August 2016 when he was run over by a man who believed Doughty had stolen his bike. The driver of the car was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving — having been found not guilty of manslaughter — and sentenced to three years.”

‘#DontBeACunt’: Tim Winton targets toxic masculinity — Meg Watson: “The novelist’s talk, ‘Tender Hearts, Sons of Brutes: Tim Winton on Lost Boys and Toxic Masculinity’, is a contemplative address in which he surveys the path to modern Australian manhood and counts the cracks in the concrete that can mess them up along the way. He reflects on this — with extracts and analysis — through the protagonist in his new novel, The Shepherd’s Hut. Jaxie Clackton is a ‘prickly boy’ from rural WA: an abrasive and violent kid who, after enduring domestic violence at the hands of his dad, sets out on a path of his own.”

Turnbull should learn some lessons from Abbott and Credlin — Bernard Keane: “It’s been a busy couple of days for Tony Abbott on Twitter. Perhaps demonstrating what might be called the Leyonhjelm Principle, that the most outspoken free speech advocates have the thinnest skins, the former Prime Minister has lashed out, successively, at Amanda Vanstone, Aaron Patrick and Peter Van Onselen for articles about him or, in the case of Vanstone and Van Onselen, his office and chief of staff when he was Prime Minister.”

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