Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 26 June. Top stories The Greens face dramatic internal turmoil, with the NSW senator Lee Rhiannon at risk of censure or expulsion from the party room after all her federal colleagues lodged a complaint against her over the Gonski 2.0 school funding negotiations. They have accused her of potentially damaging conduct during negotiations with the Coalition, which ultimately bypassed the Greens and got its package through with crossbench support. Party elder Bob Brown has described a formal complaint against Rhiannon, signed by her nine party colleagues, as unprecedented but warranted. Rhiannon, who has long been at odds with the party's former leader Bob Brown and has faced criticism over the Greens' relatively weak electoral performance in NSW, is up for preselection for her Senate spot in the coming months. The Gonski debacle for the Greens has brought to a head tensions that burst into the open at the end of last year with the formation of the hard left faction Left Renewal in NSW. Campaigners say a new ad campaign in support of the proposed New Acland mine in Queensland breaches consumer law. Opponents of the $900m Queensland coal project have asked the consumer watchdog to investigate whether the embattled miner and up to 40 other companies broke the law with a "misleading" appeal for public support. Sixty high-rise blocks in England have been deemed unsafe after fire safety inspections, the UK government has confirmed. After hundreds of tower blocks were investigated in recent weeks, dozens have been found to have the same highly flammable aluminium cladding that contributed to the Grenfell fire, which killed at least 79 people. At the weekend a north London estate with 4,000 residents was evacuated to allow for the immediate removal of the flammable cladding. Former treasurer Wayne Swan will call for Labor to maximise workers' bargaining power and erode the political clout of the wealthy elite in a speech today. Swan will address the ACTU to outline the "four pillars of Laborism": unemployment of 3% or less, more power to workers in industrial law, taming corporate excess and a more progressive tax system. A gay pride march in Turkey has been shut down by police. The 40 activists protested in defiance of a ruling by local authorities banning their march in Istanbul, after repeated threats from far-right and conservative groups. Police fired rubber bullets at the crowd and four people were detained. It is the third successive year that the march has been banned, and organisers denounced the move. "We are not scared, we are here, we will not change," the Pride committee said in a statement on Sunday. "You are scared, you will change and you will get used to it."
Sport The Socceroos have been eliminated from the Confederations Cup after a 1-1 draw with Chile in Moscow. Australia, needing to win by two goals to reach the semi-finals, put in a much-improved performance and went ahead through James Troisi, but an equaliser from Martin Rodriguez put paid to their hopes. Australia's Daniel Ricciardo has won a dramatic grand prix victory in Baku, after Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton clashed on the track. Vettel was given a 10-second penalty after a collision between the two, leaving Hamilton seething at what he called his rival's "disgraceful" driving. Thinking time |
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