Good morning, this is Stephen Smiley bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 22 October.

Top stories

Boris Johnson has been denied the opportunity to hold a second vote on his Brexit deal in the House of Commons, after the Speaker, John Bercow, ruled it would be “repetitive and disorderly”. Bercow said it would break longstanding conventions for MPs to debate and vote on the agreement struck in Brussels last week, two days after Saturday’s historic sitting. Despite having reluctantly been compelled to send a letter asking for an extension to article 50, Johnson’s government still hopes to push the legislation necessary to enact Brexit through the parliament by 31 October.

A Clive Palmer-controlled company has applied for a mining lease for a new coalmine four times the size of Adani’s in Queensland’s Galilee Basin. The Galilee Coal project – formerly called China First – has not progressed since it gained federal environmental approval in late 2013, but notification that Waratah Coal has renewed its 2011 application was issued by Queensland’s coal assessment hub on 4 October. The proposed mine is about 100km from Adani’s Carmichael project and would require many of its own pieces of supporting infrastructure to operate.

The lawyer facing jail time for helping to expose an unlawful 2006 spy operation by Australia in Timor-Leste has called for urgent whistleblower reforms and warned defence and intelligence officers currently have “nowhere to go” when they witness serious misconduct. Bernard Collaery, the barrister acting for Witness K, has called for the creation of a new independent parliamentary body to provide an avenue for defence and intelligence whistleblowers. His comments come as Australia’s media outlets unite to highlight creeping government secrecy.

Australia

Australians were inundated with $174.1m in taxpayer-funded government advertising in the last financial year, according to new finance department figures. The total included $156m for major advertising campaigns, many of which advertised policies central to the Coalition’s re-election pitch.

Private health giant Medibank will make public specific information about the potential out-of-pocket costs doctors charge for common procedures and surgeries, a move consumer groups and health policy experts say is a small but positive step towards greater transparency.

Penny Wong has blasted officials for stepping around questions about whether Scott Morrison’s office attempted to have the Hillsong pastor Brian Houston attend a state dinner at the White House. Morrison is continuing to refuse to answer questions about whether he tried to get Houston – one of his religious mentors – on to the guest list.

A 16-year-old girl was left fearful and in tears after she was forced to strip naked in front of police at a music festival last year. The New South Wales Law Enforcement Conduct Commission is holding a four-day inquiry into the allegedly unlawful search that took place at the 2018 Splendour in the Grass festival near Byron Bay.

The world

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Benjamin Netanyahu has told the Israeli president he cannot form a government. Photograph: Gali Tibbon/AFP via Getty Images

Benjamin Netanyahu has informed Israel’s president that he is unable to form a coalition government, after talks with his political rival Benny Gantz broke down. Gantz now has 28 days to try to build his own coalition.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand has stripped his 34-year-old consort of all titles for “disloyalty”, a royal command said, a demotion that comes less than three months after Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi was bestowed with the honour.

Chile is bracing for fresh upheaval after the president Sebastián Piñera expanded a state of emergency beyond the capital. The death toll from from three days of violence has risen to 11, in a crisis that began as a youth revolt against a 3% increase in metro fares in Santiago.

And the number of wealthy Chinese people has overtaken the number of rich Americans for the first time, according to a report by Credit Suisse.

Recommended reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Australian economy remains extremely weak – as weak as it has been since the last recession in 1990, writes Greg Jericho. Photograph: RBA/PR

The government is pinning its hopes on interest rate cuts to lift us out of the doldrums. But, Greg Jericho writes, it’s not very convincing: “The desire for good economic news has the government and sections of the business community clinging to any meagre drop of hope. But the reality is the economy already is in a major downturn, because most of the growth is coming from the non-market sectors of public administration, education and healthcare. For now the government waits, hoping its tax cuts will increase household consumption, and hoping the rate cuts will do enough to spur investment.”

Australia’s best-tasting tap water has had a long journey: from rainforest ponds where “platypuses are playing”, down “cascading waterfalls”, “rocky rivers”, “into the Pioneer River”, through Marion Water Treatment Plant and then into the pipes of Queensland’s Mackay. But to connoisseurs such as Craig Mathisen, chief operating officer of Water Industry Operators of Australia and judge in the Best Tasting Tap Water in Australia competition, that’s what’s good about it: “To me it’s something that’s really refreshing to the palate … really crisp,” he says. So just what does it take to make delicious tap water?

Within a year, both members of Sydney hip-hop duo Horrorshow received devastating news. But, as Brodie Lancaster writes, they held each other up, and have now made their most personal record yet. Growing up a Buddhist, producer Adit Gauchan – who comprises Horrorshow alongside rapper Nick Bryant-Smith - was taught that life is suffering. And Gauchan and Bryant-Smith have had to lean on that idea in the two years since their last record, Bardo State, was released. Six weeks after the album came out, a person very close to Bryant-Smith was diagnosed with stage-four bowel cancer; eight months later, Gauchan learned his brother had been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Less than a year later, in January this year, Gauchan’s younger brother Ashim passed away. The record has provided catharsis. But there’s a fear that it comes at a cost.

Watch

Play Video US troops pelted with rotten fruit and stones as they leave Syria – video

People have thrown rotten fruit and stones at US troops as they left Syria in armed vehicles, with one man appearing to shout: ‘You liars!’ The US convoy of roughly 100 armoured vehicles and trucks competed with a new wave of refugees as it made its way to the Iraqi-Syrian border, passing cars full of families crammed with their possessions.

Sport

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Under the new proposed structure, road cycling will integrated with BMX and mountain biking under one administrative umbrella, Kieran Pender writes. Photograph: Romilly Lockyer/Getty Images/Cultura RF

Cycling in Australia faces unprecedented upheaval, with voting underway to unify the 19 separate entities responsible for the sport across the country.

Indonesia’s Aries Susanti Rahayu has broken the women’s speed climbing world record, finishing a 15-metre course at the IFSC Climbing World Cup in Xiamen, China, in 6.995 seconds.

And New Zealand and narrowly South Africa might be the Rugby World Cup semi-final favourites. But, Robert Kitson writes, the Antipodean coaches of England and Wales have the experience to make both games tantalisingly close.

Media roundup

Record-low rates have blown out the commonwealth’s unfunded superannuation liability by $50bn in a year, the Australian reports. Splendour in the Grass, Falls festival and Laneway festival are threatening to leave NSW as the state government pushes ahead with legislation for a new safety regime, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. And more than 50 senior academics have signed an open letter calling for Murdoch University to drop a case against a whistleblower who raised concerns about international students, reports the ABC.

Coming up

Estimates hearings resume in Canberra.

A public hearing into the strip search of an underage female at the Splendour in the Grass festival continues.

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