Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 2 August. Top stories Details of the Queensland government's royalty deal with Adani for its Carmichael mine in Queensland are being kept secret, with freedom of information requests resulting in thousands of pages of redacted or withheld documents. But the correspondence that was released on its "transparent policy framework" appears to show public servants scrambling to find an economic justification for the policy announcement and suggests the framework – touted as a way to open the Galilee and Surat basins – was designed specifically for Adani. Anastacia Palaszczuk promised before the election to not do any "secret deals", and argued the Adani project must "stand alone on its feet … on the economics of the project itself". But an Australia Institute researcher, Tom Swann, says that is not how the deal has revealed itself. "There was backlash about giving Adani free coal so they worked out another way to support Adani through royalties. It's ended up being a subsidised loan and in the process they've created a framework that is open to any new coalmine in the state in a greenfield area." A former White House lawyer says he believes Donald Trump "obstructed justice" by drafting his son's statement about his meeting with a Russian lawyer. Richard Painter, an ethics lawyer under George W Bush, told the Guardian: "You're boxing in a witness into a false story" and that "puts them under enormous pressure to turn around and lie under oath to be consistent with their story." The White House faces further scrutiny this week after the Washington Post reported on Monday that Trump dictated the statement that dismissed the significance of a meeting between his son Donald Trump Jr, his top campaign aides Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, and the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016. The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders has denied Trump dictated the statement but said: "He weighed in, offered suggestion like any father would do." One of the most radical transformations in Australian households has been in attitudes to same-sex rights, as an in-depth snapshot of Australian domestic life released today finds. Almost two-thirds of Australians now support equal rights for same-sex couples, a dramatic rise from just 38% in 2005, according to the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. The Tasmanian Liberal senator Eric Abetz says the Turnbull government should pursue a postal plebiscite and has warned Liberal MPs against crossing the floor. The Hilda survey further revealed that poverty rates are increasing among single-parent families, with rising childcare costs, stagnant wage growth, falling home ownership and low child support payments fuelling financial strain. The report described the likelihood of child poverty in single-parent families as "very high", hovering at a rate between 20% to 25%, well above the general community rate of about 10%. Labor will today outline its plans to overhaul Australia's workplace laws and boost the bargaining power of workers at a time when wage growth is stagnant and the labour market is in transition. The opposition workplace relations spokesman, Brendan O'Connor, will use a major speech to the Sydney Institute this evening to make the case that the dwindling bargaining power of workers and trade unions has played a central role in low wages growth and the "proliferation" of insecure work. One person is killed every day in India by a roaming elephant or tiger as humans and wildlife continue to clash while the animals' natural habits is encroached on. Statistics released this week by India's environment ministry reveal that 1,144 people were killed between April 2014 and May 2017. India's population of 1.3bn is still growing, and as it does it is increasingly encroaching into the country's traditional wild spaces and animal sanctuaries, where people compete with wildlife for food and other resources. India's elephants remain some of the most hunted animals in the country; sought for their ivory tusks and bones that are sold on the black market, or threatened by speeding trains. Sport The superstar runner Usain Bolt has warned his fellow runners to stop doping otherwise track and field events will die. The Jamaican sprinter said the sport was on the mend after the staggering revelations of state-sponsored doping in Russia but conceded more needed to be done to tackle the scourge of performance-enhancing drugs. "I said a couple of years ago it had to get really bad, when there's nowhere else to go but up. The only way track and field has left to go is up." The AFL International Cup lands in Melbourne this weekend but for all the fanfare around the tournament, the AFL still views itself through the prism of its own 18-team competition and not as the authority for an entire sport, writes Antoun Issa.
The Australian Rugby Union has agreed to cut one of Australia's five Super Rugby teams to help Sanzaar reduce the number of sides in the competition from 18 to 15 for next season. The convoluted process has dragged on for months and shows no sign of resolution – should Australia follow the New Zealand's centralised rugby system instead? Yes, writes Bret Harris. Remodelling of the franchise structure is key to the future health of super rugby. Thinking time | 
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Environmental activists protest against Indian mining company Adani's proposed Carmichael coalmine. Queensland's policy framework for its royalties deal remains a secret. Photograph: Dan Peled/EPA 
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