Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 5 February.

Top stories

An orphanage using the name of an Australian Bali bombing victim has been accused of sourcing children with living parents from a remote island to help solicit donations from western tourists. Former workers at Jodie O’Shea House, one of Bali’s biggest institutions for children, have made a detailed complaint about its activities to Save the Children, which passed it on to Indonesian authorities. The owners strongly deny the allegations in the complaint but acknowledge most of the children are not orphans. Indonesian authorities have not found evidence to support the most serious allegations but continue to monitor the centre.

In this special report, Christopher Knaus and Kate Lamb in Indonesia investigate the institution, as an Australian parliamentary inquiry focuses further attention on the phenomenon of orphanage tourism. Former volunteers and workers, mostly young Australians eager to help Indonesian orphans, say they were distressed by the circumstances of the children, many of whom are brought from the island of Sumba. Their families hope they will get the chance of an education by going to Bali but in many cases they lose regular contact because they cannot afford to visit. And NGOs increasingly argue institutions of any kind are no place for children in the long term.

Melbourne will elect a new lord mayor after Robert Doyle quit amid allegations he sexually harassed and indecently assaulted women. Doyle resigned on Sunday night after being admitted to hospital. He continues to strenuously deny the allegations against him. In December, Doyle, 64, was hit by claims of sexual harassment, indecent assault and misconduct, and stepped aside as mayor while Ian Freckleton QC launched an investigation.

The $4bn Murray-Darling basin plan is failing to achieve environmental goals and is a “gross waste” of money, a group of prominent scientists and economists say. The group criticises the implementation of the plan, saying there is no evidence it has improved the overall health of the basin. Members will meet in Adelaide today to discuss what’s next. “Some $4bn has been spent on water recovery infrastructure projects, but for many of these projects there is no scientific evidence that they have actually increased net stream flows,” the signatories said. They are calling for a halt to all publicly funded water recovery associated with irrigation infrastructure subsidies/grants in the Murray-Darling basin until a comprehensive and independent audit of basin water recovery is published.

Two Freemasons’ lodges set up for MPs and political journalists are continuing to operate secretly at Westminster, the Guardian has learned. The identities of the members of these lodges remain unknown outside the world of Freemasonry, and so discreet are the members of Gallery Lodge that few journalists working in Westminster appear to be aware of its existence. The disclosure that both political journalists and politicians are Freemasons comes after the outgoing chair of the Police Federation alleged that Freemasons were blocking reforms in policing and thwarting the progress of women and officers from black and minority ethnic communities.

A pre-Raphaelite “soft porn” painting removed from an English gallery to start a debate about sexuality on canvas has been rehung after a public outcry in which the venue was accused of po-faced censorship. John William Waterhouse’s Hylas and the Nymphs, which depicts a handsome young man being lured to his death by a pond full of topless nymphs, was taken down from Manchester Art Gallery on 29 January. Jonathan Jones, the Guardian’s art critic, was among those who did not appreciate the removal. “To remove this work art from view is not an interesting critique but a crass gesture that will end up on the wrong side of history,” he wrote, saying of Waterhouse: “Even a kinky old Victorian perv has his right to paint soft-porn nymphs.”

Sport

The opening round of AFLW season two delivered on its promise, with excellent crowds, further improvements and even better competition than in season one. Underdogs, particularly the Brisbane Lions and Greater Western Sydney Giants, impressed, while the brand of football was as audiences have come to expect: hard, uncompromising and played like each minute might be your last.

Fifteen of the 28 Russian athletes who had their lifetime Olympic bans overturned last week will know by Tuesday whether they can compete in the Winter Olympics. “Receiving this invitation is a privilege for a clean Russian athlete,” said Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee president.

Thinking time

From provocative standup to gentle jokes about baking, Jo Brand has been making an impact for decades – but just don’t call her a “national treasure”. Brand, now 60, has been making an impact for decades, first with her monotone standup about men and weight, and today for her dry contributions to primetime TV. “There’s never enough sadness in sitcoms,” Brand says. “Which is a shame, because we need to laugh as a defence. Being a nurse you become aware of the extremities of human behaviour, and you need a tasteless and appalling sense of humour sometimes. When you see people at their absolute worst, the only thing you can do is joke.”

“Thousands of women have used #MeToo to share their stories of sexual harassment and assault,” Keiran Hardy writes. But it’s it’s not just a problem on Hollywood movie sets or Australian TV shows. “#MeTooPhD is a hashtag for university staff and students to share their experiences of sexual harassment and assault,” he writes. “Stories abound of unwanted sexual advances at conferences, lewd comments in the workplace and the lack of appropriate punishment for offending male academics.” He writes that sexism need not reach the level of assault or harassment to warrant condemnation.

“I’m at peak shock and happiness,” says Greta Gerwig, the The Lady Bird director and the fifth woman to be nominated for a best director Oscar. Gerwig sits down with Tim Lewis to discuss the #MeToo movement, looking like a nerd in front of Angela Merkel and whether Lady Bird really is her teenage diaries writ large. “I genuinely hope that what this means to women of all ages – young women, women who are well into their careers – is that they look at this and they think, ‘I want to go make my movie.’ Because a diversity of storytellers is incredibly important and also I want to see their movies. I want to know what they have to say!”

Media roundup

The ACT plans to raise the cost of land tax for foreign buyers in an attempt to rebalance the market, the Canberra Times reports. Foreign investors will pay an extra 0.75% on the average unimproved value of residential properties, starting 1 July. The ABC has an analysis piece on the dual citizenship “fiasco”, comparing it to the dying hour of a drunken Canberra Christmas party. Ten politicians have lost their jobs, with the latest casualty being Labor’s David Feeney.



Coming up

Federal parliament will sit for the first time this year, with the Liberal Jim Molan to be sworn in as senator and the former One Nation senator Fraser Anning expected to make a statement on his decision to become an independent.

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