Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 6 June.

Top stories

A contentious degree in western civilisation backed by John Howard will no longer be considered after the ANU vice-chancellor’s decision to pull out of negotiations. Brian Schmidt released a statement late on Tuesday explaining he had come to the conclusion the university had a “fundamentally different vision for the program than the Ramsay Centre, and that there was no prospect of us reaching agreement”.

A brainchild of the late healthcare mogul Paul Ramsay, the degree was part of a $3.3bn bequest. Tony Abbott also supported the course, criticising current degrees for being “pervaded by Asian, Indigenous and sustainability perspectives”. But Schmidt called time on six months of negotiations, concluding: “I understand this caused disappointment to some, but my first duty is to advance the university I am so proud to lead.”

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A Liberal MLC has crossed the floor to spark a constitutional crisis within the NSW parliament after the upper house voted to censure and likely expel the Coalition leader, Don Harwin, over the Berejiklian government’s refusal to release three crucial reports. Matthew Mason-Cox broke ranks to deliver a rare victory for the opposition and minor parties, meaning the government must now either table the reports or face the expulsion, a move that could see it head to the state’s supreme court. An outspoken advocate for reform of the child protection system, Mason-Cox condemned a “perverse culture of secrecy”.

The final two stages of the federal government’s income tax cut plan will cost the budget more than $130bn from 2023, with higher-income earners enjoying the bulk of the $144bn plan, forecasts from the Parliamentary Budget Office show. Costings compiled for the Greens show Scott Morrison’s landmark plan to increase the 32.5% marginal threshold from $90,000 to $120,000 from July 2022 will cost the budget $36.5bn, while scrapping the 37% marginal rate, and putting all income earners between $41,000 and $200,000 on the same flat tax rate, will burden the bottom line by $32.55bn.



Vladimir Putin has dodged questions about the shooting down of flight MH17 during his first visit to an EU member state since being re-elected, instead calling for an end to “harmful” economic sanctions imposed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Speaking from Vienna, Putin accused an Austrian journalist of engaging in “a monologue rather than an interview” but used the opportunity to cast doubt on an international investigation that suggests Russian culpability for the disaster. “The tragedy we are talking about is terrible, and I feel immensely sorry for the victims and their families, but this investigation must be objective and comprehensive,” Putin said.



India will eliminate all single-use plastic in the country by 2022, Narendra Modi has announced, in the most ambitious yet of global actions to combat plastic pollution. Modi’s move aims to drastically stem the flow of plastic from the 1.3 billion people living in the fastest growing economy in the world. “The choices that we make today will define our collective future,” he said.

Sport

Queensland’s preparations for State of Origin’s opening encounter have been far from smooth – deprived of Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk, they lost Billy Slater and Dane Gagai to injury. But given their game plan and an inherent knowledge of how to win, this fixture at the MCG has Maroons ambush scrawled all over it, writes Matt Cleary. You can follow every minute of tonight’s game with our liveblog.

After failing to impress in season one of Super Netball last year and losing four of their first five matches in 2018, Collingwood’s shock win over the Queensland Firebirds has enabled the “galácticos” of Super Netball to somehow recalibrate their season, writes Erin Delahunty. What has changed for the Magpies?

Thinking time

“As an outsider, I could see that Lightning Ridge is a refuge for misfits,” says the Russian-born Australian film-maker Alena Lodkina. In her feature Strange Colours, part of the Sydney film festival, she casts an interloper’s eye over the remote opal town and finds a microcosm of Australia itself. It’s an ultra-low-budget, hyper-distilled story of dreamers, drinkers and drifters stuck in a remote community, in which Lodkina herself says “nothing much happens” at all. It’s been hailed as the best-directed Australian feature of last year. The festival runs 6-17 June.

In 2014, the Guardian asked if Uber was the “worst company in Silicon Valley”. That was before the sexual harassment lawsuits, the #DeleteUber campaign, the employment tribunals over its failure to pay the UK’s minimum wage, and the forced resignation of its chief executive, Travis Kalanick. As the taxi app attempts to turn around its toxic image with a quirky documentary narrated by Dawn French, Richard Godwin asks: is Uber’s PR offensive a cynical corporate whitewash?

A primary school in Inverness, Scotland, has announced that girls and boys will compete together on sports days. But why, asks Anna Kessel, should that work the world’s media into a complete lather? “We are talking about the egg-and-spoon race here, for kids aged four and upwards. As I write, my daughter is out in the playground practising the three-legged race with her classmates as they get ready for their sports day this week. She’s excited and determined to win a medal, like last year, and it won’t have occurred to her for a millisecond that she shouldn’t be racing alongside 50% of her classmates because they are boys.”

What’s he done now?

After “disinviting” the 2018 Super Bowl winners, the Philadelphia Eagles, from the annual White House visit after the majority of players declined to turn up, Donald Trump has billed it as a win for his opposition to players kneeling during the national anthem. He also attacked “High Tax, High Crime Nancy Pelosi” and condemned the “Russian Witch Hunt Hoax”.

Media roundup

The fallout from the ANZ criminal cartel case continues with six of Australia’s leading investment bankers being named by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, reports the Australian and the Australian Financial Review. The Adelaide Advertiser reports the tragic case of 91-year-old Graham Kennewell, who is facing jail time after accidentally killing his wife while reversing from their driveway. And WA police have been accused of having something to hide after refusing to reveal how many officers have been caught speeding and running red lights without a valid reason, reports the West Australian.

Coming up

Sam Oliver, a Briton, is back in court after pleading not guilty over an alleged one-punch assault that fractured the skull of the Australian Rugby Sevens captain James Stannard.

Economists expect the national accounts, which are released today, will show growth lifted by close to 1% in the first three months of the year.

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