Good morning, this is Will Woodward bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 7 November. Top stories An offshore law firm regarded Serco, a company that runs sensitive government services in Australia and the UK, as a "high-risk" client, expressing concern about its "history of problems, failures, fatal errors and overcharging", the Paradise Papers reveal. Chief among the law firm's concerns about Serco were allegations of fraud, the cover-up of the abuse of detainees, and the mishandling of radioactive waste. Serco runs 11 of Australia's onshore immigration detention centres, including on Christmas Island, and is regularly contracted for defence projects. A Serco spokesman said it was "hardly a secret" that the company encountered challenges in 2013. Those challenges prompted a major program of corporate renewal, he said. "The success of this program is evidenced by the fact that governments in the US, UK and Australia have all awarded and renewed major contracts with Serco to manage highly sensitive public services." Elsewhere on the second day of revelations from the Paradise Papers, the Guardian reports: If you are just catching up on the series, there's a handy explainer here and a video here. The Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi is pursuing the Australian Electoral Commission, arguing candidates who weren't validly elected to parliament, including Barnaby Joyce, should be forced to repay the public funding they were allocated in the last federal election. "It's not just people who were successful with questions marks over them, but any endorsed candidate," Bernardi said. "We have quite literally opened Pandora's box. I will be seeking advice from the Australian Electoral Commission." Bernardi's intervention comes as the government faces questions about the eligibility of another of its lower house MPs, John Alexander. If Alexander establishes he holds British citizenship, it will trigger a byelection in the Sydney seat of Bennelong, which is held on a margin of 9.72%, and will further imperil the Coalition's grip on power.
Australia appears on track for a yes vote in the same-sex marriage postal survey when results are reported next week, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, where 64% of people who have voted say they've cast a yes ballot. With the survey closing on Tuesday, the new poll of 1,792 voters shows 86% of the sample reporting they have voted – up 11% in a fortnight. More voters over the age of 55 say they have voted in the survey (94%) than people under the age of 35 (80%). Voting closes today. Why did Annastacia Palaszczuk decide to veto a loan for the proposed Adani coalmine? The Queensland premier said on Friday that her opponents had sought to use her partner Shaun Drabsch's work at PwC, which was helping facilitate Adani's application for a $1bn federal loan, against her. Amy Remeikis reports that Labor insiders are dismayed that though the premier made it to the right decision, one it was heading to internally anyway, she went around it "in the messiest way possible". Devin Kelley, the gunman who carried out a massacre at a small-town Texas church on Sunday was involved in a family dispute, authorities said. Twenty-six people were killed and 20 wounded in the shooting, which took place during a Sunday morning service. "There was a domestic situation going on," Freeman Martin, a spokesman for the Texas department of public safety, said at a press conference on Monday a few metres from the scene of the shooting in Sutherland Springs, about 35 miles east of San Antonio. Donald Trump said gun ownership was not a factor. "We have a lot of mental health problems in our country, as do other countries, but this isn't a guns situation," he said at a press conference in Tokyo. We could go into it but it's a little bit soon to go into it. Fortunately somebody else had a gun that was shooting in the opposite direction, otherwise it wouldn't have been as bad as it was, it would have been much worse." Sport It's the first Tuesday in November – Melbourne Cup day. We'll be liveblogging the scene and the race at 3pm AEDT and reporting on the form, the finishers and the fashion. Usain Bolt will be among the sports stars and celebrities attending. In the lead-up to the action try our quickfire Melbourne Cup quiz. And read Kate O'Halloran on the protesters at the annual cup parade. |
West Ham have sacked their manager Slaven Bilic, the fourth English Premier League side boss to go since the start of the season. David Moyes, the former Manchester United boss, is expected to take over. Thinking time Australians used to love to go shopping, writes Greg Jericho. But the latest retail trade figures show consumers are shutting their wallets. Retail spending has remained flat for two months in a row – the worst result since 2012. Jericho says that in general terms, the biggest shift in spending has been towards education, insurance and financial charges, and housing costs. How can an employer make sure its remote workers aren't slacking off? In the case of the talent management company Crossover, the answer is to take photos of them every 10 minutes through their webcam. The pictures combine with screenshots of their workstations along with other data – including app use and keystrokes – to come up with a "focus score" and an "intensity score" that can be used to assess the value of freelancers. Be afraid. Be very afraid. A refugee who was detained on Manus Island has left to begin a new life in Canada, through a group of private citizens who sponsored his freedom. Amir Taghinia, a refugee from Iran, flew last week to Coquitlam, British Columbia, after nearly four years on Manus Island. "To be honest, I cannot believe I am in Canada, I am so thankful," Taghinia told the Guardian. "But I cannot forget about my friends, they are starving, they have no water to drink. It is very, very likely we will have more deaths in the next coming days." What's he done now? Donald Trump and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, have taken a forceful approach to feeding fish on the second day of the US president's five-nation tour of Asia. Standing beside a pond brimming with colourful koi in the Akasaka palace in Tokyo, the two men began spooning out fish food before appearing to lose patience and emptying their wooden containers with a shake. White House reporters captured the moment when Trump upended his box on their smartphones and tweeted evidence of his questionable grasp of fish keeping. But other footage made clear that Trump was merely following his host's lead. Media roundup Many of the papers lead with Malcolm Turnbull's proposal to require MPs and senators to produce evidence that they were not foreign citizens. And most of the coverage won't help the prime minister enjoy his breakfast. "Citizenship surrender," says the Canberra Times, "Turnbull moves to stem the bleeding," reckons the Age, "PM follows Labor on citizenship," leads the Australian. Fairfax's Mark Kenny gives Turnbull credit for no longer "defending the indefensible", writing: "What Turnbull has now unveiled at least conforms to established parliamentary practices regarding financial interests. But in its core function, it is close to what Bill Shorten proposed." Coming up The same-sex marriage postal vote closes today. People won't be able to put their ballots in the mail but those who have waited to the very, very, very last minute can still lodge their paper at various locations listed on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website by 4.30pm. The supreme court in Papua New Guinea is expected to rule on whether to restore electricity, medical care, food and water supplies to the Manus Island detention centre. Supporting the Guardian We'd like to acknowledge our generous supporters who enable us to keep reporting on the critical stories. If you value what we do and would like to help, please make a contribution or become a supporter today. Thank you. |
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Apple moved parts of its empire offshore to Jersey in the English Channel. Photograph: Xinhua/Barcroft Media 
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