Morning mail: Michael McCormack set to be new deputy PM Monday: the National party meet in Canberra to elect a new leader. Plus: warnings over plan to privatise Australia's visa application system The minister for veterans' affairs, Michael McCormack. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Eleanor Ainge Roy @EleanorAingeRoy Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 26 February. Top stories Australia will have a new deputy prime minister today with Michael McCormack, the veterans affairs minister, expected to be appointed the new Nationals leader to replace Barnaby Joyce when Nationals MPs meet in Canberra at 8am. On Sunday McCormack became the sole declared candidate after David Gillespie withdrew from the race and the agriculture minister David Littleproud said he would not run. The party room meeting comes amid growing anger that the identity of the woman who accused Joyce of sexual harassment was revealed. On Sunday the Nationals deputy party leader, Bridget McKenzie, denied the leak had come from the party. She said she had received assurances from the party president and federal director, and added: "I understand through a range of networks that it wasn't unknown who the complainant was." You can catch all the action live from Canberra from 7am with Guardian Australia's political reporter Amy Remeikis, including Malcolm Turnbull's return from Washington and question time with a new deputy PM. The author of a newly released Democratic memo on investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election defended his work on Sunday, after being attacked by Donald Trump. Trump tweeted that the memo was "a total political and legal BUST", and personally abused California congressman Adam Schiff. Referring to an infamous Trump remark about Mexican immigrants, Schiff told CNN's State of the Union he was "proud to be one of the bad hombres, I guess". The Democratic memo was published with redactions two weeks after Trump blocked its full release. The document aims to counter a Republican narrative that the FBI and justice department conspired against Trump as they investigated his ties to Russia. The Coalition government's plans to privatise Australia's visa application system could include "premium services for high-value applicants", different access for those able to pay more, as well as "commercial value-added services". The Department of Home Affairs is seeking a private-sector partner to design, build and operate a commercial "user-pays" visa application and approval system, with limited human involvement. But the Community and Public Sector Union has warned the changes could cost up to 3,000 jobs and jeopardise the security of people's private information. The Greens senator Nick McKim said the proposal could see a fatal corruption of the integrity of Australia's visa system with "access to Australia packaged up and sold to the highest bidder". The former British prime minister Tony Blair and the American author Michael Wolff have accused each other of lying, as the row about Blair's dealings with Donald Trump's White House reignited. Blair features only briefly in the blockbuster book, but Wolff claims Blair was angling for a job as a Middle East peace envoy and that Blair told the Trump team that British intelligence may have been spying on them before Trump assumed the presidency. Wolff said on Sunday that Blair was a "complete liar" in the way he dismissed claims in the book. Blair responded by saying Wolff's stories about him were made up. The Labor party's national left faction has come out strongly against Malcolm Turnbull's proposed corporate tax cuts, saying they are not appropriate in "any fiscal environment". It's being seen as a warning to the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, who has suggested the issue may be revisited after the budget returns to surplus. But the left faction convenor, Pat Conroy, told a meeting of the faction in Sydney that there was "no case for the reduction in the corporate tax rate". He said the issue was "not about timing, instead it is about a rejection of trickle-down economics". The Turnbull government has dug in behind its plan to reduce the corporate rate, and big business has intensified its lobbying effort in the hope of persuading the Senate to drop its current opposition to tax relief for big corporates. Sport Kate O'Halloran reflects on the inaugural AFLW Pride game from Whitten Oval in Footscray, lauding an atmosphere incongruous with men's AFL as fans have come to know it. Adam Taggart's 97th minute header for Perth Glory in the A-League has Jonathan Howcroft reflecting on the Champions League final of 1999 – and Manchester United's famous victory. Thinking time Moby at Little Pine Restaurant, Los Angeles. Photograph: Michael Buckner/WWD/REX/Shutterstock Musician, activist and soothsayer; Moby is a man of many talents. Sophie Heawood visits the famed eccentric in his palatial home to discuss Trump ("He's a sociopath"), his friends in the intelligence communities and his past life as a drug addict and alcoholic. "The thing about Moby is that he often turns out to be right," writes Heawood. "Even when he can seem a little ridiculous beforehand. He recently took a complex personality test which labelled him as a 'futurist' – someone who sees what is coming next for humanity." The debate surrounding the use of phonics in Australian classrooms has taken on urgent significance since the release of a government-commissioned report that recommended the introduction of a mandatory "check" on children's phonics progress. The check tests students' ability to sound out a mix of 40 real and made-up words. While the education minister, Simon Birmingham, publicly backed the plan it was variously embraced and rejected by divided sections of the education community. Michael McGowan asks why can't the right and left stop sounding off about phonics and find a bipartisan way forward. The South African-born Australian writer Ceridwen Dovey talks to the Guardian about the nature of privilege, shame and the complexities of art in her new novel, In the Garden of the Fugitives. The book finds rich settings in South African farms, American college dorms and Italian archaeology digs, and explores a complex meditation on the guilt of privilege. "I really struggle to find a position to write from as an author," Dovey says. "It's shaded by being a white South African who grew up in apartheid. Can I speak from the class of the perpetrator?" What's he done now? Donald Trump has said that US teachers are "very gun-adept people" and suggested arming the best 350,000 to 700,000 of them in a bid to stem school shootings. But Vox has fact-checked the president's claim and found there is no evidence that even a fraction of that number have "significant experience with a gun". Media roundup The Australian Financial Review splashes with the first part in a series on Macquarie Bank and explores how the "millionaires factory" made it big on the global stage. The Sydney Morning Herald has an interactive feature on the exodus of Sydneysiders for greener pastures, reporting that every day 129 people ditch the city for elsewhere in Australia, while only 85 move the other way. And the ABC has a disturbing report on "hazing" practices at colleges at the University of Sydney, including locking first-years in bathrooms in the dark and then pelting them with dead fish, until students cried and begged for help. Coming up Question time is likely to be heated this afternoon as Labor tries to keep the Coalition on the ropes after two weeks of the Barnaby Joyce saga. The high court will hear submissions over the ACT Labor senator Katy Gallagher's citizenship status. 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. Guardian News & Media Limited - a member of Guardian Media Group PLC. Registered Office: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9GU. Registered in England No. 908396