Morning Mail: Tony Abbott, HSBC Swiss files, Queensland election, Obama-Merkel conference, robot uprising

Guardian Australia's Morning Mail Tuesday 10 February 2015 g Tony Abbott   Tony Abbott has tried to call time on Liberal disunity after defeating the leadership spill motion yesterday, saying he's determined to improve after his party ‘looked over the precipice’. Abbott survived with 61 votes to 39, but his plaintive plea for more time has failed to restore his authority, writes Lenore Taylor. Watch Lenore Taylor's video explaining why Abbott’s concessions to save his job have undermined his authority and left the government with a budget problem. See how it all unfolded yesterday in an enthralling – and entertaining – politics live blog with Katharine Murphy. With bonus #BrickParliament from photographer Mike Bowers.The politics live blog has already kicked off again –follow all the politics out of Canberra live with Katharine Murphy now, and don't miss a singleAustralian politics story with our full coverage here. HSBC files   The Guardian, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and news organisations around the world have published a series of reportsexposing how the Swiss arm of the HSBC bank helped wealthy clients dodge taxes around the world, conceal millions of dollars of assets, doling out bundles of untraceable cash and advising clients on how to circumvent domestic tax authorities, according to a huge cache of leaked secret bank account files. Leading Australian figures held offshore bank accounts, including former ANZ chairman Charles Goodes. The Australian Tax Office said it has uncovered “a number of discrepancies” among hundreds of Swiss HSBC accounts held by Australians and has recovered more than $30m in tax liabilities over the past five years How a 1934 Swiss law enshrined secrecy, but if it's not illegal, why does it matter? Follow all our HSBC Swiss files coverage here. Australian news and politics   We can form Queensland government this week, says Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk. Former Icac chief David Ipp, who uncovered corruption around mining approvals in NSW, hascriticised the Newman government’s handling of approval of a mine owned by a major donor, and the weakening of Queensland's anti-corruption agency. A "chastened" Tony Abbott​ is trying to put the spill behind him, but now he faces the fresh fights of business tax, GP fees and defence contracts, with angry stakeholders at every turn. 41-year-old surfer Tadashi Nakahara was killed at Shelly beach on the NSW north coast when a shark took both his legs, one day after a 35-year-old was injured in a suspected shark attack at nearby Byron Bay. A senior Jewish leader has told the royal commission that a victim of child sex abuse should not necessarily go to police if the perpetrator has repented to God, while a Yeshivah abuse victim says his scholarship was removed after he reported rape. Around the world   US president Barack Obama and German chanceloor Angela Merkel held a press conference where Obama said sending "lethal defensive weapons" to help Ukrainians fighting Russian-backed rebels was an option, but Merkel said she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she didn't try to make cease-fire talks work. Is Angela Merkel Europe’s lone champion in her drive to pacify Russia and the US on the Ukraine emergency? China has executed billionaire mining tycoon Liu Han for multiple murder. A British citizen has been arrested in Spain forallegedly killing a German man he caught filming his young daughter with an iPad. At least 29 migrants have died of hypothermia after being rescued by the Italian coastguard. One last thing   A woman was attacked by her own automatic vacuum cleaner in "what many believe is a peek into a dystopian future in which supposedly benign robots turn against their human masters".  If that wasn't bad enough, owners of Samsung TVs have been warned not to discuss 'sensitive information' in front of their Smart TVs with voice recognition software. Have an excellent day – and if you spot something I've missed, let me know on Twitter @earleyedition.

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