Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 15 November.
Top stories
Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May, has won cabinet support for her draft Brexit agreement after a tense five-hour cabinet meeting. It paves the way for the UK’s exit from the European Union to go forward. After the cabinet meeting she gave a short statement outside Downing Street in which she said it had been a “long, detailed and impassioned debate” and that the agreement to exit the EU was “the best that could be negotiated”. She added: “I firmly believe with my head and my heart that this is in the best interests of our entire United Kingdom.”
Cabinet agreement is a major milestone in Brexit negotiations. May’s proposals had prompted several high-profile cabinet resignations and calls for a challenge to her leadership. She faces hostility from Brexiters and those who want to remain inside the EU. May will take the agreement to the House of Commons tomorrow. You can read the details of May’s Brexit deal here, and follow live updates and reaction here.
Australia’s environment minister Melissa Price says she cannot pinpoint the time when carbon emissions will come down, but has confidence the Morrison government has the right suite of policies to do the job. On Wednesday Price was branded “an environment minister on L-plates” by fellow Liberal Concetta Fierravanti-Wells after a recent incident in a Canberra restaurant where three witnesses say she disparaged Pacific nations to the former president of Kiribati. Fierravanti-Wells said Price’s encounter with the visiting Pacific official Anote Tong had “damaged” Australia’s good work and practical support for the Pacific. Price told ABC on Wednesday evening the Pacific was “a very good friend and neighbour” and she intended to rebuke her government colleague.
Labor’s $160m plan to ask Australians to vote “yes” or “no” to becoming a republic has been met with strong criticism from Indigenous people campaigning for constitutional change to recognise first peoples. Labor announced on the weekend that, if elected, it will commit to holding a public ballot on the republic in its first term of government. The Northern Territory branch secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia and president of the NT Trades & Labour Council, Thomas Mayor, was part of the Uluru convention and has been touring the country ever since, helping build support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart. “We’ve just had this amazing moment [with the Uluru statement], we’ve been pushing it, and we’re going to get sent to the back of the bus to wait for a republic that does nothing to empower our people,” he said.
Scott Morrison has told the Indonesian president that Australia will decide on moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by Christmas. The fraught meeting with Joko Widodo kicked off Morrison’s program at the Asean summit in Singapore, and followed a warning from the Indonesian trade minister, Enggartiasto Lukita, that Jakarta will not sign off on a free-trade deal with Canberra if the Morrison government shifts the embassy. Morrison flagged the embassy shift in late October ahead of the Wentworth byelection, sparking an immediate diplomatic backlash in Jakarta that has put the trade deal at risk. Separately the defence minister, Christopher Pyne, has articulated a more nuanced position where there would be an Australian embassy in West Jerusalem and a separate diplomatic presence in East Jerusalem.
A French government spokesman has criticised Donald Trump for displaying a lack of “common decency” when he attacked Emmanuel Macron on the anniversary of the 2015 Paris terror attacks. As France marked the anniversary of the Bataclan attacks in which 130 people were killed, Trump launched a string of angry tweets, condemning the key US ally over its near defeat to Germany in two world wars, its wine industry and Macron’s approval ratings. The rebuke comes after a strained weekend in Paris for Macron and Trump, where growing tension between the US and France were on full display.
Sport
An ominous Australian side have relocated their mojo at the Women’s World T20, writes Adam Collins, with Meg Lanning’s side wasting no time in pushing into top gear in the Caribbean with the wounds of 2017’s humilitation still chaffing.
Everyone knows Roger Federer gets to play when and where he wants, but the recent Laver Cup issues is a sign of turbulent times, writes Kevin Mitchell. How much sway should tennis stars hold over scheduling – and is the world’s lover affair with “Roger” beginning to wane?
Thinking time
State politics is often dismissed as a service delivery branch of government, with the big ideas reserved for federal politics. But in recent years it has been state governments – particularly Victoria – that have innovated, particularly in social policy. The Daniel Andrews Labor government, elected four years ago, has been the most progressive and active state government in a generation, taking political risks and investing significant funds. At this election, there are genuine philosophical differences between Labor and the Coalition and, if Matthew Guy becomes premier, many of the most innovative initiatives will be reversed, or at least reviewed. Gay Alcorn looks at five social policy areas at stake on 24 November.
Mick Smart is back with his third instalment in the Life on the Breadline series, which follows six Australians living below the poverty line over the course of a year. Smart, who has been struggling with chronic pain since an accident during the work-for-the-dole scheme, reveals his fear for his future, writing: “Is the value or purpose of human life nothing more than an individual’s ability (or lack thereof) to fulfil the needs or requirements of more powerful men?”
One year ago Australia voted to legalise same-sex marriage. Five people from the front line look back at the moment Australia said yes, and the decades that came before. As Sally Rugg writes: “I’m a big-picture kind of gal, but I can’t forget this trauma. It lives in me and it lives within the people I love. We are scarred ... Let’s celebrate for the rest of our lives the Australia that we created together – over decades, not weeks. And let’s remember what the anniversary of the survey result really means.”
What’s he done now?
Trump’s favourite television station Fox News has backed CNN’s lawsuit against the White House for banning reporter Jim Acosta after a fiery exchange with Trump last week. But the White House says it has the right to pick and choose which reporters it allows to cover Trump’s presidency, and revoking Acosta’s credentials is lawful.
Media roundup
Emergency psychiatric teams in Melbourne are so overwhelmed that some GPs have dubbed them “call again tomorrow” or “can’t attend today” when they try to get expert help for psychotic or suicidal patients, the Age reports. A rookie Asio officer is responsible for foiling a major terrorism plot, the Australian reports, with the young woman spotting the suspects visiting a chemist late at night to buy supplies for bomb-making. And the Climate Council has warned of a looming water security crisis, the ABC reports, with the Murray-Darling seeing a 41% reduction in “streamflows” since the mid 1990s.
Coming up
Scott Morrison will attend the Asean summit of regional leaders in Singapore today and the Bureau of Meteorology will be announcing its summer rain and temperature outlook.
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