GOVERNMENT’S LONG WHITE CLOUD

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce‘s shock announcement yesterday he is a New Zealand citizen could topple the government’s balance of power in federal Parliament. Joyce is a dual citizen because his father was born in New Zealand in 1947. The Nationals leader will now be referred to the High Court alongside Senators Larissa Waters, Scott Ludlam, Malcolm Roberts and Matt Canavan, who all have found out in the past month they might be ineligible to sit in Parliament as they are dual citizens. Attorney-General George Brandis told the ABC’s Lateline last night that the government was confident that “because of his unawareness” of his Kiwi citizenship, Joyce would not be disqualified as an MP. Nevertheless, Joyce is taking urgent steps to renounce his New Zealand citizenship, Fairfax reports.

The Australian Financial Review‘s Phillip Coorey writes the government would now face months of questions over its legitimacy, and the possibility of fighting a byelection in Joyce’s seat of New England — former member for the electorate Tony Windsor wouldn’t rule out running again.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has warned Labor he will challenge the citizenship of more than five opposition MPs’ citizenship if Labor tries to exploit the crisis. We will leave the last word to accidental Kiwi Scott Ludlam …

ROYAL COMMISSION HANDS DOWN RECOMMENDATIONS

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse released its recommendations yesterday, including a legal requirement for priests to report sexual abuse disclosed to them in confession. Jesuit priest and Australian Catholic University law professor Father Frank Brennan has rejected the proposal, saying he would either need to stop hearing confession or defy the law, The Australian reports. The commission also recommended changing sentencing legislation for historical offences to allow for longer sentences, and broadening the offence of grooming, according to Fairfax.

MORE PAIN TO COME FOR CBA

Yesterday the Commonwealth Bank announced CEO Ian Narev would retire next year, but executives could face more pain yet, with potential penalties and disciplinary action to come, the Australian Finanial Review reports. AUSTRAC accused the bank last week of failing to combat money laundering. The Daily Telegraph reports that the bank could face a class action over its alleged systematic breaches of money laundering and terrorism funding laws.

NOT EASY BEING GREEN

Current and former Greens rounded on NSW Senator Lee Rhiannon in Four Corners  last night, with former leader Bob Brown calling her a “team wrecker”, and that it was the “end of Lee’s reign”. Senator Nick McKim told the program the NSW Greens leadership was “a small cabal of people who are not directly elected by the members who believe in top-down command and control, they treat their members like mushrooms — they keep them in the dark and they feed them on bullshit”.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

SA energy plan: solar thermal power plant for Port Augusta

NSW Labor deputy leader’s C-bomb shame

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Melbourne: Public hearing begins on the sustainability and operational challenged of rural and regional councils.

Sydney: Westpac chief information officer Dave Curran will speak at the Trans-Tasman Business Circle event.

Brisbane: Former High Court judge Michael Kirby to speak on human rights violations in North Korea at the annual Australian Institute of International Affairs dinner.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Why I’ll say no to same-sex marriage — Tony Abbott (The Australian $): “Ask yourself what is the most decent and respectful thing to do: is it to endorse this change that the gay lobby is stridently insisting on or is it to question whether a few years’ agitation should unmake a concept of marriage that has stood for many centuries and has always been regarded as the rock on which society is built?”

From chaos to full-blown crisis for Turnbull’s Coalition — Laura Tingle (Australian Financial Review $): “If the High Court does find against Joyce, a government on the rope faces both a by-election and a reduction to the status of a minority government that must rely on the support of at least one cross-bencher.”

Violence in Virginia betrays hypocrisy of the Left — Caroline Marcus (The Daily Telegraph $): “There was no denouncement of celebrities such as Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Kathy Griffin or Johnny Depp as they made light of attempts to kill President Trump himself.”

TRUMP CHANGES TACK ON NEO-NAZI TERROR

US President Donald Trump has come out against racist violence, two days after 32-year-old anti-racist protester Heather Heyer was killed in Charlottesville. With condemnation coming from all sides of the political spectrum, and his own Attorney-General Jeff Sessions calling the incident “domestic terrorism”, Trump continued to walk back from his vague initial statement denouncing violence on “many sides”.

“Those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,” he said to gathered journalists. He did not take questions, initially using the appearance to brag about his economic achievements.

James Alex Fields Jr, the man accused of killing Heyer when a car rammed into pedestrians at the protest, has had his bail declined.

THE WORLD

A massive mudslide has killed more than 200 people in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. The disaster took place as people slept, with some locals returning to the hillside settlement to find their entire families wiped out. — Reuters

At least 18 people are dead after suspected Islamist extremists opened fire on a restaurant in Burkina Faso. The impoverished African nation has historically avoided such attacks, though it has been targeted recently because of its support for anti-Islamist operation in neighbouring Mali. Rivalries between African offshoots of Islamic terror organisation have also fueled violence. — The Guardian

A driver has been arrested after intentionally smashing a car into the terrace of a cafe east of Paris, killing an eight-year-old girl. — BBC

WHAT WE’RE READING

Here’s what really happened in Charlottesville (BuzzFeed): “The right-wing protesters were relatively homogenous — in ideology and appearance — and largely ready for violence.”

Inside Kim Jon Un’s bloody scramble to kill his family (Esquire): “While Kim stares down his enemies abroad, it’s easy to forget that he’s also fighting a battle from within his own borders: to survive at all costs. Like any autocratic leader, he’s under constant pressure to maintain order and allegiance. But his youth and inexperience make staying in power that much more of a challenge, which in turn requires absolute control. Opposition must be eliminated. No one is safe, not even his own family.”

The body language of power (Handelsblatt Global): “Mrs Merkel’s body language is calming — to herself and her audience. The subliminal message is that politics is endlessly complex and demands expertise and subtle analysis — hers. In parliament and during debates, she often does what has been called her ‘dance of trust’: She sways back and forth, as though weighing alternatives, with her hands fine-tuning invisible air buttons.”

Vietnamese art has never been more popular. But the market is full of fakes (New York Times): “Even esteemed Vietnamese art institutions, including major national museums, have showcased paintings they acknowledged were not authentic. Likewise, the auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s, as well as a consultant who worked for both of them, have sold works later dismissed by some experts as fakes.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE