Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 25 September.
Top stories
Labor has maintained its election-winning lead over the Coalition, and the voting public is divided about whether Australia needs a new law protecting religious freedom, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll. Four weeks after the poisonous internal fight that led to the Liberal party dumping Malcolm Turnbull and replacing him with Scott Morrison, Labor leads the Coalition 53% to 47% on the two-party-preferred measure. The result a fortnight ago was Labor 54%, the Coalition 46%.
The Coalition’s primary vote in the new survey of 1,030 respondents is 37%, up a point from a fortnight ago. Labor is on 36%, which is down a point. Morrison – who has accelerated his operating tempo over the past couple of weeks as the Coalition battles the after-effects of the leadership change – has signalled his intention to press ahead with legislation safeguarding religious freedom. But with the detail still under wraps as the Liberals attempt to hold Turnbull’s seat of Wentworth at a looming byelection, voters aren’t sold. Thirty-seven per cent of the sample is supportive, 26% opposes the idea and 37% is undecided.
The pharmaceutical industry is engaging vast numbers of lobbyists and donating millions to both political parties, creating a level of influence that a former health department secretary has linked to Australia’s high medicine prices. A Guardian Australia analysis of donations and lobbyist records has revealed the true extent of the industry’s influence. About 72 separate pharmaceutical businesses engage paid lobbyists to influence government decisions and policy. They are represented by 29 separate lobbying firms, many of which have former ministerial or political advisers as staff. A former federal health department secretary, Stephen Duckett, now a leading health researcher at the Grattan Institute, said the pharmaceutical industry was “extremely powerful”. “We have policies that are designed to suit them rather than to suit the consumer or taxpayer,” he told Guardian Australia.
Rod Rosenstein, the US deputy attorney general, is to meet Donald Trump amid reports that his resignation is nigh. The White House said the president and Rosenstein had “an extended conversation” about news stories published last week reporting that Rosenstein discussed with colleagues secretly recording Trump or having him removed from office. The two plan to meet on Thursday, at Rosenstein’s request. The deputy attorney general oversees the investigation of Russian election interference and links between the Trump campaign and Moscow. If Rosenstein were to leave his job, it would throw into question the oversight of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Nauru’s attempts to block court-ordered medical evacuations of refugees is a problem of the Australian government’s creation, a federal court judge has said in a damning ruling. Justice Debra Mortimer made the comments early last week while ordering the urgent transfer of a young woman who was ill after trying to take her own life, after she was allegedly raped on the same day she was denied US resettlement. In arguing against the transfer, lawyers for Australia’s minister for home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, had told the court there had been “ongoing issues” with the Nauruan government not granting approval for air ambulances to land and pick up patients for transfer to Australia. Mortimer said the government “has created this situation by establishing an arrangement of this kind for regional processing with another sovereign state”.
A small group of paraplegic patients have once again been able to take steps after researchers implanted a device to electrically stimulate their spinal cords. Two separate teams of scientists have revealed for the first time that the technique, together with physical training, has allowed three out of the five individuals treated to walk again after losing all voluntary movement below the site of an injury.
Sport
Injured Cooper Cronk faces an emotional week in the lead-up to the NRL grand final, as he hopes to recover from a serious shoulder injury in time to play. Cronk is also faced with meeting his former club Melbourne. He played the first 14 years of his NRL career at the Storm, winning four of seven grand finals on his way to becoming one of the best half-backs of his generation.
Comeback king Tiger Woods has delivered vindication of his father’s notorious tough-love training approach, writes Andy Bull. Earl Woods’s “psychological training” gave his son the reservoirs of resilience needed to recover from a decade of ugly ordeals.
Thinking time
With banks raising interest rates and housing prices in Sydney and Melbourne falling, is it time to worry about a crash? Greg Jericho suggests that we all should take a deep breath: “When we talk about the housing boom and possible burst, we’re really talking about Sydney and Melbourne. Yes, it could infect other markets, but since the RBA began cutting rates at the end of 2010, Sydney and then Melbourne have been the two cities that really took off.”
The MDMA octopuses show how much animals and humans have in common. Humans might have diverged from their eight-legged friends 500m years ago, but octopuses on ecstasy behave just as people do in many ways. Invertebrate animals had long been almost ignored when thinking about sentience and animal experience. But this is now changing, writes Peter Godfrey-Smith.
The Doors’ Hello, I Love You is a classic psychedelic rock anthem – but how did it come about? Dave Simpson interviews the band to find out the secrets behind the song. “Jim thought the studio was on fire and sprayed everything with an extinguisher,” remembers the guitarist, Robby Krieger. “But it wasn’t on fire. He’d just taken acid.”
Media roundup
Many Australian papers splash with the surprise sacking of the ABC’s managing director Michelle Guthrie. “ABC chaos may cost millions,” reports the Age. “ABC boss fired for ‘style’,” says the Financial Review. The Tasmanian state government is scrambling to find $3.2m, as the cost of staff in ministerial, electorate and opposition offices has blown out, the Mercury reports. Shortages in supplementary feed stocks have delivered another blow to drought-stricken Queensland farmers, the ABC reports.
Coming up
Melbourne Storm star Billy Slater fronts the NRL judiciary, having pleaded not guilty to a shoulder charge tackle, in his quest to play in the grand final.
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