Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 23 October.
Top stories
Leaked CCTV footage appears to show a Jamal Khashoggi body double leaving the country’s consulate in Istanbul wearing the clothes of the murdered Washington Post journalist. CNN aired the footage on Monday, citing a Turkish official who identified the man as Mustafa al-Madani, a member of a 15-man Saudi team sent to Istanbul to target Khashoggi. The footage appears to show the Saudi agent entering the consulate without a beard and wearing a blue and white checked shirt and dark blue trousers. Footage from later in the day appears to show him leaving the consulate dressed as Khashoggi, with glasses and a fake beard, but wearing the same pair of trainers that he had arrived in. The agent is then seen touring a number of landmarks in the Turkish city.
The apparent Saudi aim was for footage of the man to be picked up by CCTV and distributed, thereby bolstering its claims made in the days after Khashoggi’s disappearance on 2 October that he had left the consulate unscathed.The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is expected to assemble two weeks of leaks, insinuation and police evidence in an explosive speech in the Turkish parliament on Tuesday.
Labor has outlined conditions for supporting Morrison’s Nauru resettlement plan. With pressure intensifying from the crossbench for the Coalition and Labor to strike a deal to end what the Australian Medical Association has described as an “humanitarian emergency requiring urgent intervention”, the shadow immigration minister, Shayne Neumann, on Monday night wrote to his government counterpart, David Coleman, nominating three areas required to bring the ALP to the table. The letter comes as at least 11 children have been transferred from Nauru to Australia for medical attention, border force officials revealed on Monday. The move also follows the extraordinary swing against the government in the Wentworth byelection. The almost certain winner, the independent candidate Kerryn Phelps, told the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night that she believes the “writing is on the wall” for Australia’s offshore detention policies and that the government will act without the need for a no-confidence motion.
Most voters believe Morrison has failed to transform the Coalition, as Labor continues to command an election-winning position, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll. Two months after the Liberal leadership change, and the anticipated loss of Wentworth, 59% of respondents say the government Scott Morrison leads has not been refreshed as a consequence of the blood-letting. This week’s poll has Labor ahead of the Coalition on the two-party-preferred measure 53% to 47%, a result that has remained steady for the past month. A majority – 59% of a sample of 1,027 voters – say the Liberal leadership change in late September has made no difference, and the government remains the same as it was before the shift. Elsewhere, polling published in the Australian shows the Coalition faces an election wipeout with a collapse in support in every mainland state and every demographic since he replaced Malcolm Turnbull. The analysis of four Newspoll surveys point to the loss of up to 25 seats across Australia.
Lower energy power prices for consumers are still on the agenda, as the Coalition presses ahead with formally asking the Australian Energy Regulator to introduce a default market offer for energy prices for households and small businesses. It will use a looming meeting with state and territory energy ministers – the first gathering of the Coag energy council since the national energy guarantee was scuttled by the government’s internal civil war – to try to seek the cooperation of state and territory governments to implement reforms focused on providing hip-pocket relief.
Advocates say birth control pills should be available over the counter, but the peak body for doctors is concerned that the policy raises “red flags”. Yesterday the Victorian opposition promised to make the contraceptive pill available over the counter if it won next month’s election. Under the plan, women would be required to visit their doctor in the first instance but able to obtain future courses of the pill from a pharmacist. Plan International Australia, a part of the International Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Consortium, supported the proposal, saying access to contraception curbed unwanted pregnancies and saved lives.
Sport
The world’s fastest man just got to the brink of a professional football deal. The Curious Case of Usain Bolt, Professional Footballer has delivered once again, writes Richard Parkin.
Is there a resurgence in Australian’s men’s tennis? Only France, Spain and the US currently boast greater numbers inside the world’s top 100 players, but there remains a significant contrast between the 2001 supergroup and the current chart-toppers.
Thinking time
It’s bird week, there’s a Twitchathon happening and the Dodgy Drongos better watch out. Mick Roderick is a five-time bird-spotting king, serial champion and former record holder. His team, the Hunter Home Brewers, plan on travelling 11,000km, from the mountains of the Great Dividing Range to the NSW coast. “If you want to be competitive in New South Wales, you need to start west of the Great Dividing Range,” he says. “Getting the maximum number of species is about covering the most kinds of habitats. You need to get some of those inland birds.”
The ABS has started publishing the monthly underemployment rates. This will allow us to better track problem in the economy and perhaps get a better sense of when our wages might start to grow faster, writes Greg Jericho. “While unemployment remains the big number everyone thinks of when it comes to the economy, the underemployment rate might actually be more important in terms of whether we will start seeing better wages growth. And with the rate now to come out every month, we can also expect it to begin garnering much more attention – by both the public and hopefully policy makers.”
“I almost proposed to her at the airport when she landed in Sydney that night. I thought, this is a portal to the world, where better than here? The antiseptic blare of white light, the dirty tiles, and bedraggled people all overwhelmed the symbolism and so, I kept the words inside. We caught an Uber home, and I almost proposed there, too.” When poet Omar Sakr decided to ask his partner Hannah to marry him, he offered only three words, followed by the question. Is love best expressed with poetry, he asks? Guardian readers: tell us (in prose or verse) in the comments.
What’s he done now?
“Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in,” Donald Trump has tweeted, referring to the US-bound migrant caravan from Central America. In addition to the apparently baseless claim, the US president, in a series of tweets, claims to have alerted the military to the “national emergency” of the caravan and has vowed to cut aid to Central America. The Pentagon says it has received no new orders.
Media roundup
The industrial relations minister, Kelly O’Dwyer, has warned of industrial “anarchy” in an opinion piece published in the Age before today’s nine ACTU rallies. The Australian Financial Review, meanwhile, reports that Liberal moderates concerned at the Coalition’s lack of climate change policy are set to demand a $1bn injection into the Emissions Reduction Fund. The ABC reports that Labor voter tracking practices have been revealed by “a simple Google search”.
Coming up
ACTU officials and members will rally in support of the campaign to “Change the Rules” – a call for wage bargaining reform – in Melbourne today.
Bowen magistrates court is scheduled to hear the Queensland government bid to prosecute the Adani-owned company Abbot Point Bulkcoal for allegedly releasing highly polluted water from the port during Cyclone Debbie.
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