Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 2 February.

Top stories

Poorly trained officers took no responsibility for flawed decisions that landed two Australian citizens in immigration detention, according to a government report. The staff, who illegally detained two Australian citizens in 2016 and 2017, were also poorly trained and ignored critical information, the report says. The report by a former inspector general of intelligence and security was released under freedom of information laws. It said there were systemic failures within the department and it was “quite possible other citizens have been detained or removed [from the country] in similar circumstances”. “DIBP officers do not consistently demonstrate the requisite knowledge, understanding and skills to fairly and lawfully exercise the power to detain,” Vivienne Thom wrote.

In late 2016 and early 2017, two Australian citizens were unlawfully held in immigration detention, despite evidence – including the men telling officials – they were Australian. “I am Australian-born,” said one of the men in an interview “I have been in Australia for my whole life ... you are trying to kick out someone that was born here.” He was ultimately released after more than three months in detention.

Adani submitted an altered laboratory report while appealing a fine for contamination of sensitive wetlands, the Guardian understands. While appealing a $12,000 fine for spilling coal-laden water on to the Caley valley wetlands at Abbot Point after Cyclone Debbie, Adani submitted a report detailing the nature of the spill. But the Guardian understands that while investigating the incident, the Department of Environment discovered the original lab report containing results left off the version Adani submitted. The original report found worse pollution than had earlier been alleged. Adani would not comment, beyond a spokesman saying the company “provided sampling results to the regulator following Tropical Cyclone Debbie in accordance with the requirements of its environmental authority”.

The development of a former Nazi torture centre into luxury flats has sparked fury in Germany. Relatives of some of the thousands of Nazi victims who were tortured and murdered in the Hamburg headquarters of the Gestapo have accused authorities and property developers of insulting their memory, following the transformation of the building into a luxury complex with scant reference to its past. “Nobody who was brought here for interrogation came out unhurt,” said Detlef Baade, whose father was tortured by Hamburg’s Gestapo in 1933. “We have a societal obligation to do this. We owe it to the dead,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The Turnbull government’s proposed national energy guarantee will protect coal generators from competition provided by renewables and batteries, according to a new analysis. The Carbon and Energy Markets report also floats the idea that the Neg – which imposes new reliability and emissions reduction guarantees on Australia’s energy retailers and large energy users from 2020 – could also mean the existing spot market will need to be disbanded.

Nearly 40 years after Natalie Wood died mysteriously on a boat trip to Santa Catalina Island, investigators have named the actor’s husband Robert Wagner as a person of interest. Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators told 48 Hours, the CBS news magazine series, that they intend to speak to Wagner, 87, regarding the circumstances of Wood’s death in 1981. In 2013, LA county coroners reignited the mystery over Wood’s death by concluding she may have been assaulted before drowning in the sea.



Sport

Tonight, season two of AFLW gets under way when Carlton play Collingwood at Princes Park – a repeat of last year’s inaugural game at the same venue. Kirby Fenwick, who made an audio documentary of that night, writes why the first Friday in February and AFLW’s opening night means so much to women.

Agents’ runaway gravy train is set to be derailed in a bid to curb excessive fees, David Conn writes of the over-heated January transfer window, with clubs and governing bodies preparing to put a stop to it.

Thinking time

Mining companies will receive more than twice as much in fuel tax credits as the Turnbull government will spend on environment and biodiversity programs this financial year, writes Adam Morton, in the latest exclusive instalment of our new series Our wide brown land. Analysis by the Australian Conservation Foundation has found that while the federal Environment Department’s budget had been cut to a projected $950m, the commonwealth expected to award the mining sector $2.5bn in fuel tax credits this year. Environmental cuts in Canberra have coincided with a reduction at state and territory level. It adds to a weight of evidence that environment campaigners and political veterans say shows political support for environment protection is at its lowest ebb since before the landmark decisions to protect Kakadu, the Daintree rainforest and the Franklin river in the 1980s.

Among the scores of men caught up in the Presidents Club dinner scandal happened to be one of Britain’s best-loved children’s authors, David Walliams. After the revelation, several booksellers pulled his kids’ books from shelves. With a love of fart jokes and fattism, is the bestselling author of Mr Stink and Ratburger a Dahl-esque maverick or an old-fashioned bully?

Brigid Delaney considers the rare power of grief in song and other artistic forms. In her weekly diary, she tells of an off-the-cuff decision to see the singer Mount Eerie in concert in her home town, where she was exposed to an evening of lament for his late wife. “It is one thing to listen to the songs alone, at home, to be drawn into his pain, that manages both to be exquisite and brutal, in a place where you can absorb it privately. But to see the pain performed … would it be like seeing a man on an operating table, opened up without anesthetic?”

What’s he done now?

Is review quite the right word, Mr President? And is it quite true this was the most watched State of the Union speech, ever? (no, we’ve crunched the numbers). “Thank you for all of the nice compliments and reviews on the State of the Union speech. 45.6 million people watched, the highest number in history. @FoxNews beat every other Network, for the first time ever, with 11.7 million people tuning in. Delivered from the heart!” Trump tweeted overnight.

Media roundup

The Sydney Morning Herald devotes most of its front page to secret donations from the pokies industry to Labor and the Coalition being hidden from public scrutiny due to lax donation disclosure laws. “Coles has lost its way,” the Australian Financial Review reports, saying the supermarket has slipped further behind Woolworths in strategy, morale and in-store execution, according to suppliers. Investment bank UBS has lowered its 2018 and 2019 profit forecasts for the giant in response. Asio has taken custody of a cache of classified cabinet documents obtained by the ABC, after the ABC and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet came to an understanding on the return of the explosive files, the ABC reports.

Coming up

The Tasmanian election campaigns roll on – today premier Will Hodgman will announce his public transport policy in Hobart, while opposition leader Rebecca White will speak about mental health policy in Launceston.

The Commonwealth Games uniforms will be unveiled. Brace yourself.

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