Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 23 May.

Top stories

Union leaders are facing tough questions on the effectiveness of the ACTU’s $25m campaign, which has been labelled “nebulous” and a “hubristic vanity project” after Labor’s election loss. The Change the Rules campaign was highly ambitious. But in the end – of the ACTU’s 16 target seats – Labor won just Gilmore, Dunkley and Corangamite, lost its own seats in Bass and Herbert, as well as every single Queensland target. Tim Kennedy, the National Union of Workers national secretary, said: “We’ve got to look to our purpose – our purpose as unions is to change workers’ lives through collective action, we are not the campaigning arm of the ALP.” But the ACTU secretary, Sally McManus, has defended the campaign, arguing that working people can’t pass up the opportunity to fight elections and change laws she says are stacked against working people.

The Queensland Labor rightwinger Jim Chalmers is continuing to mull whether to run for the party leadership after a coordinated show of force from the frontrunner, Anthony Albanese, prompted an early withdrawal from the ballot by Chris Bowen. Chalmers is expected to make a final decision on Thursday as the Morrison government continues its own post-election recalibration that will culminate with the unveiling of a new ministry on Sunday. Bowen withdrew from contention and encouraged Chalmers to throw his hat in the ring only 24 hours after entering the field following a string of endorsements for Albanese from both the right and left factions over the course of Wednesday.

A 6,600-year-old, highly sophisticated aquaculture system developed by the Gunditjmara people of Victoria will be formally considered for a place on the Unesco world heritage list and, if successful, would become the first Australian site listed exclusively for its Aboriginal cultural value. The Gunditjmara people used volcanic rock to manage water flows from nearby Lake Condah to exploit eels as a food source, constructing an advanced system of channels and weirs.

World

Facebook Twitter Pinterest British prime minister Theresa May has resisted intense pressure to step aside. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Theresa May’s position appears increasingly precarious as she faces calls from senior members of the cabinet to pull a planned vote on her “new” Brexit deal. House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom has quit, saying she no longer believes the government’s approach will deliver Brexit. The Guardian’s analysis says it has been: “A truly bad day for May, one which would certainly count as the worst ever for many other prime ministers.”

Donald Trump on Wednesday terminated a meeting with Democratic leaders after just a few minutes, saying he refuses to work with them on an infrastructure plan unless they stop investigating him and lift the threat of impeachment. Meanwhile, a federal judge in Manhattan has ruled against the US president, saying he won’t block recent Congressional subpoenas that are demanding his financial records from two banks.

Purdue Pharma, the drug manufacturer that kickstarted the US opioid epidemic, corruptly influenced the World Health Organisation in order to boost painkiller sales across the globe, according to a report by members of Congress.

One of Africa’s best-known authors and gay rights activists, Binyavanga Wainaina, has died at the age of 48. The Kenyan author died on Tuesday night in Nairobi after a short illness, the BBC reported. Wainaina won the 2002 Caine prize for African writing.

Quentin Tarantino has responded sharply to questions about the portrayal of women in his films at a press conference in Cannes for his new drama Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood. At one point he snapped “I reject your hypothesis” at a journalist who asked why Margot Robbie had so few lines in the film.

Opinion and analysis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest PM Scott Morrison and treasurer Josh Frydenberg leave the Reserve Bank of Australia building on Wednesday. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

It’s absurd to suggest that rate cuts are good news for the government, writes Greg Jericho. On Tuesday Philip Lowe, the governor of the Reserve Bank, indicated that interest rate cuts are coming. The RBA has finally realised that if they want things to improve, it is not enough to hold interest rates at record lows. “Lowe was abundantly clear that the issue was households and their lack of income growth. This is something I (and others) have been banging on about for a long time, but it was nice to hear the governor note that ‘the main reason for the shift in momentum in the Australian economy is a slowdown in household consumption growth’.”

“Climate change in Canberra remains a movable feast,” writes Katherine Murphy. While Saturday night’s election result isn’t what Australia or the climate needs – a government, apparently without the will to tackle the problem, back in power for three years, and an opposition licking its wounds, wondering how long it can keep going to elections championing climate action, and losing – it would be a mistake to conclude the issue is now completely off the agenda.

Sport

Steve Smith has marked his return to English soil with a typically assured half century – his measured 76 guided Australia safely to a modest target of 230 against West Indies – but there were contrasting fortunes for his Australia teammates David Warner and Usman Khawaja.

The NRL’s Indigenous round kicks off tonight and when the Newcastle Knights run on to the field for their game on Friday, their players will be sporting boots hand-painted with Aboriginal designs, personalised to represent the country where each of them come from. It is the first initiative of the newly formed Cultural Choice Association, established to build awareness around Indigenous youth suicide, and help fund research and prevention.

Thinking time: Ian McKellen at 80

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘He can strut like Jagger and display like Gaga.’ Photograph: Jane Bown/The Observer

Wild parties, stunning performances, silhouette erections and marrying Patrick Stewart twice. As Ian McKellen actor turns 80, friends including Derek Jacobi, Janet Suzman, Michael Sheen, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins and Stephen Fry pay tribute.

Judy Dench writes: “I must have worked with Ian at least eight times. The first was in 1965 in The Promise at Oxford. The play was about the siege of Leningrad, which was spoken of all the way through. I remember one night, Ian and I made an entrance in the second act in fur coats and hats and we heard this lady in the audience say very, very loudly: ‘Oooh, all them furs! Anyone would think they were in Russia.’

“I never let him forget the time we were in a very intimate, in-the-round production of Macbeth. I was kneeling at his feet and he said: ‘Light thickens and the crow makes wing to the wooky-nook.’ Wooky-nook instead of wood, said purely by accident. I thought: ‘Well, I suppose it’d be all right if Lady Macbeth had hysterics at this point because she’s rather tense.’ I’ve said that line to him, in so many ways, throughout our careers.”

Media roundup

The Sydney Morning Herald‘s front page story is Naplan fiasco hits 400 schools, with thousands of students needing to resit “botched” tests. Anthony Albanese is on the Australian’s cover, with the headline “Albo vows to end class war” – online it’s slightly different, as Albanese vows to end Labor’s class-war rhetoric. The Courier Mail calls Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk an “Endangered species”. The ABC and the SMH reveal the “clandestine activities of an Australian neo-Nazi couple and their network.

Coming up

A further court hearing will be held in Sydney in the wake of actor Geoffrey Rush’s win in his defamation case against the Daily Telegraph.

The Nationals will gather in Canberra on Thursday to elect a leader and deputy with Michael McCormack and Bridget McKenzie both expected to be returned to their positions.

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