TRUMP VOWS DESTRUCTION

US President Donald Trump has said his country will “totally destroy” the nation of North Korea if the US is forced to defend itself or its allies. In a speech at the United Nations, Trump hit out at Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela, and continued his characterisation of Kim Jong Un as a “rocket man” who he said was on a “suicide mission”.

“Major portions of the world are in conflict and some in fact are going to hell,” Trump later noted.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop also spoke up on North Korea, albeit in more delicate terms, saying “further pressure” would be applied to the country in the wake of the latest round of sanctions from the UN Security Council.

Not in attendance was Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who yesterday delivered an address to her own country’s parliament saying she does not fear “international scrutiny” over the treatment of Rohingya Muslims.

ABBOTT CET TO CROSS THE FLOOR

Tony Abbott will defy Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull by crossing the floor to vote no should the government attempt to legislate a Clean Energy Target. The Australian reports that up to six backbenchers would go with him or abstain on any vote.

Channeling Abbott, Queensland LNP leader Tim Nicholls has promised to move funds from renewables towards a new, privately owned coal-fired power station. Also channeling Abbott, Turnbull told a Brisbane radio station yesterday that he would support any move by Nicholls with funds from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk responded by saying that if there was room for another private coal-fired station, the market would have delivered one. Her federal counterpart Bill Shorten continues to push the government on gas, with his campaign to have exporters release more supply to the domestic market set to ramp-up today.

As the energy debate continues to dominate federal politics, AGL opened up its Liddell power station yesterday, taking journalists on a tour and complaining of the “huge daily challenge” to keep the ageing plant going. It’s unclear whether the company will follow the government’s demand to keep the coal powered station online or sell it, though executives yesterday talked up the prospect of converting it to gas.

A GOOD GUY?

Victorian public servant Jim Gard’ner has told The Age he did not know a 2013 event he attended with now state Opposition Leader Matthew Guy was a fundraising event.

The story follows an Age investigation that showed the event, billed as an “industry forum”, had seen deputy Liberal leader David Hodgett‘s office accept $10,000 to organise the meeting with Guy, attended by two developers.

Furious at the report, Guy hit back yesterday citing Gard’ner’s attendance at the event as evidence that all was above board.

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WHAT’S ON TODAY

Sydney: Reserver Bank of Australia assistant governor Luci Ellis speaks at Australian Business Economists conference.

Perth: Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver fronts an inquiry into the sport’s future.

Canberra: Government agencies line-up before an inquiry into money laundering and terror financing.

Canberra: ACCC head Rod Sims is up at the Press Club.

Melbourne: Telstra CEO Andrew Penn to speak and face media roundtable.

Brisbane: Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk speaks at CEDA’s ‘State of the State’ address. 

Wellington: The leaders of New Zealand’s two major parties Bill Engish and Jacinda Ardern debate for the final time before the weekend’s election.

New York: Foreign Minister Julie Bishop expected to address the UN Security Council.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Green dreamers: when ideology overreaches reality — Tony Abbott (The Australian $): “To his credit, the Prime Minister is now talking about coal almost as much as pumped hydro and wants to keep open the next coal-fired power station that’s otherwise set to close. He’s ready to order gas exporters to break their contracts. And he’s telling power companies to offer more discounts. But even a clean energy target that notionally permits new coal-fired power stations while still subsidising renewables is not going to get baseload capacity built. This is where the Liberal and National backbench might need to save the government from itself.”

Where’s the biff? Free speech has won every round in the marriage equality debate — David Marr (Guardian Australia): “Depicting such victories as defeats is strategy 101: always claim to be the underdog. But there is something else going on here: a sense that the real offence to religious liberty is having to go into battle to defend it. Win or lose, the hardliners resent the contest. It shouldn’t be necessary. And it shouldn’t be so hard.”

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Rundle: the No campaign reveals its secret weapon — Guy Rundle: “John Howard has reappeared for one reason: there’s no real leadership in the No case, no figure flying the flag as s/he leaps over the trench parapet. But that’s been no great disadvantage to the No case, because there’s no leadership in the Yes case either. Both sides have been compelled into this hate-fuck of a political process, and there seems a curious decentredness to the whole process. Is this the new form of social politics?”

Will a visit from Pope Francis compel Aung San Suu Kyi to act? — Michael Sainsbury: “It’s true enough that Suu Kyi has never appeared to have much time for her country’s ethnic minorities nor has she held out the promise of a federated Myanmar. Yet neither has she ever made any public or even reported private statements about the Islamophobia that is starkly apparent across Myanmar. This has been whipped up by nationalistic Buddhist monks funded by the military. This is what sits at the center of the lack of popular disgust over what is occurring in the country’s west, to the Rohingya.”

Razer: hunt for the ‘gay gene’ leads us down a dark and tortuous path — Helen Razer: “We do not need “naturalness” as a basis for justice and freedom. We have relied upon it many times in the past, however, as a basis for injustice and enslavement. When any movement prefers natural entitlement to social good, we should worry, and not cheer.”

‘The West still loves its sharks’: how Murdoch changed The West Australian — Emily Watkins: “The West’s print sales rose Monday to Friday by 7.5% for the six months to June, compared to the previous audit period, and the Sunday Times was the only Sunday newspaper in Australia to increase its circulation during the same period.”

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