Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 10 September.
Top stories
Today’s Newspoll shows the Coalition is facing a wipeout at the next election, with Labor in front on a two-party-preferred vote of 56% to 44%. It’s the Coalition’s 40th straight loss in the Newspoll. Two weeks after Scott Morrison was declared the victor in a poisonous three-way leadership contest that dispatched Malcolm Turnbull from the prime ministership, Labor is in an election-winning position similar to the vote the opposition commanded in 2007 when Kevin Rudd took government from John Howard. Yet Morrison is ahead of Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister 42% to 36%.
The poll will loom large as parliament resumes, with Cathy McGowan and Rebekha Sharkie yet to rule out backing a no-confidence motion against Peter Dutton. The crossbenchers say the home affairs minister needs to compellingly explain that he hasn’t misled the House about the au pair visa controversy, with Sharkie also expressing her desire to see Dutton’s lingering eligibility question tested by the high court. With the government losing one vote after Turnbull’s resignation their votes are crucial, with the Tasmanian Andrew Wilkie suggesting he will support the Green’s-led and Labor-backed no-confidence motion.
Larissa Waters returns to the Senate today after her resignation over dual citizenship 14 months ago. The Australian Greens senator has cited political donations reform and the establishment of a federal anti-corruption body as key objectives in her democracy portfolio. She told Guardian Australia her time away from Canberra had reinforced for her how disenfranchised voters feel about Australia’s democratic institutions. “They feel the system has been rigged by corporate interests who donate to Labor and the Liberals and Nationals, and One Nation,” she said. “A federal anti-corruption body is something the Greens have been pushing for since 2010.”
More than 100 women in Queensland conducted or considered conducting abortions on themselves in the past five years, according to data from a pro-choice counselling service that will be reviewed by a state parliamentary committee inquiry today. Children by Choice, an all-options counselling service, says the average distance travelled for an abortion in the state is more than 100km. One woman travelled more than 2,000km for a procedure. Queensland has proposed new laws to decriminalise abortion but it remains an criminal offence for both doctors and women, under laws passed in 1899 and largely unchanged since.
The Trump administration is stepping up attempts to root out the author of last week’s New York Times op-ed, with Mike Pence suggesting an anonymous insider working against the president could constitute a national security risk. While Donald Trump’s office has confirmed that the piece did not constitute criminal activity, the president on Friday asked the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to lead an investigation to unmask its author.
Exit polls in Sweden’s election suggest the far-right Sweden Democrats party could become the second-largest presence in parliament, behind the ruling Social Democrats. Follow the latest developments in our live blog, in an election that’s being regarded as a litmus test for democracy across the region as Europe increasingly faces pressure over how best to deal with immigration.
Sport
Novak Djokovic is playing Juan Martin del Potro at the US Open men’s singles final – follow the action on our live blog. The fallout out continues from the women’s final, with several greats rallying to Serena Williams’ defence. And Australia’s Ash Barty has won the women’s doubles final with American CoCo Vandeweghe, coming from a set down to defeat second-seed pair Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic.
Cameron Munster rightly got the plaudits after Storm’s one-point win during NRL’s game of the year but, for Matt Cleary, it was a more mundane “simple” contribution that summed up why success has become ingrained in this Storm side.
After Saturday’s win over the Springboks the collective relief around Australian rugby was palpable, but all that could stand for nothing, writes Bret Harris, as questions loom before Argentina visit.
Thinking time
“Australian farmers are good at what they do, and we know when things are changing,” writes Peter Holding, a third-generation farmer from Harden, NSW. He says those on the land “manage our resources carefully, making decisions based upon the best available evidence and always keeping one eye to the future”. But the first step to managing for the future, he says, is to grapple with reality. “And the reality is that our climate is on a devastating trajectory … So, a message to our elected representatives. Get your heads out of the coalpit and back into the real world.”
Four years ago, the plight of the Yazidi people of northern Iraq captured international headlines as Isis fighters swept through, triggering a humanitarian catastrophe. BBC’s Lyse Doucet hears the stories of courage of those who returned to rebuild their lives. “Now a stubborn scar stains the cluster of towns and villages in the foothills of the Yazidis’ sacred mountain. Streets lie in ghostly silence, broken hulks of houses are still peppered with the bombs and booby-traps laid by Isis before they were pushed out of this area three years ago.”
“I first heard this song as a 13-year-old living in the country and it struck such a chord with me,” writes Jo, about the Saints’ 1977 hit (I’m) Stranded. “Even at that young age, it made me feel like there was a place for me, people I could relate to who wanted to break free of the constraints of the times. It was the birth of a new era, where everything was up for questioning, in which the old powers and institutions (like Joh and the police force) were brought crashing down and music showed us the power we had to reclaim our world.” It’s one of the best responses so far as Guardian Australia readers nominate the songs that are quintessentially Brisbane to them for our month-long Songs of Brisbane celebration.
Media roundup
The Sydney Morning Herald and Daily Telegraph lead with the “spectacular loss of one of the Liberal party’s safest seats” in Wagga Wagga, as the Berejiklian state government has its ruling majority further reduced. The Advertiser reports that South Australia may revisit sentencing discount laws that can lead to jail terms being almost halved by early guilty pleas amid growing community anger after high-profile cases including the hit-and-run death of Lucy Paveley. And Brisbane’s median house price has hit a new high, writes the Courier-Mail, with the market growing almost 30% in five years, to reach $673,000.
Coming up
Scott Morrison faces his first parliamentary sitting week in Canberra as prime minister, as Julie Bishop takes her seat on the Coalition’s backbench for the first time in 15 years.
In Melbourne, the banking royal commission begins a fortnight of hearings into the insurance industry.
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