The mining industry has taken out new advertisements warning the government to leave the MRRT alone.
Warning (The Oz): MINERS have put Julia Gillard on notice not to tamper with the mining tax, as the Prime Minister faces growing pressure from the Greens, the independents and parts of her own backbench to take on the states for siphoning off federal government revenue by lifting royalties.
Write offs (SMH): MINING companies Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton have built up a combined arsenal of $1.7 billion in tax credits that can be offset against future mining tax liabilities.
Cold case: THERE are no active criminal investigations into allegations raised by the Australian Crime Commission's year-long examination of organised crime and drugs in sport despite state-based police having been aware of its findings for the past five months.
Spin: Julia Gillard is preparing to break her agreement with the mining companies. It will be yet another indication that you can't believe anything she says.
Counter spin: The Gillard Government is getting on with the job, today taking a significant step towards a referendum to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and improving unpaid parental leave provisions for new mums and dads.
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It's a bust: Capital Circle has only good things to say about IR pin-up girl Grace Collier after her daring brassiere-enabled recording of a militant union official. Collier could be accused of entrapment even without a microphone in her bra, so what's the fuss all about? Sadly, Federal Court judge Shane Marshall appears to have taken a dim view of her lingerie listening device. "Did she think she was in a James Bond movie or something?" he said.
Bad connection: Comms Minister Stephen Conroy appears emboldened by his elevation to third spot in the prime ministerial pecking order. "You've obviously been drinking," he told Liberal Bill Heffernan in Senate estimates last night. "Go somewhere else and annoy someone else." For the record, the Hef says he was sober, and labelled Conroy's behaviour a disgrace. "He was refusing to let (NBN chief Mike) Quigley speak," he said.
Humble servant: Kevin Rudd was brought up a Catholic, switched to Anglicanism for wife Therese and yesterday described himself as a non-denominational Christian. But he seems to lean towards Catholicism, with a photograph of the outgoing Pope clearly visible on his desk during an interview with Sky News' David Speers yesterday.
Poppygate, the sequel: Liberals are shaking their heads at Monday's Senate estimates performance by Senator Michael Ronaldson. Inquisitor Ronaldson wasted precious time hammering the GG for failing to wear a poppy at a November 10 function, where Prince Charles and Camilla were poppily adorned. "It was pretty low grade stuff," said one colleague, who reminded the non-attendance of Senator Ronaldson - the shadow veterans' affairs ministers - at Bruce Ruxton's funeral. The source suggested Rono tried to model his estimates schtick on that of John Faulkner, but was a "pale imitation".
Interweb activist: Labor adviser John Harding-Easson is being hailed as a new star of the government's digital team. Harding-Easson, who works for Sen Matt Thistlethwaite, has started producing infographics on key policy issues, which have been widely shared on Facebook.
Flawed argument: Call me stupid, but if the MRRT isn't making any money, why does the Coalition want to get rid of it? They say it represents a sovereign risk. But surely mining investors can read the headlines. And wouldn't more upheaval - ie. getting rid of it - create more uncertainty? The tax looks like a dud, but a benign one.
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Julia Gillard is in Canberra for parliament. She will meet with the expert panel that advised the government on it's indigenous "Act of Recognition", before delivering the second reading of the Bill in parliament.
Tony Abbott is in Canberra for parliament.
Senate estimates continue with hearings on health and ageing; industry, innovation, science, research and tertiary education; treasury; employment and workplace relations; defence; and veterans' affairs.
The House of Representatives sits from 9am. Question time commences 2pm.
The House Infrastructure and Communications Committees will hold a public hearing on IT pricing.
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Caring: EXPECTING mums and dads will be allowed to take up to two months unpaid parental leave together under a major redrafting of industrial laws to help working parents.
Direct: FORMER NSW resources minister Ian Macdonald was told at a corruption hearing in Sydney yesterday he was a "crook", who had agreed to open up areas for coal exploration as a favour to Labor mate Eddie Obeid.
Forecast: The AFR reports modelling for the federal government's key climate change adviser acknowledges carbon prices could slump in 2015-16, probably creating a $4 billion revenue hole in the already stretched federal budget.
Allegation: The Age reports employees of Australia's biggest airport baggage and cargo contractor have allegedly been working with a cell of corrupt customs officers to smuggle millions of dollars worth of drugs through Sydney Airport.
Boom: The Courier mail reports a ban on shale oil mining in Queensland will be lifted, creating potentially thousands of jobs and providing the cash-strapped State Government with a new revenue stream.
New mission: THE father of reconciliation, Patrick Dodson, has challenged a new generation to carry the cause of constitutional recognition of Aborigines.
Ruling: THE Gillard government will go ahead with taxpayer-funded advertising programs ahead of the September 14 election despite conflicting views on whether the official election campaign has begun under broadcasting laws.
Premature: The AFR reports the nation's top finance official has cast doubt about whether voters will know the final result for this year's federal budget before the September 14 election.
Batons ready: POLICE have finally been asked to break open an allegedly illegal blockade in western Melbourne over the use of foreign labour, after an extraordinary eight-day delay by a Victorian water authority.
Slide: THE ABC's flagship Sunday morning current affairs program Insiders is losing a larger share of viewers than other dwindling news programs on the national broadcaster's main channel as the corporation fails to meet a raft of key performance measures.
Smokin' profits: THE Future Fund has invested in another tobacco company, at the same time as a committee is reviewing its exposure to the sector.
Resistance: EMPLOYERS will not support government plans to crack down on workplace bullying unless wider shortcomings in the Fair Work Act are addressed.
Cold storage: A PLAN to resurrect the banned super-trawler as a giant floating freezer has been sunk by the Gillard government.
That's democracy: The Canberra Times reports WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange will run for the Senate in Victoria at the September 14 federal election as the lead candidate of a newly formed WikiLeaks Party.
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Paul Kelly writes: FEW governments come undone twice on the same policy for different reasons.
Patrick Smith writes: The community is becoming increasingly incensed that so many sports have been openly defaced.
Tim Priest writes: The dust has now settled and questions are being asked about the veracity of the allegations and the timing of this "event".
Tom Dusevic writes: The counsel assisting the corruption extravaganza in NSW will never be mistaken for a rough-hewn prospector.
Mitch Hooke writes: MINERS pay more than other businesses.
Janet Albrechtsen writes: THE equality police and others who propose targets may feel good but seldom do good.
Jessica Irvine writes: IT was love at first swipe when I first held my iPhone.Now Apple is ripping me (and you) off blind. And it's all completely legal.
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