<![CDATA[TrueNorth Weekday Independent News Update]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.comhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eWvC!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68f95ad7-9a70-45c1-937a-772760dd147c_248x248.pngTrueNorth Weekday Independent News Updatehttps://truenorthnews.substack.comSubstackMon, 24 Aug 2026 17:27:26 GMT<![CDATA[Mon Aug 24 2026 - Far-Right secretive political group Advance appears at election inquiry]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/mon-aug-24-2026-far-right-secretivehttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/mon-aug-24-2026-far-right-secretiveMon, 24 Aug 2026 06:06:08 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

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Far-Right secretive political group Advance appears at election inquiry - Independent Australia

THE FAR-RIGHT POLITICAL advocacy group Advance Aus Limited appeared before the Australian Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters inquiry into the 2025 federal election late yesterday afternoon. Chair Vicki Dunne and Company Secretary Mark Spencer represented Advance. Executive Director Matthew Sheahan did not appear.

Since Advance started in 2018, the Liberal vote has steadily declined nationwide. The Conservative vote is now split between the Coalition and One Nation, with polls predicting neither would garner enough votes to hold power outright.

Advance appears to be driving that decline, or maybe that’s just a coincidence too.

Maybe we’ll learn more in a few weeks when we get the answers to all those questions Dunne and Spencer took on notice.

Or maybe Advance will remain the secretive third-party political organisation pushing a secretive political agenda by secretive political people with lots and lots of money from secretive billionaire backers.

Read more from Belinda Jones for Independent Australia

“National shame”: Andrew Wilkie on the government’s gambling reforms - 7am

For more than a decade, Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has been talking about gambling addiction. His advocacy means he’s become a lightning rod for people to share their stories. Now, as the government this week passed legislation aimed at reducing gambling harms, Wilkie is among an angry group of dissenters who say the bill is a “national shame”.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also >

Australia’s bird flu response: too little, but it’s not too late - The Conversation

When news broke over the weekend that Australia’s first mainland bird flu case in a mammal – the death of a long-nosed fur seal – had been detected, I felt deep sadness and dread for what’s likely to come next. We should expect large scale deaths of mammals, in addition to birds.

The deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu has been spreading across Australia and devastating wildlife. So infection in a mammal was tragically just a matter of time.

This news comes after more than 1,000 crested terns and more than two dozen little penguins recently died in South Australia and Tasmania, respectively.

Australia’s federal, state and territory governments claim they’re well-prepared to manage this environmental and conservation crisis. Are they? There’s much that needs to be urgently improved.

Stopping the spread of bird flu is impossible, but we can still reduce the severity of its impacts on wildlife and the environment.

Read more in The Conversation

Also > First bird flu death in an Australian mainland mammal is a grim milestone. We know how bad this can get - The Conversation

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‘BLUE-WASHING’: CORPORATE PROFITS AND THE DESTRUCTION OF GAZA - Behind a corporate web of Australian companies making lethal parts for Israel’s F-35 fighter jets - Declassified Australia

Unions responsible for the manufacturing sector might not have previously known, until now, of the web of connections of parts-makers, controlled by CPE Capital. And funded by federal government largesse.

The public interest deserves the opaqueness of the links between CPE Capital, the manufacture of weapons used by Israel, major unions and the Federal government to be wiped clear.

Also >

Trump Declares War on Canada: Why? Because he’s a peevish, perverse, enraged child - Robert Reich

He’s lost his war in Iran, most Americans are struggling financially, his mass deportations are unpopular — so what does he do? He flips the finger at Canada because Canada is exactly the kind of nation that an American bully targets. Bullies always go after targets that won’t or can’t fight back.

Trump has been bullying Canada since the start of his second term. Six months ago Trump suggested the border between Canada and the U.S. was an “arbitrary” line. He’s repeatedly proposed that Canada be annexed as the 51st state. He said he’s willing to inflict “economic pain” on Canada to get what he wants. On July 1, Canada’s national holiday, Trump declined to renew the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade, which means the agreement will now undergo annual reviews.

Mostly, though, Trump is enraged that Canadian prime minister Mark Carney claimed in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the U.S. is no longer a guarantor of stability in the world, and that middle powers like Canada must unite in order to survive. It was a forceful speech, and the first time that a U.S. ally has stood up to Trump.

Read more by Robert Reich

Also >

Today’s cartoon by Matt Golding

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Has Albo reset ‘Labor values’ in line with Pauline Hanson and Lachlan Murdoch? - Michael West Media

As a Labor prime minister, does Anthony Albanese have an obligation to stand for Labor values? Paul Begley on trading principle for pragmatism.

Tory Prime Minister Winston Churchill reputedly referred to his Labour Party successor, Clement Attlee, as “a modest man with much to be modest about”.

What he might have meant was that Attlee pursued policy objectives accompanied by a minimum of fuss. In doing so, he created the groundbreaking National Health Service, brought key industries such as coal, gas and electricity into public ownership, and instigated sweeping public housing programs.

He also initiated the decolonisation of India and Pakistan, nations that Churchill thought well suited to exercising deference to British supervision.

Churchill’s epigram may have more aptly been applied in recent times to other leaders whose positive legacies amounted to little or nothing. Among British Labour leaders, Tony Blair and Keir Starmer come to mind. Australia’s present Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, would also be a likely candidate fitting that bill.

Read more in Michael West Media

Also >

Is Australia Actually Mad at Israel For Killing a Citizen? Plus, the AFL Tabloid Frenzy Loses the Plot - Lamestream

The Australian government has expressed "outrage" that Israel won't hold anyone responsible for the killing of aid worker Zomi Frankcom, but just how seriously should we take those statements? Os and Scott cover the diplomatic brawl and how the media regurgitated falsehoods from Israel's ambassador. They also discuss how the investigation in Hind Rajab's killing received relatively little attention in Australia. Later in the episode, Os breaks down the "serious miscarriage of justice" that a judge says occurred in one of Australia's most high-profile anti-Semitism prosecutions. Plus, Mark Ruffalo takes on the Warner Bros. / Paramount Merger and the Ellison's, and how the tabloid frenzy over the AFL in the past week has spun out of control.

Listen to the Lamestream Podcast

Also >

Tory Shepherd: Peter Malinauskas grabbed headlines by announcing a royal commission into AI. How genuine are his ‘nation-leading’ moves? - The Guardian

In June, Malinauskas released a plan to cash in on the datacentre boom. This month he made a flying visit to the United States, where he met with Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, and Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown and signed a memorandum of understanding with OpenAI’s president, Greg Brockman.

He announced the royal commission upon his return, saying the two-day trip merely confirmed his thinking that there are “pretty essential questions that AI raises that no one seems to be answering”.

The inquiry will be tasked with examining the risks and benefits of AI in health, the public service, the workplace and the energy grid. But it is the use of AI in education that is front of the premier’s mind, and the wicked problem of how to teach children to use AI without letting them use it to do their homework.

However, the commission won’t look at the role of datacentres, which the premier describes as the “mines of the future”.

The datacentre boom is a source of contention because of their environmental impact.

Read more from Tory Shepherd in The Guardian

Also >

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Jesse Noakes: Everyone’s lips are sealed ahead of WA’s looming Secret Harbour by-election - Crikey

From Labor candidates shirking questions about their Woodside connections, to One Nation not wanting to platform the Greens, everyone’s keeping shtum.

One Nation WA leader Rod Caddies doesn’t want to platform the Greens.

We’re standing in the carpark outside the polling booth on the first day of pre-polling for the Secret Harbour by-election taking place this Saturday, which pits One Nation’s populist insurgency directly against the WA Labor machine that has dominated state politics here for almost a decade.

But Rod doesn’t want his candidate, gym owner Luke Herdegen, going up against Greens candidate Rhi Davies in a debate she’s happy to have.

Read more from Jesse Noakes for Crikey (paywall)

Also >

John Menadue: Albanese inherited a migration mess. It is taking too long to fix it - Pearls and Irritations

Labor inherited a migration system burdened by asylum backlogs, temporary visa pressures and administrative failure. Four years later, the clean-up remains far from complete.

The Albanese government inherited a migration mess from Peter Dutton but has been very slow cleaning it up.

The Department of Home Affairs also failed to anticipate the blow out in temporary residents.

As Abul Rizvi has asked in P&I: how does the government propose to deliver a net migration target of 225,000 when current net migration is running at around 300,000 and we have almost 3 million temporary entrants in Australia? Together, they are putting unsustainable pressure on permanent migration.

The system is clogged.

Read more from John Menadue for Pearls and Irritations

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]]><![CDATA[Fri Aug 21 2026 - Can the Israeli military be trusted to investigate itself? Evidence shows genuine accountability is rare]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/fri-aug-21-2026-can-the-israeli-militaryhttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/fri-aug-21-2026-can-the-israeli-militaryFri, 21 Aug 2026 06:02:10 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

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Newsletter 602: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

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Can the Israeli military be trusted to investigate itself? Evidence shows genuine accountability is rare - The Conversation

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it’s an “outrage” the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have decided not to open a criminal investigation into the Israeli strikes that killed an Australian aid worker, Zomi Frankcom, and six of her colleagues in Gaza in April 2024. He added:

It falls far short of the accountability that we expect and consistently called for on behalf of Australia.

International law is clear: states are obligated to investigate alleged war crimes committed by their nationals or armed forces, or on their territory. And, if it’s appropriate, they are obligated to prosecute the suspects.

To this end, military and civilian leaders must report suspected breaches of the law up the chain of command to ensure prompt, independent and impartial investigations are carried out.

On Wednesday, the IDF published the findings of an internal investigation into five incidents in Gaza since the war began in October 2023.

Read more in The Conversation

Geoffrey Robertson: Zomi Frankcom did not deserve to die. Israel’s refusal to investigate her death and its failure to apologise is despicable - The Guardian

The Israeli ambassador has claimed ‘a court came to a decision that there’s no criminal liability’ but there is no evidence that any court has been involved.

Zomi Frankcom did not deserve to die. She and her six colleagues were traveling in a clearly marked humanitarian convoy to distribute food to starving Palestinians on a route that had been communicated well in advance to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It bombed them deliberately and repeatedly.

Read more from Geoffrey Robertson for The Guardian

Also >

David Pocock on the ‘real betrayal’ of Labor’s deal on gambling reforms -Australian Politics

This week, the Albanese government passed major reforms to online gambling advertising and deep cuts to rein in NDIS spending – all with the Coalition’s support. David Pocock has long been a vocal critic of the government’s approach to both of these issues. He argues Labor and the opposition have failed to stand up to vested interests on gambling reforms. And while he agrees NDIS cuts are needed, he says major parties have ignored expert evidence on the value of community participation and are handing over important decisions to algorithms with little scrutiny. Political editor Tom McIlroy speaks to the independent senator about what he thinks this notable week of deal-making means for the nation’s political future – while both major parties continue to be spooked by One Nation’s rise

Listen to the Australian Politics Podcast

Also > The Government had one job: to protect its citizens. The new online gambling laws fail to do just that. - Senator Sarah Hanson Young for The Point

Bryn is 16 and has never eaten a meal. His mother’s terrified the newly-cut NDIS won’t ‘step up to keep him alive’ - The Guardian

Bryn Skyes is 16 years old. He loves playing in the water on hot Ipswich days, going through the car wash with his mum and zooming down slides with his siblings.

He has also never eaten food. Bryn’s disability and gastrointestinal problems mean that he has been tube-fed since infancy.

For most of his life, the costs of Bryn’s food and feeding system have been covered by the Queensland children’s hospital, but as the process of transitioning him out of paediatric care begins, his mother, Shelley McRae, is worried changes to the NDIS mean she’ll be left to find an extra $50,000 a year to keep him alive.

After months of debate, confusion over what the changes mean, and anguish for families afraid of having their plans cut – or being moved off the scheme entirely – parliament on Wednesday passed a bill to curtail the scheme.

Read more in The Guardian

Also > NDIS reform is putting the cuts before the safety net - Pearls and Irritations

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I love my job, but like many other doctors, I’m exhausted. The hospital system must change - Women’s Agenda

I was a Year 11 student hoping to study medicine two decades ago, when doctors in Victoria last went on strike. Now I am a consultant paediatrician with a young family and I joined colleagues from major public hospitals in protected industrial action on Thursday.

This included a stop-work action, supported by AMA Victoria and ASMOF (Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation), as doctors joined to negotiate with the Victorian Government for fairer pay, better working conditions, and safer workplaces.

A lot has changed in those last two decades. I still hear the stories from my junior colleagues of what the hospital system is like. I love my job as a doctor, and I deeply care about by patients. Don’t get me wrong. I love the career that I chose.

But I have also heard the whispers in the corridors, comforted burnt-out colleagues, shed tears myself during my training years, had ice poles to keep myself awake after night shifts on my way home from work and carried secrets home, as there is solidarity if we stick together, keep quiet and keep going.

Read more in Women’s Agenda

Thiel-linked ‘race science’ network penetrated Cambridge, targeted Jason Arday - Michael West Media

The media’s coverage of Jayson Arday’s life was fuelled by a far-right network campaign linked to controversial Palantir founder Peter Thiel. Investigation by Nafeez Ahmed of Byline Times.

Jason Arday, a 41-year-old academic who resigned as Cambridge’s Professor of Sociology of Education, was found dead on Friday following intense scrutiny of many aspects of his qualifications and personal life by the majority of the established press.

His coordinated targeting by an explicitly anti-black race science network did not come out of nowhere, Byline Times can reveal.

Backed by the pro-Trump Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, this network has spent a decade penetrating Cambridge University before reaching Reform UK, Restore Britain, and the pan-European far-right.

This phase of the campaign against Jason Arday began when academic and anti-black racist Nathan Cofnas raised claims of plagiarism in Arday’s work in a Substack post last month.

Read more in Michael West Media

Today’s cartoon by Megan Herbert

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Monique Ryan: The government’s health insurance rebate cut doesn’t add up - The New Daily

There’s no doubt that our private health insurance system needs reform.

Insurers’ benefit payout ratios have drifted lower for years, eroding the value of private insurance to policy holders. Every year we pay more and get less.

Meanwhile, more than 500,000 high-earners have opted out of private cover altogether, while healthy young members subsidise a shrinking pool. We need to modernise the Medicare levy surcharge.

But the government isn’t tackling those challenges – instead, it’s asking retirees to pay more for their private insurance, ostensibly to cover the increasing cost of their aged-care packages.

This week the House of Representatives is due to debate legislation to strip away a higher rebate tier that has applied since the Howard era.

Read more from Monique Ryan in The New Daily

The Wages Are a Scandal: When Sex Work Pays for Journalism - Fourth Estate

What happens when sex work pays better than journalism? After being made redundant from his job in the media, investigative journalist Bension Siebert began working as a sex worker — and discovered he could earn in five hours what he made in his best-paid week as a journalist. But rather than leaving journalism behind, Siebert is now using sex work to fund his own investigative reporting. This week on Fourth Estate, Tina Quinn speaks with Siebert about journalism’s increasingly precarious economics, the investigations mainstream media organisations decide are too risky to publish, and why he believes the gap between what Australian newsrooms know and what they’re prepared to report is growing.

Listen to the Fourth Estate Podcast with Tina Quinn

Parliamentary process and open government might be more fruitful ground for Liberals than “Melongate” has been - The Point

The Liberal–National Opposition is in a difficult parliamentary position. Still smarting from the worst result in Liberal Party history, they are not a live threat as an alternative government to a Labor Party that holds almost two in every three seats.

Nor has the party distinguished itself on policy. As Amy Remeikis points out, the Coalition spent this sitting fortnight attacking the Prime Minister’s comments about women because little distinguishes Liberal and Labor on NDIS cuts, fossil fuels, gambling and defence. There’s no hay to be made from furious agreement.

But there is hope for the Opposition. A party does not have to be the alternative government to shape the political agenda. This year, independent David Pocock has elevated a gas export tax to a national debate. During the Coalition years, the Greens and independents pursued an anti-corruption commission through the Senate even though it had no hope of passing the House of Representatives. That laid the groundwork for Labor’s National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Read more in The Point

Also >

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Rachel Withers: Anthony Albanese, you need to stop doing things - Crikey

Feel free to stick this list up on your office fridge as a reminder of how quickly things can go melon-shaped.

Anthony Albanese last night offered up just the right level of non-apology for the confected outrage that was melon-gate, admitting on 7.30 that he shouldn’t have gone on the Bush Deep podcast — a point obvious to many from day dot.

“If I had my time again, which you don’t, then I wouldn’t have done that podcast,” the prime minister said when asked what he had learned. “We have a view which is trying to talk to as many people as possible, but clearly that was an error.”

Albanese has accrued a decent list of political boo-boos over his time in the Lodge, as leaders are wont to do. But it appears comedic word games are particularly troublesome for him. Just in case his team has forgotten, here is a growing list of forums Albanese should not attend if he wants to avoid adding to his roster of faux pas.

Read more from Rachel Withers for Crikey (paywall)

Do the big parties want more affordable housing or not? - Inside Story

Angus Taylor says changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount have put housing into “freefall,” blaming Labor’s “toxic taxes” for “a collapse in the housing market.” His comments followed news that house prices have fallen across most of the nation since May and ANZ forecasts that Sydney prices could drop by up to 14.5 per cent by the end of next year. In question time, the opposition leader lamented “the worst crash in more than four decades.”

Taylor’s claim that reining in tax breaks for property investors has crashed real estate values flies in the face of the long-held Coalition view that negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount had little effect on prices. In 2022, for example, a Coalition-dominated parliamentary committee chaired by then Liberal MP Jason Falinski rejected calls to rein in the concessions because it “would only have a small, once-off effect on housing prices.”

Spooked by the rise of One Nation, both the major parties also want to cut immigration to reduce demand for housing. Their disagreements lie in extent not intent.

But there are good reasons to be sceptical of a market-based fix for housing and to query assessments that Australia suffers only from a lack of supply rather than a problem of distribution too.

Read more in Inside Story

Also > Will rents rise by 30%? We don’t know, but the number of stories about rents rising definitely did - The Guardian

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]]><![CDATA[Thur Aug 20 2026 - This small town has raised questions on AUKUS that every Australian should consider]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/thur-aug-20-2026-this-small-townhttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/thur-aug-20-2026-this-small-townThu, 20 Aug 2026 06:00:20 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

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Newsletter 601: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: We are unable to send TrueNorth on Tues Aug 25 and Wed Aug 26. TrueNorth is a solo initiative. Read more about us here.

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through Amy Remeikis for The Point here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

This small town has raised questions on AUKUS that every Australian should consider: A must-read exploration of a subject not enough of us are talking about - Cheek Media

There was an immediate contradiction sitting in on the Public Inquiry into the $368 billion AUKUS agreement held at Wollongong Art Gallery.

Here we were discussing the implications of our regional area becoming home to a nuclear submarine base, in front of a backdrop of beautiful Indigenous artwork.

No one knows where the nuclear waste from the submarines will go, but what we do know is that there is a historical pattern of this burden being thrust upon Indigenous communities.

The AUKUS agreement comprises of two pillars. The first is obtaining eight nuclear-powered submarines (three of which will be pre-loved), and the second is sharing technology and information with the United Kingdom and United States.

It was revealed in secret documents that Port Kembla, a small suburb just south of Wollongong, is the ideal preference for the east coast nuclear submarine base.

However, the exact details have been hidden from us. In response, an independent public-funded inquiry was born.

Read more in Cheek Media

Also >

Amy Remeikis: Labor celebrates a couple of big wins – and doesn’t stop to ask who for - The Point

It’s not radical to say that Labor and the Coalition agree on more than they disagree on these days.

That’s neoliberalism in a nutshell – both parties are tied to protecting the market and capital. Although the Coalition, as the party more historically tied to capitalism, is flirting with what comes next more and more – leaving Labor one of the last defenders of a system that has comprehensively failed us.

The parties agreed on passing cuts to the NDIS, which they both dressed up as economic sensibility. But in reality was just a choice – a choice to make disabled, the future disabled, and their families and loved ones pay for the inconvenience of being disabled, while defence and fossil fuel spending continues unabated.

Make no mistake – it was a choice. And one that was rushed ahead of any attempt to set up supports for people who are about to find themselves with very limited choices, if any at all.

Read more from Amy Remeikis for The Point

The Swans and Our Sports Media Problem. Plus, Labor's Gambling and NDIS Sell Out and the New Book Ban - Lamestream

A police investigation into allegations of sexual assault involving Sydney Swans players has dominated the news this week, and sparked a national debate over the way the issue has been reported in the media. Os and Scott break down the story, discuss some of the appalling media coverage and talk about why sports media consistently seems to get it wrong. They also look the challenges of reporting on a rapidly evolving legal issue, how misinformation spreads, and the broader issues around sports culture in Australia. Then they discuss the pro-Israel lobby's attempts to ban a book from a Sydney library, and the related meltdown high profile pro-Israel figures are having over the Royal Commission. In Keeping Tabs: How media outlet had their comments section hijacked by racist vigilantes, and a look at Labor's deals with the Coalition on gambling ad reform and slashing the NDIS.

Listen to the LameStream Podcast

Also >

Jeffrey Loewenstein: Bondi Royal Commission. A "slippery slope to eroding our freedoms" - Michael West Media

The “insidious fallout” of the Bondi Royal Commission is upon us. Before the Commission has even reported, the “slippery slope to eroding our freedoms has begun”.

As the Royal Commission into Antisemitism grinds through its 9th and final ‘Hearing Block’, one is now able to make some assessments and judgements about the Commission, the Commissioner and the evidence presented to the Commission.

The Commission has being accused of being influenced by the usual suspects in the Jewish community and in turn the Executive Council of Australia (ECAJ) has accused the Commission as having been

“hijacked” by Palestinian/Arab community interests.

The Royal Commissioner Virginia Bell was quick to stamp on that assertion!

Read more from Jeffrey Loewenstein for Michael West Media

Also >

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A ‘shiny, dangling carrot’ lured Jesse into gambling. He says Labor’s reform won’t stop others being sucked in - The Guardian

The government says it’s stopping ‘the most toxic’ gambling company strategies. Former addicts say it will do ‘absolutely nothing’

This week, the Albanese government ignored that recommendation, instead placing limited restrictions on the marketing of inducements. The final form of the contentious bill – which passed the Senate on Wednesday night – will not include a ban on VIP managers rewarding gamblers with free gifts that disappear when their bets do.

The communications minister, Anika Wells, says the government will stop “the most toxic” form of inducements. But critics says the changes are just “window dressing”, “minor tweaks” and “piecemeal amendments”.

Murphy is also unconvinced.

“If these laws were in place at the start of my journey, I have no confidence they would have made my experience any different or any easier,” he says.

Read more in The Guardian

Also > Peta Murphy called for gambling reform three years ago. Her husband says Labor’s changes fall ‘well short’ - The Guardian

The Last Stand of the Corporate Democrats: Their reign is coming to an end - Robert Reich

Trump has allowed the CEOs of giant corporations and the titans of Wall Street to do whatever they want as long as they suck up to him. And he’s providing all sorts of corporate welfare to those who generously woo him — no-bid government contracts, exclusive licenses, tax loopholes, tariff exemptions, use of public lands, and permission to become even bigger monopolies.

Trump has thereby unveiled a truth about corporate America that for many years has been hidden behind a soothing blanket of corporate PR bullsh*t about social responsibility, corporate charity, and “trickle-down” economics.

That truth is the captains of corporate America are so rapacious that they’re willing to throw average working Americans under the bus to make billions more.

Corporate avarice under Trump has become so blatant and corporate America’s contempt for the needs of average Americans so flagrant that most Americans are now catching on.

Read more from Robert Reich

Also :

Today’s cartoon by David Rowe

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Question Time has been televised for 35 years. We tracked how it has changed, and what it means for Australian democracy - The Conversation

For around an hour each parliamentary sitting day, the prime minister and other ministers face a flurry of questions from the opposition and other members of parliament.

It is often here that debate on the issues of the day becomes most heated, and such is the interest from media and others that anyone can watch it live.

As such, Question Time serves a vital function in Australian democracy: it is a highly visible way in which, it is hoped, the government can be held to account. It is also a chance for the opposition to present itself as a viable and desirable alternative government.

But critics see it as increasingly flawed.

Read more in The Conversation

Dr Richard Denniss on the Great Australian Gas Scam - The Shot Podcast

The Australia Institute's Dr Richard Denniss speaks about his new essay "MORE FOOL ME: How the gas industry tricked Australia" and the multi-generation scam pulled on Australian citizens and politicians by the fossil fuel industry, and says the only way forward is to own up to the fact that Australians were fooled. One by one, Jo and Richard pick apart the gas companies' excuses for why they shouldn't be taxed -- and examine why our elected representatives and our media are giving voice to these corporations' talking points.

Listen to The Shot Podcast

Also >

Kos Samaras: Gen X is still driving down to The River – and finding it dry - Pearls and Irritations

Many in Generation X have reached midlife carrying mortgages, insecure work, dependent children and ageing parents. The growing anger across middle Australia did not come from nowhere.

For Generation X, the midlife reckoning has collided with a set of realities that our parents, for all the hardship they endured, never had to face. Their lives were hard, in many ways far harder than ours, but the deal underneath those lives was fundamentally different. If you worked, you could buy a house, and by the time you turned 50 that house was usually paid off or close to it. Your job, however punishing, was generally secure from one decade to the next. Your kids left home at 20 or 21 because they could actually afford to, because a rental was within reach and a first home was a realistic goal rather than a fantasy to be scrolled past on a real estate app.

We reached the same point in life and found that every one of those anchors had been quietly pulled up.

Read more from Kos Samaras for Pearls and Irritations

Also > From violence to housing to health, Australia is failing young women - Cheek Media

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If the US can’t afford to keep China out, can Australia? - Crikey

If Australia truly is in a ‘global war for talent’, interventions in the university sector — similar to those made by America — are inflicting debilitating wounds.

When the Albanese government axed a joint venture between ANU and Shandong University in China on “national security grounds”, there was consternation in the university sector.

Speaking at an annual higher education summit on Tuesday, Brian Schmidt, former vice-chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU) and Nobel Prize-winning professor of astrophysics, said since the collaborative program presented “almost no risk”, he didn’t know why the government felt it necessary. He then warned Australian universities there could be more such cancellations to come.

Read more from Wanning Sun for Crikey (paywall)

Is the Liberal Party aging out of Australian politics? - The Point

A recent discussion paper published by the Liberal Party has tried to diagnose what has gone wrong for the party, and how to reverse this downwards trend. And it would seem much of the party’s problems are demographic.

In recent years, the Liberal Party has experienced a series of large electoral defeats at state and federal levels.

Multiple state and federal leaders have come and gone in quick succession; four Liberal state/territory governments were voted out after a single term; the coalition with the National Party is the weakest it has been since 1987’s ‘Joh for Canberra’ campaign; and polls from the last few months suggest that were an election held tomorrow, One Nation could become the federal opposition.

The “liberal and conservative era” in Australia has apparently come to an end – at least according to political journalist Paul Kelly.

Beginning with Tony Abbott’s prime ministership in 2013, and ending with Labor’s return to power in 2022, this era was, according to Kelly, “a novel experiment” to “resuscitate Australian conservatism”.

Read more in The Point

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]]><![CDATA[Wed Aug 19 2026 - Gambling reform does not go nearly far enough to reduce harm]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/wed-aug-19-2026-gambling-reform-doeshttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/wed-aug-19-2026-gambling-reform-doesWed, 19 Aug 2026 06:00:07 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

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Newsletter 600: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: We are unable to send TrueNorth on Tues Aug 25 and Wed Aug 26. TrueNorth is a solo initiative. Read more about us here.

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through Amy Remeikis for The Point here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Long‑awaited gambling reform bill is an improvement, but does not go nearly far enough to reduce harm - The Conversation

The federal government has landed a deal to pass new legislation to restrict gambling advertising. The new legislation contains several important measures, but falls far short of what is needed to prevent gambling harm.

The government’s gambling reform bill was a long overdue response to the 2023 Murphy inquiry, which unearthed shocking evidence of harm and predatory practice by the online gambling industry.

Australia has historically taken a lax approach to gambling, and it shows. Gambling is everywhere: on our screens, in our pubs and clubs, and available anytime at our fingertips. And it’s harmful: one million Australians either suffer from, or live with someone suffering from, severe gambling harm. Many more lose more than they can really afford.

Gambling normalisation starts young, and advertising is a major culprit.

Read more from The Conversation

I have seen the raw grief of a family who lost a son to gambling. Labor’s stitch-up shows politics is broken - How is it that Australians can call so strongly for action on gambling advertising and the major parties fail so comprehensively to listen? - David Pocock for The Guardian

When the dealin’s done: Australians lose when the duopoly rules - Labor and the Coalition’s ‘day of deals’ left Greens, independents, anti-gambling experts and disability advocates out in the cold. Will it come back to bite them? - Rachel Withers for Crikey (paywall)

Also >

“I would perish”: The human cost of the PM’s NDIS cuts - 7am

Over six days of public hearings, Australians with a disability told parliament what losing NDIS support would mean for their independence, their families, and their everyday lives. Despite more than 4,000 submissions and calls for reforms to be paused, the government’s overhaul of the scheme passed the senate yesterday, with support from the Coalition. By tightening access and reducing some supports, the changes are forecast to save $37.8 billion over the next 4 years. But advocates warn the cuts will leave people worse off, and shift the costs onto families, hospitals and the states. Today, CEO of Women with Disabilities Australia Sophie Cusworth, on what these reforms mean for people who rely on the NDIS, and if the scheme can be made sustainable without leaving people behind.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also > Controversial NDIS bill passes Senate with ‘substantial’ amendments as Labor and Coalition strike deal - The Guardian

Pauline Hanson is targeting superannuation. Should it be easier to access your savings? - The Guardian

The superannuation system is Pauline Hanson’s latest target.

The One Nation leader has made it clear that her party backs looser rules around how Australians can access their retirement savings.

In a cost-of-living crisis, she argues it’s not right to force people to save for the future when they can’t make ends meet today.

There is evidence that many Australians are retiring with more money than they need to pay for a comfortable retirement.

Analysis from experts such as the Grattan Institute agrees that the compulsory super contributions rate of 12% is too high.

In this context, there is some merit to the argument that people are being forced to save too much for retirement, and not letting Australians use their incomes in their 30s and 40s when they need it to pay for homes and families.

So while experts do not back making it easier to pull money out of money early, “I would be a fan of reducing the super guarantee to 9% to 10%”.

“Or, if you couldn’t do that, keep 9% for preservation [only for retirement] and make 3% a general saving that could be used for other reasons.”

Read more in The Guardian

Also >

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JOHN DELMENICO: What will it take for the Men’s AFL to admit it has a culture problem? - The Shot

I’m a lifelong AFL fan, supporting the mediocre team that my under 7’s team was named after. One sad reality as a fan is that it is clear there is a major cultural issue.

Starting from the very top with the people in charge of the league, trickling down to the team management, the players, footy media and the fans. The boys club mentality of racism, homophobia and sexism thrives.

Yesterday, news broke that Sydney Swans players were questioned by police regarding an alleged sexual assault. I won’t be commenting on the allegation but I hope the woman who was brave enough to make the allegation is okay.

I want to talk about how truly f**ked the official responses and media coverage has been, and how it is our fortnightly sign of a wider problem.

Read more from John Delmenico for The Shot

Also >

Wendy Bacon: Gonski at Royal Commission as two Israel conferences loom before Bell deadline - Michael West Media

Businessman David Gonski has fronted the Royal Commission into Antisemitism as two Israel conferences land before Commission Bell reports.

Prominent businessman David Gonski gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Antisemitism yesterday in its final hearing block which is focussed on social cohesion.

Gonski is Chair of the Antisemitism Education Taskforce which is driving the implementation of the Special Envoy for Antisemitism Jillian Segal’s plan for the whole education sector.

The former head of the ‘Gonski’ review into education funding outlined the Taskforce’s plan for antisemitism education from preschool to TAFE and university and told the Royal Commission that he hoped that an antisemitic education curriculum should extend beyond the holocaust to include content about the contribution of Jewish people to Australian society including their generosity.

(He was not asked how this would sit with the contribution of other communities.)

He also said that he hoped that Universities, which will all be required to adopt definitions of antisemitism, would be allowed to choose the IHRA and Universities Australia definition.

This week a Supreme Court judge described the IHRA definition as being out of touch with reality.

Read more from Wendy Bacon for Michael West Media

Also >

Today’s cartoon by Cathy Wilcox

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through Amy Remeikis for The Point here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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Jason Clare keeps boasting that he has fixed public school funding. Tell him he’s dreaming - The Point

Jason Clare has not fixed public school funding. In the best-case scenario, he has devised a plan for whichever party forms government in two elections time to start delivering a partial solution. The greater likelihood is that the Government’s delay and inaction has further entrenched the dysfunction and inequality that bedevils Australian schooling.

When the Labor faithful gathered in Adelaide for their triennial national conference late last month, the Commonwealth Education Minister Jason Clare appeared Moses-like before them, conjuring up a sweeping vista of the promised land at which, after forty years or more in the wilderness, they had finally arrived.

The Albanese Government had fixed public school funding at long last, he proclaimed. “Something that Gough talked about. That Gonski designed. That no government has ever done. Until now.” And, Clare said, he was “bloody proud of it.”

It was just the latest in a series of increasingly fanciful statements from the Government that, with some honourable exceptions, have gone largely unchallenged.

Read more in The Point

Does Australia have a gun problem? - Full Story

New South Wales will become the first state to undertake Australia’s biggest gun buyback in 30 years in a jointly funded scheme in response to the Bondi beach terror attack. The move has been welcomed by many, but has also been met with opposition from the Coalition and One Nation who say it unfairly targets law-abiding gun owners. Rafqa Touma speaks to reporter Penry Buckley about whether the buyback will work and why the scheme has angered so many.

Listen to the Full Story Podcast

Scandals, factions and failure: The continuing collapse of the Liberal Party - New Politics

Beset by corruption inquiries, religious fanaticism, factionalism and imported culture wars, the Liberals remain determined to repeat the mistakes that drove voters away in the first place.

The Liberal Party is no longer going through a short-term and cyclical downturn – it’s facing a continuing crisis of political identity, it’s lacking organisation skills which makes it more susceptible to extremist interest groups and, most importantly, its relevance is fading within the electorate. Despite losing two consecutive federal elections – badly – it’s still unable to decide whether a turnaround in its electoral fortunes will need moving closer to the centre of mainstream voters, or going further into the right-wing ideological pipe hole that has driven them away.

Recent opinion polling has the Coalition’s primary vote hovering between 17–24 per cent, with Newspoll currently showing 18 per cent, after a record low of 17 per cent in the previous month. This compares with its 41 per cent primary vote recorded at the 2019 federal election, just over seven years ago.

Read more in New Politics

Also > The Coalition’s answer to the housing crisis is a race to the bottom - The Point

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Rick Morton: Anika Wells wanted this information to stay secret. But the FOI commissioner disagrees - Crikey

The decision against Wells, related to the $8 million Meals on Wheels scandal, tested the limits of whether ‘full and frank advice’ from civil servants is impeded by disclosures.

Then-minister for aged care Anika Wells redacted advice and “deliberative material” from her staff and public servants in a response to a freedom of information (FOI) request, which has now been rejected by the FOI commissioner.

In a case that pierces the veil of government secrecy, FOI commissioner Alice Linacre has overturned a decision made by Wells’ office in February 2025, in which it claimed documents about its response to a multimillion-dollar contract scandal in the then Department of Health, identified for potential release, were exempt from being made public under section s.47c

Read more from Rick Morton for Crikey (paywall)

How to rebuild our social democracy: Rejecting the ‘animal spirits’ with public provision - Alison Pennington

Australia has a precious window to avoid the worst of the social malaise and democratic decline seen in Britain and the United States. After decades of slicing, dicing and privatising the tools of our social democracy, this moment calls for rebuilding the economic and social conditions of a reimagined welfare state.

If government doesn’t show any appetite to address imbalances in income, wealth and power before they crystallise, weighing on living standards, the political language and symbolism of “progress” can become a lightning rod for backlash.

None of this can be done tomorrow – meaningful action takes time, patience and determination. In the meantime, it’s a gift to federal Labor that Australians level most of their blame and frustration at global corporations. A modest program to tax windfall profits amassed by banks, supermarkets and gas companies would be popular and create a solid stepping stone for an early redistributive agenda. Such a program would buy time for more ambitious action.

Read more from Alison Pennington

Also > Australia is running deficits – and leaving the bill to the kids - Ross Gittins for Pearls and Irritations

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You’re up to date for Wednesday 19th of August. See you tomorrow.

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through Amy Remeikis for The Point here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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]]><![CDATA[Tue Aug 18 2026 - How Trump’s anti-vax agenda is infecting Australia]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/tue-aug-18-2026-how-trumps-anti-vaxhttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/tue-aug-18-2026-how-trumps-anti-vaxTue, 18 Aug 2026 06:00:13 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

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Newsletter 599: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: We are unable to send TrueNorth on Tues Aug 25 and Wed Aug 26. TrueNorth is a solo initiative. Read more about us here.

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Will other states follow NSW into the national gun buy‑back scheme – and will it make any difference? - The Conversation

The gun debate in Australia has been dramatically brought back into focus with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns announcing on Sunday that they were in lockstep over a new national gun buyback scheme that is set to start on November 2.

Other states have so far refused to join the scheme, or declined to sign on to it. But Minns was firm in his commitment, saying, as a “willing partner” he would take the issue to the next election if he needed to.

But just how meaningful is it?

While the press conference attracted some media attention, the joint announcement was simply a next step, indeed a limited one, in the transition to remove more guns from Australian households in the wake of the December 2025 Bondi terror attack.

Read more in The Conversation

How Trump’s anti-vax agenda is infecting Australia - 7am

Last week Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for fewer childhood vaccines, sprouting links to autism – which have been definitively disproved by scientists and health organisations around the world. During Trump’s second term, the misinformation from the president and his health secretary, RFK Jr, has been relentless – undermining public trust in vaccines, as outbreaks of previously eliminated diseases flare up again. Today, Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney’s Infectious Diseases Institute Julie Leask on the politicisation of antivax sentiment, and the implications for Australia I

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Canavan staggeringly wrong on working holidaymakers - Independent Australia

Nationals’ Leader Matt Canavan’s recent statements about working holidaymakers are so staggeringly wrong that they could even make Donald Trump blush.

At a press conference on 13 August, Canavan said:

“...we will not be changing, will not be seeking changes to working holiday visa makers because that’s not the reason why we’ve had the surge in migration. We’ve had those circumstances in place for a long time and what we’ll be focusing on is those programs that have blown out under this government and caused us to have unbelievable level of migration that we’ve never seen before.”

Two problems with that statement:

  1. Working holidaymakers have been a major driver of the net migration boom in recent years behind students.

  2. Much of that was driven by changes to the program made by the Coalition Government.

Read more from Dr Abul Rizvi for Independent Australia

Also >

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Robodebt on Steroids. Palantir infiltrates NDIS - Michael West Media

The Government has secretly inserted Palantir into its automated decision system inside the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) exposing Australia’s most vulnerable. Claudia Weisenberger reports.

If the NDIS Amendment Bill passes this week — and it will — a computer program will have the authority to cut a disabled person’s funding. If the program gets it wrong, section 59E(3) of the Bill provides that the decision stands anyway.

There is no appeal.

What nobody has been told — and what nobody in Parliament has asked — is who built the computer, whose data it uses, and what it does with what it learns about 800,000 disabled Australians.

The answers, buried in Freedom of Information refusals and AusTender records, point toward one of the most controversial technology companies in the world.

A company whose software has helped deport immigrants in the United States, was given access to NHS patient records in the United Kingdom — a decision now being reversed — and which there are reasonable grounds to believe helped automate military targeting in Gaza.

Its CEO describes the company’s purpose as helping the West scare enemies and, on occasion, kill them.

Read more in Michael West Media

Bulldozing democracy - One Nation’s wealthiest backer wants an Australian DOGE - Inside Story

Not long ago, Gina Rinehart asked an audience at a Queensland bush summit to imitate bulldozers. She had summoned on stage the bulldozer-in-chief, her ally Pauline Hanson, whose One Nation would — she said — smash the bureaucracy and red tape strangling initiative and enterprise. Rinehart seized on the precedent of Elon Musk’s chainsawing of US bureaucracy via the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

DOGE had already been shown to have created chaos rather than efficiency, decimating service agencies, claiming savings that couldn’t be verified, generating multiple legal challenges, compromising the data of millions of people, adversely affecting the economy, sparking mass protests against public sector layoffs, and fuelling intense opposition to Musk and Trump’s agenda. Shortly after Rinehart’s vigorous advocacy, DOGE was quietly shut down. Its Australian disciples seemed oblivious.

Read more in Inside Story

The racist campaign against Cambridge University’s ‘poster child’ for diversity - Cheek Media

Over the weekend, I was reminded that if you are not a straight, able-bodied white person, every move you make, especially the bad ones, do not represent your character, but your whole community.

On the 14th of August, following weeks of constant media scrutiny, Dr Jason Arday, an author and former professor of sociology at the University of Cambridge, was found unresponsive and pronounced dead at his home.

Arday, who at 37 became Cambridge’s youngest Black professor, has, since his appointment as a professor in 2023, faced several accusations of plagiarism, as well as speculation about his claims about the brutality and violence he faced growing up, that he ran 30 marathons in 30 days and that he has subsequently raised 5.5 million pounds for charity over the last 20 years.

But in recent weeks, allegations were reignited by an article and the media piled on.

I am not here to assess whether the claims against Arday were accurate, but to unpack the campaign against him.

Read more from Varsha Vajman for Cheek Media

Also >

Today’s cartoon by Pat Hudson

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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Why rightwing critics are wrong to say the Australian super system is broken - The Guardian

Spending on aged pension will be stable for decades to come, experts argue, despite claims by Bragg and Hanson.

David Knox, a former long-serving senior partner at Mercer and one of the country’s leading actuaries, says by 2030 Australia will have the lowest aged pension cost of any OECD nation.

“With our ageing population, you would expect that [aged pension spending] cost to rise, but it’s not rising and, if anything, it’s falling,” Knox says.

“Around the world it has risen or is rising. And if we hadn’t done anything our aged pension cost would be higher than they are today.”

How much higher is too hard to say.

But to appreciate how other nations’ governments would love to have our super system, it is worth a look at the OECD’s latest “pensions at a glance” report.

It shows that average public pension spending was expected to climb from 8.8% in 2023-24 to 10% by 2050 among its member countries.

Read more in The Guardian

USS Lincoln exposes fundamental flaw at the heart of Australian defence policy - After America

If the United States government isn’t caring for its own military personnel, how could policymakers expect the US to come to Australia’s aid? On this episode of After America, Dr Emma Shortis and Angus Blackman discuss concerning reports about conditions on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, the impact of the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID, and the speculation over whether Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

Listen to the After America Podcast

How the data centre boom could add to inflation - The Point

One of the risks for higher inflation comes from the data centre boom we are now seeing. The RBA’s liaison with business has detected that data centres are hoovering up construction workers, adding to capacity constraints in the economy.

The RBA suggests that as “most activity in this sector is occurring in New South Wales and Victoria where capacity constraints are less binding than in other regions” for the moment “domestic availability of materials and contractors is generally not a significant constraint”.

So, for now, the data centre boom is not a reason for the RBA to raise interest rates because there is not a sense of it leading to a boom in wages. It is always worth remembering that the big thing the RBA fears is fewer people unemployed and more people getting higher wages.

Read more in The Point

Also > AI's Double Life - The Money Café Podcast with Alan Kohler

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Jeff Sparrow: Universities face increased scrutiny over working with certain foreign nations. Why isn’t Israel one of them? - Crikey

Under new changes, the foreign affairs minister would have expanded powers to intervene if a university collaborates with a country adversely affecting the ‘national interest’. Israel is missing from the discussion.

Currently before parliament is a suite of changes to the Foreign Relations Act.

If passed, Australian universities will face increased government scrutiny over collaborations with certain foreign nations deemed to “adversely affect the national interest” or be “inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy”. This could impact institutions in China, Iran, Russia, Belarus, Brunei, Vietnam and Laos.

But if it’s legitimate for the government to restrict academic freedom in relation to those countries, why isn’t Israel also being discussed as a point of concern?

‘A generation of students, a generation of academics’

Since 2003, the longstanding call by Palestinian scholars for an academic boycott of Israel has become increasingly urgent due to the role education has played in the Gaza war.

Read more from Jeff Sparrow for Crikey (paywall)

Australia’s home ownership rate doesn’t tell the whole story - Pearls and Irritations

Australia’s home ownership rate is 66 per cent when counted by household, but just 51 per cent when counted by person. The difference leaves millions of Australians living in an owned home without owning one themselves – and changes how we should understand Australia’s housing crisis.

Counted by house, Australian home ownership is 66 per cent. Counted by person it is 51. The gap has held at sixteen to eighteen points at every census since 2006, and close to three million adults live inside it.

Anna is 26. Last Tuesday night she filled in the Census at her parents’ kitchen table, in the house she has never managed to leave. The form asks whether the home is owned or rented. Her parents own it, so the household lands in the owners’ column. And Anna disappears.

Read more in Pearls and Irritations

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]]><![CDATA[Mon Aug 17 2026 - One Nation is a political Babadook – everywhere, nowhere and completely in charge]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/mon-aug-17-2026-one-nation-is-a-politicalhttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/mon-aug-17-2026-one-nation-is-a-politicalMon, 17 Aug 2026 06:00:23 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

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Newsletter 598: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: We are unable to send TrueNorth on Tues Aug 25 and Wed Aug 26. TrueNorth is a solo initiative. Read more about us here.

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Amy Remeikis: One Nation is a political Babadook – everywhere, nowhere and completely in charge - The New Daily

We have now entered into a political sphere where One Nation, with a whole one MP in the lower house and a rag tag conspiracy of senators, is influencing the nation’s policies.

One Nation seems to have more influence over Labor policy than the Labor caucus.

Australians, unable to get their leaders to listen to them, are now turning to a disruptor, and that disruptor has the added bonus of having advisers to the world’s Babadook mapping out their path to owning the political space.

Right now, One Nation doesn’t even need to win more seats. It’s doing just fine influencing Australia’s policy and legislation and messaging from the shadows.

In fact, if there is anything the Babadook could teach us, it’s that the closer you are to being seen, the less power you have. Facing fears, instead of kowtowing to them, might make us all a little braver.

Read more from Amy Remeikis for The New Daily

Also >

A Nepo Baby Tantrum, Census Culture Wars, and a Melon-Gate Investigation - Lamestream

Os and Scott begin by discussing the drama around Crikey's article on media nepo babies and the intense debate it sparked on Instagram, involving multiple celebrities. Next, they unpack the international incident involving Anthony Albanese, Japan's PM, two melons and a raunchy podcast, and look at the media outlets whipping up the frenzy. Then they review Kyle Sandiland's first episode of his new subscriber-only show, look at the News Corp hit pieces on Massive Attack, and break down all the misinformation and controversy around the census, including the lobbying campaigns of Christian groups. Finally, they talk through the big political issues in Parliament this week including gambling ad reform, and what it reveals about the media's influence on politics.

Listen to the Lamestream Podcast

Also > As melon-gate raged, Albanese quietly cut deals in parliament. The PM should make some noise this week | Josh Butler | The Guardian

Australia as a model of violence - Behrouz Boochani

In June 2024, I attended a conference titled ‘Camps, Carceral Imaginaries and Critical Interventions’ at Graz University in Austria alongside a variety of scholars and thinkers from across the world. We gathered to create a dialogue around prison camps and border politics, with a focus on how current border regimes impact human rights and, more broadly, political culture. At that time, the key focus was the shifting refugee policies in Europe to banish refugees to other countries: the main example was the deal to send refugees from Italy to Albania and from the UK to Rwanda.

Throughout the conference, Australia was referenced constantly. Wherever I went, I heard of the nation’s banishment of refugees to Manus Island and Nauru cited as a cruel example of the detention industry.

The detention model and industry that Australia established has been repeatedly cited as an international model and continues to be an exported industry.

Australia is not the first country to establish such a regime: in fact, Australia has learnt from the previous versions throughout modern history and developed it.

At the Graz conference, I opened my speech with the sentence, “prisons learn from prisons.” This is the reality of the current world we live in.

Read more from Behrouz Boochani

Australia’s hierarchy of grief: $131M for one inquiry, empty chairs for First Nations - Michael West Media

First Nations witnesses brought Parliament evidence of a terrorist bomb, death threats and lives disfigured by racism. Governments sent empty chairs. The media supplied silence. Canberra showed whose fear merits the machinery of state.

On 26 January, a homemade bomb packed with nails and ball bearings was thrown into a crowd of about 2,500 people at a First Nations rally in Perth. By dumb luck or mechanical failure, it did not explode.

Consider the date. A device built to kill Aboriginal people, thrown on the day the nation celebrates its own founding. Whoever built it understood the symbolism. The country pretended not to.

Read more in Michael West Media

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Wounding Victory: Nigel Farage Beats Count Binface - AIMN

Farage’s wounding victory was exactly what he deserved. Defeat would have afforded him a martyr’s exit, an unworthy dispensation. Having assailed the establishment repeatedly from outside the people’s chamber, doing arguably his greatest and most damaging work, his presence in the House of Commons has forced him to abide by standards that most displease him. The parliamentary standards investigation into his finances will continue (the announcement of its resumption was made within hours of the result), with the wheels of invigilation possibly moving to a decision by the Commons standards committee. Were it to find against Farage, he would be suspended for 10 sitting days, his fate falling to a vote in the House of Commons. This may place him and Clacton on the road to yet another by-election if the good burghers of that seat were to petition it (more than 7,978 voters – 10% of the registered total – would have to approve). Hopefully, the Count will be able to return from Sigma IX for the hysterical show.

Read more in Australian Independent Media Network (AIMN)

Is the US ready for President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?- The Guardian

“They assume that my ambition is positional. They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat. And my ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country.”

The words were delivered slowly, deliberately and with some steeliness by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her audience, crammed into the pews of Rockefeller Memorial chapel at the University of Chicago, burst into spontaneous applause. That was in May. In the three months since, the speculation around Ocasio-Cortez’s ambitions – for herself and for America – has only grown louder.

Friends and foes alike wonder if the stars are aligning for the New York congresswoman to run for US president in 2028. They point to voters raging against the machine – including the ageing Democratic party establishment – and hungry for change.

Read more in The Guardian

Also >

Today’s cartoon by Fiona Katauskas (Fiona’s final cartoon for The Guardian)

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: We are unable to send TrueNorth on Tues Aug 25 and Wed Aug 26. TrueNorth is a solo initiative. Read more about us here.

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What the census tells us about Australia losing its religion - Pearls and Irritations

From a handwritten response in 1911 to the largest single census category today, “no religion” charts a profound shift in Australian identity – shaped by secularisation, migration and changing social attitudes.

When I sat down to fill in my first Australian census in 2026, one question was a familiar one. Back home in India, “What is your religion?” was never really a question – although it is asked in the census.

But religion looks different in Australia. The first option for religious affiliation on the census is ’no religion’, before Catholic, Anglican, Islam, Hinduism, other options, and a free-text field.

It is a small design choice with a surprisingly long and, at times, politically loaded history.

Read more in Pearls and Irritations

The messy politics of a housing crisis - Full Story

From immigration to inflation, housing sits at the heart of most political debates. But political parties are struggling to come up with a coherent message - and no one has a clear plan to fix the crisis. Liberal senator and shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg last week said his plan to cut immigration is the solution - but so far, he’s fuzzy on the details. And the government wants house prices to fall, but doesn’t seem to want to take credit for it when they do. Reged Ahmad speaks to economist Saul Eslake on what really works and why politicians can’t seem to fix one of the biggest problems facing us all.

Listen to the Full Story Podcast

Also >

With NDIS changes set to pass, here’s who bears the cost of making it ‘sustainable’ - The Conversation

Legislation to tighten eligibility for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) could be be passed as early as next week, after a Labor-led Senate committee today recommended the bill be passed.

The bill, introduced in May and amended in July, aims to slow NDIS spending growth by A$37.8 billion over four years. Much of this would come from tightening access to the scheme and reducing some forms of participant funding.

Government modelling suggests around 240,000 existing participants could leave the NDIS by 2031. Another 110,000 people who might otherwise have entered would be diverted to other programs.

Throughout the Senate committee inquiry’s public hearings, there was broad agreement that the NDIS needs reform, particularly to address fraud and exploitation.

But there was intense disagreement – from participants and their families, advocates, health professionals, the Greens and independent Senator David Pocock – over who should bear the cost of making it sustainable.

So what what’s set to change? And who will be most affected?

Read more in The Conversation

Also > Government and committee will have ‘blood on their hands’ over NDIS cuts, participant says - The Point

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News Corp’s city mastheads are dying — but their worst habits endure - Crikey

The Murdoch family sensibility has fundamentally shaped what constitutes ‘news’ for many outlets. But though that focus remains, the tabloids that pioneered it are withering on the vine.

News Corp’s big-city tabloids — particularly The Daily Telegraph in Sydney and the Herald Sun in Melbourne — seem to be collapsing at precisely the wrong time: with two state Labor governments facing an election and a federal Labor government to undermine.

The Murdochs’ big-selling punchy tabloids used to provide cash flow and political clout, from which successive generations of the family have built and maintained the ship that’s carried them across the ever-expanding seas of news and information.

Read more in Crikey (paywall)

Also >

Cam Wilson: The teen social media ban let sharks build the shark nets. It’s not working so far - The ABC

Years into Australia’s quest to get teens off social media, the Albanese government is suddenly in a hurry.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last month declared it was “outrageous” that the Coalition and the Greens had voted to scrutinise proposed reforms to social media minimum age law at an inquiry.

It was oddly urgent for a policy that had been in the works for more than two years — and one that he declared a “success” a week before it even came into effect.

Now, eight months after the law was implemented, there is a clearer explanation for the government’s haste: its world-first policy for Australians aged under 16 has so far produced little visible change.

Read more from Cam Wilson for The ABC

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]]><![CDATA[Fri Aug 14 2026 - I protested against Pauline Hanson 28 years ago – now my teenager is doing the same thing]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/fri-aug-14-2026-i-protested-againsthttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/fri-aug-14-2026-i-protested-againstFri, 14 Aug 2026 06:00:55 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

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Newsletter 597: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

I protested against Pauline Hanson 28 years ago – now my teenager is doing the same thing - The Guardian

In 1998, when I was in year 11, my friends and I wagged school to protest the One Nation leader. Now my daughter has joined the school walkout.

At lunchtime on Thursday, my daughter left school, caught a bus and train into Melbourne’s CBD with her friends, and screamed her lungs out about Pauline Hanson.

I gave her permission. I could hardly say no, considering I did the same thing 28 years ago.

In 1998, I was in year 11 at Bunbury senior high school in Western Australia. Pauline Hanson was visiting our town, so I wagged school with my friends Steve, Kate and Andrea and joined a small protest outside the venue where she was speaking.

Protesting Hanson was the first of many anti-racism protests I have participated in. Once I became a mother, I took my daughter along with me, and we participated in Black Lives Matter and various Indigenous rights rallies.

My daughter is now old enough to attend without me. As she has grown-up in a multicultural suburb, racism is a tangible issue that directly impacts her friends, neighbours and family.

I just hope the teens had a safe experience, and that my future grandkids don’t have to protest Pauline Hanson too.

Read more in The Guardian

Also >

‘Getting Murdoched’: How the Murdoch media attacks its targets - 7am Podcast

For decades, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has helped shape politics and public debate, and in doing so, has often left lasting consequences for some of the people caught in its sights, from politicians, to public figures to everyday people. The consequences can be devastating. Journalists Matthew Ricketson and Andrew Dodd have a name for what happens when that attention becomes a campaign, they call it ‘getting Murdoched’. Today, co-author of their new book Getting Murdoched, Matthew Ricketson on the people who’ve found themselves on the receiving end, and the media culture that could outlast Rupert Murdoch himself.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

New laws to make tech companies pay for news will help, but there are 4 key problems - The Conversation

The government has finally tabled its News Bargaining Incentive legislation to make big tech companies pay for the Australian journalism they use on their platforms.

The government developed these laws to fix a problem with the original News Media Bargaining Code introduced under the Morrison government.

While the code generated between $200 million and $250 million a year through deals struck with Meta and Google, it allowed them to stop making deals with news companies by not carrying news on their platform.

The new laws aim to close this loophole by making social media and search companies strike deals with eligible news publishers, or pay a charge based on their Australian digital advertising revenue, which would be distributed to news organisations through the News Journalism Payment Scheme.

While setting up new revenue streams for struggling newsrooms is a welcome move, the laws themselves are far from perfect.

Read more in The Conversation

Also > Alan Sunderland: The ABC has a tradition of mocking the powerful. Now, after the Rinehart furore, it risks creating a comedy no-go zone - The Guardian

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AUKUS. The inquiry Canberra refused to hold - Michael West Media

“The AUKUS Inquiry reports on 30 October. Its demand is simple. A real parliamentary inquiry. A published threat assessment.” Andrew Brown.

Australians passed a hat around to scrutinise a $368 billion defence deal. The largest procurement in our history, and the only formal examination of it is a crowdfunded citizens’ inquiry chaired by Peter Garrett, denied a committee room and subpoena powers by both major parties.

Yet look who fronted it. A former Liberal prime minister. Two former Labor foreign ministers. A former Chief of the Defence Force, Chris Barrie, on the commission with former WA premier Carmen Lawrence. More than 500 submissions, including from former defence ministers Linda Reynolds and Christopher Pyne.

This is not the peace movement talking to itself.

It is the security establishment, unmuzzled by retirement, saying what serving officials dare not.

Read more in Michael West Media

Also >

The rise of the measles-industrial complex: Who benefits from the American right’s hostility to vaccination? - Inside Story

Trump’s campaign against vaccines won’t reduce autism but it will cause many children to suffer devastating, possibly deadly, infections diseases. Meanwhile, autism rates will rise as a result of his crusade against clean energy and in favour of dirty energy.

The question is, why is Trump doing this? To understand what is happening, we need to put Monday’s executive order in the context of the general right-wing turn against vaccines, and against science in general.

Why do I call it a “right-wing turn”? Because declining support for childhood vaccines is entirely a Republican phenomenon.

So Trump is very much taking an extremist position on vaccines. But it’s clearly a position he believes will resonate with his base.

Why is this happening? Anti-vaccine sentiment is a lot like climate change denial. In both cases, to understand the politics one must do two things. First, follow the money: look at which interest groups benefit financially from misinformation, and why those groups have power. Second, follow the culture war.

Read more in Inside Story

Also >

Today’s cartoon by Jess Harwood

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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Greg Barns: What courage looks like: David McBride walks free - Pearls and Irritations

David McBride has emerged from prison after paying an extraordinary personal price for exposing information about alleged war crimes. His case should leave Australia with more than gratitude – it should leave lasting whistleblower reform.

Ask a lawyer what courage looks like and you will often get an abstraction.

Here is a concrete one involving David McBride, a former military lawyer who leaked information to the ABC that revealed alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. In November 2023, in a courtroom in Canberra, McBride watched the argument he had spent five years preparing fail. The court would not allow him a public interest defence – in essence that he had a duty to act in the public interest to ensure serious allegations saw the light of day, including where that was in conflict with a lawful order. He would not be permitted to tell a jury why he acted.

He pleaded guilty. He went to prison and served two years and three months of an almost six-year sentence. This week he walked out. He is 62 years old.

Read more from Greg Barns for Pearls and Irritations

Louise Adler - revival of a Jewish left? - Deepthink

Louise Adler sits with Antoun Issa in a wide-ranging interview that covers the Holocaust, Zionism, the Royal Commission and her time as Edward Said's teaching assistant.

Listen to the DeepThink Podcast

Gina Sues the ABC, The Foreign Bludgers Rorting JobSeeker, & The Fugitive Property Developer - Punters Politics Podcast

This week, we break down how a Chicago-based private equity firm running Australia's JobSeeker system pocketed $3.3 billion in revenue, paid just 2.14% tax, and still found $45.9 million to hand shareholders in a year it claimed a $179 million loss, all while Labor sat on its own 2023 inquiry's findings for three years and did nothing about it. We get into how NSW's ICAC is publicly unpicking an alleged secret takeover of the state Liberal Party by a property developer who's now on the run in Beirut with a warrant out for his arrest, why Gina Reinhardt is suing the ABC over a satire sketch while nobody in the corporate media mentions the word "satire," and Konrad's new plan to start a Punters Dark Money Ultimatum to make Albo finally fear us on the gas tax. Plus: a run-in with Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy on a plane, and Andrew Charlton agrees to come on the pod to answer for himself.

Listen to Punters Politics Podcast

Factcheck: No, immigration hasn’t ‘killed the Australian dream of home ownership’ - The Point

The numbers don’t support the claim that migration has caused the housing affordability crisis.

The COVID pandemic was the biggest disruption to population growth since federation.

After the borders closed, population growth fell off a cliff, even going negative for half of 2020. This is because government COVID support was not available for visa holders. They couldn’t work and they couldn’t get support, so they left the country. Classes also went online and international students no longer had to be in Australia to learn. Most of them left as well.

But after the borders reopened, they came back.

This is the period that people dishonestly cherry pick figures from. The graph below shows the annual population growth rate. You can see it crashes during the pandemic and rebounds after. In the last year, it has resettled at the pre-COVID rate.

Read more in The Point

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Rachel Withers: Wowsermelons: Could the political class care about something that actually matters, please? - Crikey

Politicians don’t want to be puritanical ‘wowsers’ on gambling ads, apparently. But on perceived melon jokes? Outrageous!

With melon-gate, which party is the gayest, and other important topics dominating the news this week, it flew under the radar slightly. But the major parties have offered up a noteworthy reason they didn’t want to go too hard on gambling ads in their deal to pass Labor’s pissweak reforms: so they don’t come across as killjoys.

Per Nine, both leaders are said to be worried about One Nation weaponising “wowserism” — old-timey Australian slang for a puritanical wish to prevent activities like drinking or gambling — with Coalition figures saying Pauline Hanson “wanted to portray the betting crackdown as an attack on working-class culture”.

Read more from Rachel Withers for Crikey (paywall)

Also >

The Census became a target for Australia’s trust crisis - Independent Australia

The 2026 Census landed the way every census has and within days my social media feeds were full of a different kind of prophecy.

A genuine, narrow policy conversation got stripped of its caveats, welded to an unrelated data-collection night and handed back to people as a threat. And running underneath both: a push to get people ticking “Christian” on the religion question regardless of what they actually believe, on the logic that celebrating Christmas counts. It doesn’t. Japan runs a full, cheerful, thoroughly commercial Christmas season and is over 98 per cent non-Christian.

The Census doesn’t care who’s in government. It’s the same head-count Australia has been running since Federation, in a tradition older than most of the world’s religions, and it will keep happening long after this news cycle is forgotten, the way it happened in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago without anyone deciding the counting itself was the villain of the story.

Read more in Independent Australia

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You’re up to date for Friday the 14th of August. See you on Monday.

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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]]><![CDATA[Thur Aug 13 2026 - Our politics is a farce and you’re paying for the tickets]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/thur-aug-13-2026-our-politics-ishttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/thur-aug-13-2026-our-politics-isThu, 13 Aug 2026 06:00:21 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

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Newsletter 596: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through The Point LIVE with Amy Remeikis here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Ronni Salt: Our politics is a farce and you’re paying for the tickets - The Shot

In Australian politics right now, we’ve entered Saturday Night Live levels of parody. And just like SNL, the only people laughing are the players. If you add up the cost of supporting the crop of people in politics mentioned here, most of whom were paid to represent you, you might come close to over $6 million a year. Add in the cost of corruption commissions and police time spent on either bashing their own citizens or investigating histrionic allegations, and you’re getting closer to $10 million, $12 million and counting. If you’re wondering why you can’t save for a deposit for a house, or why your job stacking shelves in Woolworths isn’t getting you anywhere, why not consider a career in politics in Australia?

This is Australian politics in 2026. Trivial side-shows and grift-maxxing on a grand scale and yes, all of it is a joke. But while we keep paying for it, the joke is always on us.

Read more from Ronni Salt for The Shot

Also > We’re in a trillion-dollar, hyper-tech, capitalist hellscape. No-one’s bothered - Capitalism has transformed consumers into a feedstock for multibillion-dollar companies — and the Albanese government seems reluctant to address it at all - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)

A Nepo Baby Tantrum, Census Culture Wars, and a Melon-Gate Investigation - Lamestream

Os and Scott begin by discussing the drama around Crikey's article on media nepo babies and the intense debate it sparked on Instagram, involving multiple celebrities. Next, they unpack the international incident involving Anthony Albanese, Japan's PM, two melons and a raunchy podcast, and look at the media outlets whipping up the frenzy. Then they review Kyle Sandiland's first episode of his new subscriber-only show, look at the News Corp hit pieces on Massive Attack, and break down all the misinformation and controversy around the census, including the lobbying campaigns of Christian groups. Finally, they talk through the big political issues in Parliament this week including gambling ad reform, and what it reveals about the media's influence on politics.

Listen to the Lamestream Podcast

One Nation has long claimed to represent the ‘working class’ – and that makes it a serious threat to Labor - The Conversation

Australian politics has long afforded an almost mythical status to certain categories of voters – usually a large group that feels disenfranchised but in fact wields a lot of electoral clout. Robert Menzies, for example, spoke of the “forgotten people”, John Howard had his “battlers”, and Scott Morrison the “quiet Australians”.

Menzies initially referred to a “moral middle class” at risk of being ground between a working-class represented by organised labour and a self-sufficient upper class. Later adaptations of this myth under Howard and Morrison captured what had been traditional Labor voters in the outer suburbs. This encompassed workers who had felt left behind by Labor’s embrace of neoliberalism, and perhaps felt out of step with progressive values.

When Peter Dutton took over the Liberal leadership in 2022, he followed tradition by invoking Menzies’ “forgotten people” in Australian suburbs and regional Australia. While Dutton’s leadership ended in electoral disaster, Labor’s traditional territory is now under threat from a different party on the right – One Nation.

Read more in The Conversation

Also >

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The battle against authoritarian government begins with the separation of powers - Michael West Media

“A toddler was locked up for the first two years of her life. These are the people the ruling in NZYQ protects, not just non-citizens with criminal records. Human rights lawyer Alison Battisson on creeping totalitarianism.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke delayed a key speech to the National Press Club last week regarding immigration. The reasons given include the lack of detail in how key immigration policies will impact people practically.

There are rumours that work rights and the right to appeal negative decisions for asylum seekers will be stripped away.

This week, the Coalition announced it will engage with One Nation on legislation to exclude Australian citizens from returning to Australia who have links with ISIS. This ignores the fact that the High Court, including in a case in which I was the instructing solicitor, has already struck down such legislation as unconstitutional and the government conceded the same.

Read more in Michael West Media

Kos Samaras: Mental health is not a niche issue. It is the electorate - Pearls and Irritations

Australians are experiencing extraordinary levels of psychological distress while mental health services remain underfunded and overstretched. The political cost will be measured not just in health outcomes, but in deepening distrust of government.

We are a species that struggles to sit with itself.

Watch what people actually do, rather than what they tell pollsters. Caffeine to start the day. Alcohol to end it. Nicotine to get through it. Cannabis, benzodiazepines, antidepressants, stimulants, opioids, sleeping pills. Endless scrolling. Compulsive exercise. Gambling. Food. Almost every adult in this country is running some form of daily chemistry experiment on their own mind. We are permanently uncomfortable with our state of being, and we spend extraordinary amounts of time and money trying to alter it.

Read more from Kos Samaras for Pearls and Irritations

Air Force One: the symbol of American power and frailty- A very Trumpian deception - Nick Bryant

There have been times, however, when the plane has reminded us of American frailty. After Kennedy’s assassination in November, 1963, as Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president on the tarmac at Dallas Love Field, it became a makeshift inaugural platform. On September 11th, 2001, its pilots turned off all of the communications equipment and used cell phones to contact air traffic control and federal aviation officials because they feared Al Qaeda might target the plane. Now, Air Force One seems continually embroiled in Trumpian controversy, whether over the gifting of the new plane from a Gulf ally or the Ankara deception, which sounds like the title of a Len Deighton novel.

After its unveiling in the 1960s, the legendary Time correspondent Hugh Sidey described the new plane as “the loftiest chariot that man has yet devised.” Under Trump, it has become a flying symbol of America’s imperial decline.

Read more from Nick Bryant

Also >

Today’s cartoon by Fiona Katauskas

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through The Point LIVE with Amy Remeikis here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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“We are at a critical point in the climate crisis”: Australian scientists call for 25% gas export tax - The Point

70 of Australia’s leading scientists have signed an open letter calling on the Australian Government to implement a 25 per cent tax on gas exports.

The tax, suggested by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, could raise $17 billion annually, money scientists argue would help make Australia a scientific powerhouse again.

The Australian Academy of Science has warned Australia’s science system is going backwards, risking national capability, driving talent overseas and eroding global competitiveness.

Professor Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick from the Australian National University said “we are at critical point in the climate crisis”.

“Fossil fuels are the root cause of the literal hot mess we are in – it makes complete sense to tax them and place this money back into climate and adaptation science, so that we are far better equipped for the long road ahead,” Professor Perkins-Kirkpatrick said.

Read more in The Point

Will Albanese deliver on gambling reform? - Full Story

After allegations that some betting companies provided gamblers with drugs and sex workers as enticements to keep wagering, pressure to act on gambling reform has mounted from all sides. And this week it seems Anthony Albanese is edging closer to a deal with the Coalition to pass new restrictions on advertising and inducements. But with backbenchers and advocates calling for stronger measures than those now on the table, will the prime minister go harder? Rafqa Touma speaks to political editor Tom McIllroy about the negotiations between Albanese and Angus Taylor on the issue and whether the deal they reach will do what is needed to help those struggling with gambling addiction

Listen to the Full Story Podcast

Also >

Greg Jericho: Isn’t it amazing what a policy that actually tackles the cause of outrageous house prices can do? - The Guardian

Labor has shown what a government can do to improve housing affordability, exposing how pathetic previous attempts had been.

For the first time in 25 years, an Australian government actually did something about housing based on the idea that the only way to make houses more affordable is for house prices to fall. They stopped pretending there was another way.

For years, politicians liked to talk about how, if incomes rise faster than house prices, housing becomes more “affordable”.

But let’s cut through all the shrubbery.

When the median house price in Sydney at the end of last year was $1.56m – that’s $605,000 (63%) higher than it was in the middle of 2020 – getting income to rise a bit faster than prices was not going to do much at all.

Prices needed to fall.

Read more from Greg Jericho for The Guardian

Also >

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Everything is communist now - Crikey

Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg used a quite bonkers National Press Club address to continue his fight against the commies, who apparently are everywhere.

“What sort of peculiar capitalist country is this, in which the workers’ representatives, predominate in the upper house and, till recently, did so in the lower house as well, and yet the capitalist system is in no danger?

The Australian Labour Party does not even call itself a socialist party. Actually it is a liberal-bourgeois party, while the so-called Liberals in Australia are really conservatives.

The leaders of the Australian Labour Party are trade union officials, everywhere the most moderate and ‘capital serving’ element, and in Australia, altogether peaceable, purely liberal.”

Read more in Crikey (paywall)

Australia needs AI skills — not just more data centres - Independent Australia

Australia should invest in AI — but it must distinguish between spending money on the hype and building the capabilities that will create lasting national value, writes Paul Budde.

AUSTRALIA RISKS mistaking expenditure on AI infrastructure for a successful AI strategy. The greatest national returns may come not from building more data centres, but from investing in the people, skills and implementation capabilities needed to use AI productively.

The Australian Computer Society (ACS) says Australia needs another $13 billion a year in private investment in artificial intelligence. Its latest Digital Pulse report also warns that the technology workforce shrank by 0.3 per cent in 2025 – the first recorded decline – while another 259,000 workers may be needed by 2035.

These findings raise an important question: what kind of AI investment will produce the greatest return for Australia?

Read more from Paul Budde for Independent Australia

Also > Law is drowning in the rising tide of AI — but not in the way you think - Michael Bradley for Crikey (paywall)

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You’re up to date for Thursday the 13th of August. See you tomorrow.

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]]><![CDATA[Wed Aug 12 2026 - Six things Tony Burke should say to the National Press Club on immigration]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/wed-aug-12-2026-six-things-tony-burkehttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/wed-aug-12-2026-six-things-tony-burkeWed, 12 Aug 2026 06:00:25 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

Share TrueNorth News

Newsletter 595: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through The Point LIVE with Amy Remeikis here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Honest Government Ad | Ai Data Centres - Juice Media

The Government™ made an ad about Ai Data Centres, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative.

Watch Juice Media’s latest Honest Government Ad

Six things Tony Burke should say to the National Press Club on immigration - The Klaxon

Immigration is among the most controversial issues in politics globally, including in Australia, where it is helping fuel the rise of Pauline Hanson’s anti-immigration One Nation as a significant political force challenging the government.

Under these circumstances, the Government knows it needs to demonstrate competence on immigration policy and shore up public confidence in the migration system. Yet last week Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke postponed a major National Press Club speech on immigration because the Government’s policy was not ready.

So what should Burke say when he does address the Press Club? Assuming his objectives are to address the real problems in Australian migration management and reassure the public that the system is under control, we suggest six messages. Getting these settings right would matter beyond Australia too: many countries look to Australia as a model of effective migration management.

Read more in The Klaxon

Also > Twenty-five years after Tampa, Australia is still at sea - Pearls and Irritations

Is super a fairer way to fight inflation than interest rates? - 7am

The Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday left interest rates on hold at 4.35 per cent: a relief for those with a mortgage. But as the bank weighs up future interest rate hikes to try and combat inflation, some economists say there’s a fairer way to keep spending under wraps and spread the pain around. And the alternative could leave us all with bigger retirement nest eggs. Today, independent economist Saul Eslake on whether superannuation could be used to manage inflation, and what it all means for the future of housing.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also >

Kids are being detained in police custody, in facilities never designed for them - The Conversation

Many Australians assume that when a child is refused bail, they’re taken straight to a youth detention centre. In reality, many spend days – and sometimes weeks – in police custody before being transferred to youth detention.

Last week, an ABC investigation revealed children were held in police custody in Tasmania more than 300 times last financial year, including one child who was held for 55 hours.

Our current research suggests this issue extends far beyond Tasmania. Yet police custody remains one of the least visible and least scrutinised detention settings in Australia’s criminal legal system.

Here’s what we’ve found so far.

Read more in The Conversation

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Jeffrey Loewenstein: The Royal Commission’s blunder was in accepting the IHRA definition – DeepCut

On day one, before any evidence had been led or produced to the Royal Commission, Commissioner Virginia Bell pronounced that she was going to follow the IHRA definition of antisemitism

Bell did acknowledge that at least some parts of the definition were “contentious”.

The IHRA states:

“Antisemitism is a certain perception of

Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

One need not be a lawyer to see that this so-called definition is so wide that it is possible to drive a truck through it. It is noteworthy that the principal draftsman of the definition has expressed his concern about the “McCarthy-like” use of the definition and that it has been “weaponised” by right-wing Jews “to suppress – rather than answer – political speech”.

Read more from Jeffrey Loewenstein for DeepCut

Rex Patrick: Government approved espionage. Who approved land purchases near potential AUKUS ports? - Michael West Media

How was a Chinese Communist Party-connected Shanghai businessman allowed to purchase property within a stone’s throw of possible AUKUS nuclear sub bases in Newcastle or Wollongong? Rex Patrick seeks answers.

When media first reported that Chinese businessman Wang Yongxin, president of the Shanghai Xinyangg Chamber of Commerce, had bought significant blocks of land at Port Kembla and Newcastle Port precinct, the Australian government retreated into a cone of silence on whether the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) had examined the purchases.

When MWM tried to use freedom of information laws to pursue the answer, Defence told us they had no documents and Treasury, the department where FIRB is to be found, told us to go away. They were neither confirming nor denying whether they did anything.

Read more from Rex Patrick for Michael West Media

Also >

Today’s cartoon by Matt Golding

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through The Point LIVE with Amy Remeikis here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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Andrew Wilkie says freer parliamentary voting could help restore trust in politics - The Point

As governments around the world grapple with growing voter disillusionment and distrust, Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has called for more free votes in Parliament, arguing politicians should be able to put their constituents ahead of party loyalty.

Speaking on a webinar with the Australia Institute, the Tasmanian MP said he’d “need a magic wand” to make it happen but believed breaking away from strict party voting would lead to better decision-making in Parliament.

A free vote, sometimes referred to as a conscience vote, means members can vote according to their own beliefs, rather than taking the party’s official stance.

Mr Wilkie believed voter dissatisfaction and distrust were “near on a record high” as Australians struggle through a housing and cost-of-living crisis.

Read more in The Point

Also > Amy Remeikis says ‘civility politics’ is being weaponised to shut down debate - The Point

Left-wing terrorism, Luke Bateman's gambling testimony fallout + anatomy of a hit piece - We Used to be Journos

We examine the alleged case of left-wing terrorism announced by Australian authorities: a crime that has no suspects in custody or charges laid. We also unpack the dangers of both-sidesing an issue when the evidence and research on right-wing terrorism is far greater. Plus, the gambling industry's mates in the media take an odd swing at former NRL player and gambling addict Luke Bateman, after his bombshell Senate testimony about how the betting industry operates. And a shout-out to author Trent Dalton, who handled a profile piece-turned-hit piece in the Murdoch press with class.

Listen to We Used to be Journos

Peter Lewis: Malcolm in the middle: what can Labor learn from Turnbull’s doomed attempt to govern from the centre? - The Guardian

Ten years after my first Essential column for the Guardian, another centrist government is confronting a global bin fire in.

Iwrote my first column for Guardian Australia in August 2016, when the winds of chaos were sweeping the globe, the forces of division were finding their voice and a centrist leader named Malcolm was scrambling to hang on.

A decade provides enough space to give events real definition in the rear-view mirror while more recent events still feel like passing traffic or roadkill. So, let’s strap ourselves into the Essential DeLorean and go back to the future.

Malcolm has just narrowly survived the double-dissolution election he foolishly called, having been forced to dig into his own substantial personal wealth to sandbag what would end up a one-seat majority.

My debut column is about Pauline Hanson, who has returned to the parliament for the first time in nearly 20 years

Read more from Peter Lewis for The Guardian

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John Birmingham: When Hanson was the preferred choice for alien abductees, explaining her was simple. Now, it’s more complicated - Crikey

The rise of the orange roughie looks like the death throes of the old Australian settlement, but it’s less of a white nationalist insurgency than an institutional collapse on the centre right.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has already ruled out governing in a coalition with One Nation, which is a bit like me ruling out joining the Australian cricket team as an opening bowler. Yes, it’s technically a commitment, but not one that ever needs testing in the world of real things (and which, to be fair, would be stupidly cruel to keep asking about).

Neither Angus, nor Andy, nor any of the interchangeable white manfellows currently workshopping their serious leadership faces in the Coalition’s changing shed mirror will be governing anything.

Read more from John Birmingham for Crikey (paywall)

Angela Priestley: Women silenced: Online abuse is harming Australia’s democracy - Women’s Agenda

When Julia Gillard declared “it will be easier for the next woman” to serve as prime mininster during her farewell speech in 2013, she couldn’t have anticipated the impact of generative AI for making the online abuse of women in office far easier, cheaper and more ferocious.

But in Australia in 2026, just like it is all over the world, online abuse is all too familiar for women in public life.

Almost 90 per cent of Australian women who hold elected office or are running for office have experienced online abuse or intimidation linked to their political participation, according to a Women For Election report released on Wednesday.

WFE’s survey of 110 such women across all levels of government — with half in elected positions — highlights what should be uncomfortable reading regarding the treatment and experience of women seeking to engage in public life.

Read more from Angela Priestley for Women’s Agenda

Also > Anthony Albanese really needs to stop trying so hard to be one of the boys - Women’s Agenda

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You’re up to date for Wednesday the 12th of August. See you tomorrow.

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through The Point LIVE with Amy Remeikis here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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]]><![CDATA[Tue Aug 11 2026 - Why filling in your census form matters]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/tue-aug-11-2026-why-filling-in-yourhttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/tue-aug-11-2026-why-filling-in-yourTue, 11 Aug 2026 06:00:16 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

Share TrueNorth News

Newsletter 594: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through The Point LIVE with Amy Remeikis here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

From flushing our toilets to building new schools, this is why filling in your census form matters - The Conversation

Do you want your toilet to reliably flush, whether you’re at home or on holiday anywhere in Australia? Want to help shape decisions on where new schools get built? Or want people experiencing homelessness to get better services than they do now?

Australian households are now starting to receive instructions in their letterboxes, explaining how to complete the 2026 census.

The data collected in your census form is crucial for everything from sewage systems to hospitals, schools and more.

Here are ten things you need to know about what’s new in the census this year, how much you can be fined if you lie or ignore it, what happens to your data, and how to ask for help.

Read more in The Conversation

Also >

Where is One Nation’s money coming from? - 7am

As One Nation’s political clout rises, so too does its bank balance, courtesy of the very elites Pauline Hanson often rails against. Now an investigation by the Brisbane Times and SMH has detailed some of the places One Nation’s cash is coming from: from exclusive parties hosted at Gina Rinehart’s mansion, to movies, to merch. But perhaps even more pertinent are the contributions hidden from public view. Today, SMH Investigative Reporter Patrick Begley on the sources of One Nation’s wealth.

Listen to 7am Podcast

Analysis: The NT’s double standard on independence - NIT

There is a long-held legal maxim that justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done.

It is as relevant in 2026 as it was when Lord Chief Justice Hewart coined the phrase more than a century ago.

For Aboriginal families across the country who have lost loved ones in custody, the appearance of impartiality has too often been something demanded rather than delivered.

The Northern Territory has once again offered a stark example.

Last week, Labor MP Luke Gosling — charged with two counts of assault — had his prosecution moved from the Northern Territory to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

The Territory is small. The circles in which police, prosecutors, politicians and public officials operate can be smaller still. For one of the Territory’s two federal lower house MPs, having his prosecution assessed outside the NT is the least that should happen if there was a question about a perceived conflict of interest.

It is a sensible safeguard. Nonetheless, it raises an uncomfortable question: Why was the same principle not applied when Kumanjayi White died in police custody?

Read more in NIT

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‘Political fantasy land’: Turnbull warns Australia may never get AUKUS submarines - The Point

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has delivered a scathing critique of the AUKUS security pact, arguing anyone who believes the US will hand over its nuclear-powered submarines is living in a “political fantasy land”.

Mr Turnbull told a public inquiry into the deal that Australia is unlikely to ever see the three second-hand Virginia-class boats it has been promised.

Under the $368 billion deal, a future US president must certify that the sale of the boats “will not degrade the United States undersea capabilities”.

“In what political fantasy land is a president going to do that if they’re already short?” he said.

Australia has already handed over about US$2 billion to help expand US submarine production.

Read more in The Point

Also >

Laura Tingle: Inside Britain’s battle for the grievance vote - The ABC

Grievance is having a political moment.

In Australia, a tide of voter grievance has delivered Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party to a position that threatens both the federal Coalition and Labor.

In the United Kingdom, the impact of grievance politics is being played out in even more surprising ways.

It is not just the rise of Britain’s Hanson-like figure Nigel Farage, and his right-wing populist Reform movement, that has been trying to capture the grievance beast.

Grievance also explains the meteoric rise of the UK’s new soft-left prime minister Andy Burnham, who identifies as a socialist (albeit a moderate one). Yet in a matter of months, Burnham has catapulted from mayor of Greater Manchester to resident of 10 Downing Street.

Read more in The ABC

Also > Count Binface is no joke – fringe candidates can change politics - Pearls and Irritations

Today’s cartoon by First Dog on the Moon

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The Segal State, Part 2: the mask, the children, the money and the answer - Michael West Media

Part 1 traced how Anthony Albanese built an unelected censorship apparatus for Jillian Segal without a vote, a bill or a debate, while the Coalition demanded more. It ended with a question polite Australia refuses to ask. Today, the answer. Andrew Brown reports.

The architecture would be scandal enough on paper. It did not stay there. Segal took an oath at a Royal Commission.

Under oath, the mask came off

Segal conceded regulators had found little inaccuracy in ABC and SBS reporting on Israel and Gaza. The journalism was true. Her objection was that the truth made Israel look bad. Her remedy was another oversight body and more positive stories about the amazing startup nation.

A taxpayer funded official told a Royal Commission, under oath, that accurate reporting is a problem the state should fix with pressure for flattering coverage.

Show the starving children of Gaza if you insist, then cut to a cheerful Israeli tech segment for balance. There are countries where officials talk like that. None of them are democracies. And the Prime Minister kept her in office anyway.

Read more in Michael West Media

International law is under attack. Australia can stand up for justice - After America

The Australian government constantly talks up the international rules-based order – but its willingness to uphold the principles that underpin it is inconsistent at best. Human rights lawyer Chris Sidoti joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry’s findings of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the Trump administration’s attacks on the institutions of international law, and how the Australian government could act in support of a genuinely rules-based international system.

Listen to the After America Podcast with Dr Emma Shortis

Also >

If you want gender equality, legislate for it: What five years of Victorian data tells us - Women’s Agenda

When governments lead with intention, commit to good governance, and translate that commitment into law and policy, it can have pivotal consequences for society.

Ensuring good governance across the Victorian Public Sector is central to driving better services and outcomes for Victorians. Workplaces are vehicles for change, and this is exactly what the Victorian Government legislated for when it introduced the Gender Equality Act 2020, a law that requires public sector organisations to stop treating gender equality as an aspiration and start treating it as a legal obligation.

Part of the Act requires around 300 public sector organisations from libraries to universities to local councils, and everything from hospitals to water authorities in between, to report to the Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector on a set of workplace gender equality indicators.

Read more in Women’s Agenda

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Rick Morton: The NDIA wants disabled people to test a new tool. It won’t say if their personal data will train a cost-cutting algorithm - Crikey

The NDIS agency is encouraging participants to take part in a new assessment tool, but avoided questions on whether personal data will train a budget algorithm designed to slash costs.

The agency in charge of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is encouraging disabled people to take part in “experience testing” of a new needs assessment tool, without clearly disclosing that their personal data may be used to train an algorithm that cuts their funding.

A spokesperson for the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) declined to respond to questions from Crikey about whether the data will train a budget algorithm designed to slash NDIS costs, but said in a statement that “participants can withdraw their consent at any time”.

Read more from Rick Morton for Crikey (paywall)

How Australia’s electoral laws leave room for political trolling - Pearls and Irritations

A pro-Israeli YouTuber has registered a ‘Free Palestine’ party while opposing Palestinian liberation, exposing how little Australian electoral law does to police misleading political branding.

A ‘Free Palestine’ party is registered to contest the Victorian state election in November. The conflict in the Middle East is notoriously complex. But what could be simpler than a single-issue political cause, with such a direct slogan as ‘Free Palestine’?

But here’s the catch. The party was founded by an Israeli-Australian and pro-Israeli YouTuber, Avraham “Avi” Yemini, who wants Palestine to stay under Israeli control. He says he hopes to dupe left-wing voters.

A movement that sincerely wants Palestinian liberation was affronted by Yemini’s provocation. It tried to register itself as the ‘Free Palestine Party’, but the Victorian Electoral Commission had to knock it back, because Yemini bagged the name first and the names are essentially the same.

Aren’t there laws to regulate party names? How can something as serious as a ballot paper be the site for such trolling?

Read more in Pearls and Irritations

Also > Branch stacking isn’t new, but this level of institutional decay is - Crikey (paywall)

SUPPORT OUR PRECIOUS DEMOCRACY THROUGH DEMOCRACY WALKS T-SHIRTS.

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You’re up to date for Tuesday the 11th of August. See you tomorrow.

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through The Point LIVE with Amy Remeikis here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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]]><![CDATA[Mon Aug 10 2026 - Neoliberalism has destroyed our social fabric in the name of profits]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/mon-aug-10-2026-neoliberalism-hashttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/mon-aug-10-2026-neoliberalism-hasMon, 10 Aug 2026 06:01:34 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

Share TrueNorth News

Newsletter 593: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through The Point LIVE with Amy Remeikis here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Greg Jericho: Neoliberalism has destroyed our social fabric in the name of profits – DeepCut

Last month the UK parliament passed legislation to nationalise British Steel. It ends nearly 40 years since it was privatised in 1988, and marks just yet one more failure of the private sector to deliver for the public. It should be the start of many more such nationalisations in the UK and Australia.

In his 1996 State of the Union address, Bill Clinton’s proclamation that “the era of big government is over” was a major stamp of approval of the neoliberalism that had taken over the body politic like a cancer in the UK, US and Australia.

He – the first (but not last) boomer president – bought into the swindle that sought to tear down what had existed post-WWII. He was but one of many in a generation who grew up with the benefits of the social contract but with little understanding of its worth.

Read more from Greg Jericho for DeepCut

Also >

“Pay $10,000, that gets you dinner”: Sean Kelly on how power is shaping politics - 7am Podcast

In Australian politics, access can be bought, factions can operate beyond public view, and conduct can be deeply troubling without ever meeting the definition of corruption. None of it is especially new, and maybe that’s the problem. Meanwhile, people are becoming more disconnected from the institutions that shape their lives, and less convinced that those institutions are working in their interests. Today, columnist for The Age and SMH Sean Kelly, on the money, secrecy and private power shaping our politics, and what happens when voters stop trusting the system itself.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also > The continuing politics of evasion - New Politics

Kos Samaras: Frustration is Not Loyalty: The number is not the story - Redbridge

A poll is a photograph. It captures a moment. It tells you nothing about what created that picture and what may change in the weeks and months.

Yet much of the reporting on Australian polling treats the photograph as the film. A party sits on 30 per cent, so 30 per cent becomes its destiny. Headlines are written and seat counts are extrapolated.

One Nation’s current position is the best example of why this is false economy.

Averaged across published polls, One Nation sits at roughly 30 per cent of the national primary vote. Reported on its own, that number reads as super strength. A party that spent two decades on the fringe now polling ahead of the Coalition. A historic realignment, locked in.

Some of it is real. But a large share of that 30 per cent is not a rock solid vote or conviction. It is a mood.

Read more from Kos Samaras for Redbridge

Also >

Abul Rizvi: Migration targets need more than thought bubbles - Pearls and Irritations

Australia’s migration debate needs clear targets, credible delivery plans and honest discussion of the consequences – not caps that cannot work or promises that ignore visa backlogs.

The Labor government is belatedly expected to release a plan to get net migration down to the 225,000 the prime minister has promised. The Coalition continues to issue thought bubbles that may be good politics but make little policy or administrative sense. One Nation changes its policy position every week as the media gradually asks difficult questions. How should Australians make any sense of this?

It’s best to start with the questions Australians should ask each of the parties.

  1. What is your long-term net migration target and why is that the most sensible?

  2. How do you propose to deliver that target given net migration is currently running at around 300,000 and we have a stock of around 3 million temporary entrants in Australia putting unsustainable pressure on permanent migration?

  3. What are the consequences of delivering that target and how will the transition be managed?

Read more from Abul Rizvi for Pearls and Irritations

Also >

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The Segal State: the office Australia never voted for - Michael West Media

Jillian Segal holds power over what Australians may say, teach, report and believe. No election gave it to her. No Parliament ratified it. Nothing like her office has existed in the federation. Labor built it. The Coalition wants it bigger. Nobody asked you. Andrew Brown – The Segal State, Part One.

Remember the referendum in which Australians voted to create a Voice to Parliament for Israel?

You don’t. It never happened. We got one anyway.

In 2023, 60.06 per cent of Australians rejected a constitutionally recognised Voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A body that could only make representations, only on matters concerning the people whose ancestors have been here sixty thousand years.

Too much, the No campaign shrieked. Division. Privilege. Special treatment.

Read more in Michael West Media

US Military Bases in Australia: The Cost to People and Planet - The Australian Independent Media Network (AIMN)

How US military bases in Australia support destructive wars, damage the environment and draw us closer to conflict with China.

The United States presents its worldwide military presence as a force for peace, freedom and international security. Australian governments repeat this message so consistently that the alliance is rarely subjected to serious public scrutiny.

Yet military power should be judged by its consequences, not its slogans.

US-led wars have contributed to millions of deaths, displaced entire populations and destroyed hospitals, water systems, electricity networks and livelihoods. Military operations have poisoned land and water, consumed immense quantities of fossil fuel and produced greenhouse emissions comparable with those of entire countries.

Read more in AIMN

“WE WANT OUR LAND BACK” - Declassified Aus

Large community protests at the US’s Pine Gap spy base in Central Australia place the Australia-US military alliance under intense scrutiny.

On a bright Monday morning in July, Arrernte elder Felicity Hayes walks hand-in-hand with three generations of her family, on the road to the American satellite spy base at Pine Gap in Central Australia.

The Arrernte Apmereke-artweye traditional custodians – backed by hundreds of protestors – are calling for their land to be handed back to them.

Read more in Declassified Aus

Today’s cartoon by David Rowe

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - through The Point LIVE with Amy Remeikis here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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Amy Remeikis: Appeasement of authoritarian voices dooms us to repeating a disastrous history - The New Daily

It seems no matter how much we know about history, we are doomed to repeat it.

The false equivalence between people who do not care about equal human dignity – and in fact seek dominion over others depending on their identity or beliefs – and those who push back against that as being ‘equally radical’ is civility brain rot.

The ‘both sides are wrong’ so let’s just call this complicated and take the neutral road is destroying us.

If the media and political classes don’t report what is happening in full context, or allow themselves to be used by vested interests, the public they are supposed to serve is kept in the dark.

Eventually it all becomes too big to ignore and people no longer know who, or what to trust. Capitulation to these forces costs us all.

Read more from Amy Remeikis for The New Daily

Also >

How Two Scandals Could Change the ABC Forever - Lamestream

Os and Scott dive into the two scandals, which have let ABC boss Hugh Marks make radical changes to the ABC. First, they discuss the apology he issued to Gina Rinehart over a joke on Race Around the World. Now, he says he is going to change the rules for what jokes can be broadcast on the ABC. Then, they talk about the departure of the boss of investigative journalism at ABC News, Jo Puccini, and how a generational clear out of news leaders could have dire consequences for investigative journalism. Finally, the Labor government is set to unveil its new immigration policy, after the announcement was delayed last week amid reports of infighting. Does it show One Nation is already having an influence on Australian politics, well before a federal election is in sight?

Listen to Lamestream

Also >

Zoe Daniel: Australian families are losing loved ones to gambling. The industry’s ‘I know nothing’ defence beggars belief - The Guardian

Australians are the biggest gambling losers in the world. Labor’s feeble ‘reforms’ aren’t close to good enough.

As federal parliament prepares to debate the government’s gambling “reforms”, the nexus between high-earning sportsmen and the gambling companies that are sponsoring their sports and then preying on their wages should also be homed in on.

Luke Bateman, former NRL player and reformed problem gambler, told the inquiry he attended a private Gold Coast event hosted by a gambling company at which senior figures took illicit drugs with clients.

He rightly pointed out that, at age 23, he was a vulnerable young man. He was also part of the 18-24 cohort that is the fastest growing problem gambling group in the country.

Read more from Zoe Daniel for The Guardian

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Support is collapsing for the Suburban Rail Loop debacle. Albanese is the last fool standing - Crikey

The federal government remains committed to spending billions of dollars on the Suburban Rail Loop disaster in Melbourne. It’s the only one remaining enthusiastic about what has become a corruption magnet.

Right from the start, the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) project has been a dumpster fire.

Those present at its birth — then-Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, then-transport minister Jacinta Allan, disgraced and discredited consultants PwC (headed at that time by Luke “dick pic” Sayers) and their colleagues in shame at KPMG — read like a roll-call of smug peddlers of bad policy and non-accountability. The then-Victorian ombudsman Deborah Glass in 2023 described the development of the SRL as “at odds with core aspects of the Westminster tradition” characterised by “a reliance on consultants and unusually heavy secrecy [that] prevented key public sector input”.

Read more from Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)

The NDIS debate has reached a point where Parliament needs to stop and listen - The Point

This week, as Senate returns from the winter break, it will take a vote that will change the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in ways that will be felt by hundreds of thousands of Australians.

The government wants its NDIS reform bill passed. It says the changes are necessary to put the scheme on a sustainable footing, bring down its rapidly growing costs, tighten eligibility, improve the way people’s support needs are assessed and crack down on fraud and poor practice.

Few people would argue with the need to make sure the NDIS is sustainable. There is widespread agreement that rorting and exploitation need to be dealt with, and that a scheme this important cannot continue to grow indefinitely without reform.

But there is a very big difference between agreeing that the NDIS needs to change and agreeing with what is now being proposed.

That difference has been impossible to miss during the Senate inquiry.

Read more in The Point

Also > NDIS cuts face mounting opposition as Australian Human Rights Commission calls for a pause - The Point

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]]><![CDATA[Fri Aug 7 2026 - What three million online posts reveal about anti-First Nations hate in Australia]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/fri-aug-7-2026-what-three-millionhttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/fri-aug-7-2026-what-three-millionFri, 07 Aug 2026 06:00:38 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

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Newsletter 592: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

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What three million online posts reveal about anti-First Nations hate in Australia - The Conversation

A federal parliamentary inquiry is currently asking a difficult question: what is driving racism, hate and violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and what role does the internet play?

The inquiry follows several violent incidents, including the attack on Camp Sovereignty in Melbourne in August 2025 (and importantly, a new attack on August 2 2026), and the alleged attempted bombing of an Invasion Day rally in Perth.

At public hearings around the country, First Nations people and organisations have described racism in workplaces, schools, public institutions and online. They have also warned racist abuse is becoming more open, more organised and easier to spread.

New research helps explain the patterns behind those experiences. By understanding how this online hate works, we can better stop it.

Read more in The Conversation

Our job system is broken: Are private providers to blame? - 7am

Almost 30 years ago the Howard government shut down Australia’s public employment service and privatised the system that helps unemployed people find work. Since then, repeated inquiries have found the system is failing the people who need it, while the companies paid to run it rake in huge profits. Now, the Albanese government has admitted the system isn’t working and promised its biggest overhaul in decades. But Labor says these private providers will still remain part of the system, even as a new report has followed the billions of dollars flowing through the industry Today, ABC business and economics reporter Gareth Hutchens, on how helping unemployed Australians became a massive money spinner, and whether Labor can fix the system while leaving private companies at its centre.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Alex McKinnon: The case for boycotting the Daily Telegraph - Cheek Media

The Tele is one of Sydney’s big two newspapers, the other being the Sydney Morning Herald. On the one hand, the Tele calls itself a champion of Sydney’s west. On the other, it’s built a business model based around vilifying, targeting and demonising the people who live here.

There are genuinely too many examples to list. Tele columnists insinuate that the government is importing Indian migrants to harvest votes and claim that “multiculturalism is diluting our national heritage”. The paper trumpets its support for Israel, routinely accusing people who oppose the ongoing genocide in Palestine of antisemitism – even blaming the Bondi terror attack on the pro-Palestine movement. Migrants are to blame for the housing crisis, refugees are forever “flooding” in, and Donald Trump’s “a stand-up guy for Western values”.

This has been going on for decades.

The Tele is not alone in vilifying and humiliating ethnic and religious minorities for profit. The Herald Sun does the same thing in Melbourne. The Courier-Mail does it in Brisbane. The Australian and News24 (which was Sky News until a rebranding last week) do it all over the country. News Corp, the gargantuan media empire which owns them all, does it all over the world, including through FOX News in the United States.

These outlets can feel invincible, but they’re surprisingly vulnerable.

Read more from Alex McKinnon for Cheek Media

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Tim Dunlop: Restitching democracy: Unblocking the capillaries of power - The Future of Everything

The tragedy of the Australian moment is that after the 2022 election, a broadly progressive coalition had come into existence despite itself and there was a opportunity for real change. Instead of recognising the opportunity—or rather, because all their incentives worked in the opposite direction—the major parties doubled down on their own survival. The Coalition imploded in a fit of culture-war- driven factionalism. Labor capitalised, consolidating their position within this hollowed-out structure, as their actual support remained a mile wide and an inch deep.

In other words, the logic of party politics usurped any commitment to genuine, inclusive reform and the parties continued on their merry way, as Jäger describes, becoming “para-state vessels or vehicles for the donor class, no longer pretending to fulfil their traditional role of popular representation.”

Such a majority as Labor currently commands does not equal genuine, lasting support, and popular discontent has only increased.

Read more from Tim Dunlop for The Future of Everything

Also >

Australians view China more favourably than US, poll shows - DeepCut

More Australians are souring on the US and turning to China amid endless wars and growing global instability.

A recent Pew Research poll, released last month, showed that for the first time, more Australians view China favourably than the US.

Looking closer, we can see the big shift started between Pew’s Spring 2023 and 2024 polls (northern hemisphere), when favourable views of the US fell from 52 per cent of Australians to 40 per cent. It was the year Israel began its genocide in Gaza with full support from the Biden administration, prompting mass protests in Australia.

Read more in DeepCut

Today’s cartoon by Matt Golding

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Can Australia make housing affordable while avoiding a major market crash? We may soon find out - The Guardian

Politicians’ fever dreams of ‘sustainable price increases’ – where values keep rising but by less than wages – could happen.

The Reserve Bank has hiked interest rates and the property market is in retreat. So far, so normal.

Or is it?

There is a sense that this year’s fall in home prices feels different from previous episodes. The data tells another story.

Over the past four decades there have been seven property market downturns of varying length and depth, according to analysis put together by Shane Oliver, AMP’s chief economist.

They are often triggered by interest rate hikes, which make home loans more expensive, but they also occur during crises and policy changes.

Read more in The Guardian

The Indoctrination of Australia’s Classrooms - New Politics

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism has expanded into a wider debate about Australian education, free speech and control of the national curriculum. Jillian Segal’s proposed antisemitism programs – from early childhood through schools and universities – raise questions about whether combating prejudice could blur the distinction between genuine antisemitism and legitimate criticism of Zionism, Israeli government policy, occupation, apartheid and alleged war crimes. With the controversial IHRA definition at the centre of this debate, can Australia protect Jewish students while preserving critical thinking, academic freedom and open discussion of Israel and Palestine – or will classrooms become the next battleground in the culture wars?

Listen to the New Politics Podcast

‘No one is left to come to anyone’s aid’: Former emergency chiefs warn of a new era of bushfire risk - The Point

Some of Australia’s former fire and emergency chiefs have issued a dire warning as wildfires burn across Europe, North America, and Africa, urging the Albanese government to stop approving fossil fuel projects to rapidly reduce emissions.

Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) said countries that hadn’t been considered fire-prone in the past, such as Canada, Norway and the UK, are now dealing with regular emergencies, as traditional fire seasons become a “thing of the past”.

“I’ve spent over 50 years fighting fires, and I’ve watched this threat change beyond recognition,” said former Commissioner of Fire & Rescue NSW Greg Mullins.

“The fire seasons start earlier, burn hotter and run longer, because climate pollution from coal, oil and gas is heating the planet.”

Read more in The Point

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What a top secret navy officer case says about the NACC and Defence’s ‘cosy’ relationship - Crikey

Defence initially referred to the NACC a case involving a former ‘star-ranked’ navy officer. The NACC chose to send it back to Defence to investigate itself instead — and not for the first time.

A former “star-ranked” officer of the Royal Australian Navy is facing a court-martial in September on eight charges relating to reported “lucrative Defence contracts” for work at the Henderson Shipyard near Perth, which the government has invested $12 billion in to prepare for AUKUS purposes.

The ADF’s chief judge advocate, Major General Michael Cowen KC, is hearing the case and has suppressed all details thus far, including the identity of the accused former officer.

Several elements of the case have drawn attention from defence commentators, who have argued that it appears as if Defence leadership and ministers are trying to “bury” the case from public view, and that the case should take place in an open civil court.

Read more in Crikey (paywall)

Also >

The ABC’s intellectual and moral decline comes at the worst possible time - The Shot

Of late, the ABC has been altering the way it sees the world around it. Bound by a national charter, but modified from within after years of ideological, technical, and operational transfer, the organisation is failing in its duty to inform Australians. This is occurring at a time of great uncertainty, when it is needed to function healthily, truthfully, the most.

In the process of remodelling the national broadcaster, those responsible have flogged the essence of the ABC. They now flog partial stories Australians need to hear in full, and flog the narratives of the elite and the dangerous at the expense of the truth. Whether it is a gotcha interview on 7.30, the omission of vital public interest information, or a corporate decree that silences staff inside the building itself, the ABC has fallen dramatically and may never get up again.

The abdication of the ABC away from the people and into the arms of the narratives of power is a tragedy for Australia during such consequential times. For decades the ABC acted as a guardrail, ignored the haters, and fearlessly drove the standard of journalism in Australia. Now, it contributes to the mess, sitting in the pig-sty with the commercial media, so much so it’s hard to tell which is which, such is the stench.

Read more from Joel Jenkins for The Shot

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You’re up to date for Friday the 7th of August. See you on Monday.

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]]><![CDATA[Thur Aug 6 2026 - Voters are not abandoning democracy – they are waiting for it to work]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/thur-aug-6-2026-voters-are-not-abandoninghttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/thur-aug-6-2026-voters-are-not-abandoningThu, 06 Aug 2026 06:00:20 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

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Newsletter 591: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

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Voters are not abandoning democracy – they are waiting for it to work - Pearls and Irritations

Australians are not tuning out of democracy; they are losing faith in a political system that produces constant conflict but too little capacity to solve the problems it contests.

Australians have not stopped paying attention to politics. They have begun to doubt that politics is paying attention to them.

Parliament remains intensely active. Governments announce, oppositions attack, inquiries investigate and commentators pronounce. Yet many of the problems Australians most want their governments to address remain stubbornly unresolved.

Housing becomes less affordable. Public schools absorb growing disadvantage. Essential services struggle for staff. Climate policy advances and retreats. These problems are not ignored. They are discussed constantly. But discussion has become inseparable from a contest in which each problem is also an opportunity to expose, embarrass or defeat an opponent.

Australia now produces an extraordinary amount of political activity without a corresponding sense of political progress.

Read more in Pearls and Irritations

Drama at the Royal Commission, Media vs Big Tech, and One Nation Blacklists Journos - Lamestream

Os and Scott break down the extraordinary accusations levelled against the Royal Commission by News Corp and and explain why the inquiry has become the centre of growing political and media controversy. They then turn to One Nation's increasingly aggressive crack down on press freedom and discuss what journalists can, and should, do to fight back. Later, they look at the political battle pitting big tech companies against Australia's media giants, and why hundreds of millions of dollars and plenty of jobs are at stake. In Keeping Tabs: The left-wing politician who went in to for bat for Gina Rinehart, and the NRL attempts to re-invent the concept of media regulation.

Listen the the Lamesteam Podcast

Anthony Klan: Sham pro-Hanson “news” pages flood social media – as One Nation bans actual news - The Klaxon

Networks of sham “news” pages on social media are being used to spread vast amounts of far-right pro-Pauline Hanson propaganda — as Hanson bans actual media outlets from her events.

Facebook pages with titles including “Breaking News: Australia”, “Australia News” and “Australia News Zone” are flooding social media with the material, investigations show.

The fake “news” pages each have thousands of “members”, and carry no political disclosures.

On Monday Hanson banned actual media outlets The Age, The Guardian and the ABC from her Melbourne press conference to announce the party’s Victorian candidates.

Read more from Anthony Klan for The Klaxon

Thinking aloud about how our press galleries can fight back against Pauline’s media bans - Margo Kingston

If voters are so pissed off with the major parties they ask Pauline Hanson to upend the table so be it. The media’s job is to do what they can before the election to fully inform their various audiences about her Party, what it stands for, its policies and the candidates it chooses.

And to do that, the National and State political media must be free to ask questions she doesn’t want to answer and write stories she doesn’t want voters to know.

Pauline’s anti-media outbursts and ever expanding media bans are based, it seems to me, on true stories about her party she doesn’t want made public (check out Guardian reporter Sarah Martin’s archive) and unremarkable conclusions from her statements (for example her wish that Australia be a monoculture like Japan, where more than 97% of the population are ethnic Japanese).

Read more from Margo Kingston

Also >

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George Monbiot: Murderous heat, an endangered food supply and no net zero: this is the life the radical right wants you to have - The Guardian

As climate disaster stares us in the face, the radical right says ‘Embrace the Mediterranean life’. Embrace death, more like it.

Can’t you leftists understand? Mass death is good for you. Reject the woke love of life! Welcome civilisational collapse! Watch it all burn, then dance in the ashes! This, roughly speaking, is how the dismissal of climate action is now being justified: the argument has shifted from science denial to outright nihilism.

The new incendiary spirit is exemplified by that serial arsonist Allister Heath, editor of the Sunday Telegraph. In a column in the Daily Telegraph last week, originally titled “Britain can’t stop climate change. Scrap net zero and embrace Mediterranean life”, he argued that “climate change is real” but “the war against global warming has been lost”.

This is a classic progression among those who seek to prevent a shift away from fossil fuels: first deny the problem, as the Daily and Sunday Telegraph have done for many years, then accept the problem but claim it’s now too late to act.

Read more from George Monbiot for The Guardian

Also >

Michael Pascoe: America-envy. The pet shop galahs of economic commentary - Michael West Media

The Great Australian Whinge is alive and well in our market and economic commentary. America is just so much better, the likely suspects regularly tell us. Michael Pascoe reckons they are selectively blind.

Wall Street has performed so much better than the ASX, American productivity growth is vastly superior to Australia’s, American GDP growth shames us, nobody would want to invest here, may the last entrepreneur relocating to Singapore please turn off the lights, and it’s all Labor’s fault.

Or so our petshop galahs increasingly screech. “We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan and much MSM commentary and guest opinion pieces in the national dailies.

The question such commentary poses is whether it is wilfully ignorant or just selectively blind.

Yes, lies, damned lies and statistics; there are measures by which the US shines brightly, and Australia is dull, but the standard partisan whinge ignores the ugly facts that add up to a sane person preferring the Australian economy to the American.

Read more from Michael Pascoe for Michael West Media

Today’s cartoon by Cathy Wilcox

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Greg Jericho: The RBA says rate rises don’t really increase living costs. But the data is clear – they very much do - The Guardian

In this year’s June quarter,the cost of living for working households rose a sharp 1.5%, driven overwhelmingly by higher mortgage payments. This is despite the Reserve Bank suggesting that interest rate rises are “not really” an increase in the cost of living.

Economics and finance is purposefully confusing. Those in the know are pretty happy for you to be ignorant so they can carry on their operation without much fuss. The RBA and a few economists have been rather bemused by the results of an RBA survey showing that 25% of respondents “assessed correctly that higher interest rates would ultimately lead to lower inflation, while more than half indicated that higher interest rates would lead to higher inflation”.

The “correctly” is doing a bit of heavy lifting; more accurately the RBA hopes that higher interest rates will lead to lower inflation – and sometimes not even that.

Read more from Greg Jericho for The Guardian

Alan Jones on trial: What we've learned so far - 7am

Alan Jones is used to attracting attention. But not like this. At 85, the once-powerful shock jock who for decades acted as judge, jury and executioner in the court of public opinion, is now the one on trial. Jones is accused of historical offences involving the indecent assault and sexual touching of teenagers and young men – claims he’s always denied. Now, a judge will decide, with the trial slated to run over the next four months. Today, National Affairs Editor at Ten News, Hugh Riminton on how the first few days of the Alan Jones trial played out in court, and what comes next.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Kos Samaras: Victorian Labor’s collapse isn’t about debt. It’s about 2020 - Pearls and Irritations

Victorian Labor’s collapse is not only about debt, crime or infrastructure blowouts, but a delayed reckoning from communities that felt broken by lockdowns and ignored by the recovery.

They broke us, our kids’ mental health, and went back to their high vis vest.

That is how one participant in a recent RedBridge focus group described the Victorian government. She was not asked about the pandemic. She was asked about the state she lives in.

It is worth sitting with the sentence, because it contains an entire theory of what went wrong. There is her injury and there is a second injury done to her children. A set of injuries that are a manifestation of grief turning into resentment, which is the return to normal by a government that decided the recovery would be built out of concrete and not by wrapping their arms around a bruised community.

Read more from Kos Samaras for Pearls and Irritations

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The US is the biggest benefactor from $140bn in Australian Defence contracts - Crikey

Crikey analysis shows that America has collected one in every three dollars spent by Defence on large contracts between 2022 and 2026. But this trend is starting to change.

American corporations and the US government have been the biggest beneficiaries of Australia’s major defence spending since 2022, collecting one in three taxpayer dollars spent on major contracts, Defence Department information shows.

Crikey has analysed more than 2,000 Defence contracts worth more than $5 million each since the start of the 2022-23 financial year, as listed on the government website AusTender. Together, they total just over $140 billion in contracts paid out to corporations, other governments, Commonwealth agencies, agencies within Defence itself, banks, government business enterprises and state government bodies.

Read more from Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)

We can do better for our forests than the INFM method - The Point

A statement by Bob Debus, Chair of Wilderness Australia (formerly the Colong Foundation for Wilderness), on the new carbon offset method called the Improved Native Forest Management (INFM) method that allows State Governments to earn carbon credit units under the ACCU Scheme.

This level of uncertainty would obviously be unacceptable for a major project in any other policy domain. On the other hand, organisations like Frontier Economics have shown us that the cost of a fair transition to 100% plantation forestry in NSW is within the ordinary parameters of government spending now.

Nevertheless, a small number of organisations, including the NSW National Parks Association and the NSW Nature Conservation Council, have accepted the uncertain deal on the table and recently taken up the Government’s role of advocacy for the INFM method .

A preemptive buckle instead of action to hold the line for nature and climate change abatement.

Leaders of the environment movement from another time would never have let me off so lightly.

Read more in The Point

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You’re up to date for Thursday the 6th of August. See you tomorrow.

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]]><![CDATA[Wed Aug 5 2026 - Liberal party corruption claims & fugitive backers: ICAC’s Operation Rosny explained]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/wed-aug-5-2026-liberal-party-corruptionhttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/wed-aug-5-2026-liberal-party-corruptionWed, 05 Aug 2026 06:01:35 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

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Newsletter 590: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

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Powerless against bird flu? Not entirely. Here are 8 ways to help protect Australia’s birds and mammals - The Conversation

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has now spread from migratory birds to infect resident Australian birds. Clusters of dead birds have been found in several locations. The virus will inevitably infect other wildlife, most notably mammals.

Death rates range from 75-100% in poultry and some wild bird species. There’s great uncertainty about how big the death toll will be over both the short and long-term. Native species such as the black swan are highly vulnerable, while others may prove more resilient.

Based on overseas experience, we can expect many thousands, if not millions, of Australian birds, and large numbers of mammals, to perish. Poultry will likely become infected, while some beloved pets may die.

Overall, the populations of many Australian species will likely plummet.

Read more in The Conversation

Also > The escalating bird flu crisis, explained - The Daily Aus Podcast

Liberal party corruption claims & fugitive backers: ICAC’s Operation Rosny explained - 7am

For decades it’s shone a light on corruption of the highest order, even toppling premiers: Now NSW ICAC, the state’s corruption watchdog, has set its sights on a secretive right-wing Christian faction of the Liberal Party, “the Reformers”, and its cashed-up group of backers. Already the public inquiry, codenamed Operation Rosny, has heard of shit sheets, sham payments, phone taps, and dodgy deals with fugitive developers – with the reformers' connections reaching all the way to the top of the Liberal party. Today, The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter Kate McClymont unpacks the tangled web of players at the centre of what she’s calling ICAC’s Game of Thrones.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also >

How “the tithe” funds political parties from politicians’ salaries - The Point

Parties often encourage or compel their elected MPs (and sometimes their political staff) to pay a contribution to the party out of their parliamentary salary. It’s called “the tithe” or a “levy”. These levies are often exempt from donation caps, giving the major political parties an uncapped stream of revenue while new entrants have to raise money through small donations.

Politicians are among the biggest donors in the country. The then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull funded the Liberal Party’s 2016 election campaign to the tune of $1.75 million. And, through his company Mineralogy, former MP and candidate Clive Palmer has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the Palmer United Party, United Australia Party and now the Trumpet of Patriots.

But these political donations are only part of the story. Parties often encourage or compel their elected MPs (and sometimes their political staff) to pay a contribution to the party out of their parliamentary salary. It’s called “the tithe” or a “levy”.

Read more in The Point

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Five points that show the Gaza genocide hasn’t stopped - DeepCut

Nine months since the so-called Gaza ceasefire and Palestinians are still pulling children from under the rubble; families are still burying their dead; and the space in which 2 million people are expected to survive has shrunk to less than a third of the size it was three years ago. This is not a ceasefire: it’s the same structural violence under a different name.

It is a continuation of the genocide that is calibrated to be violent enough to keep the Palestinians suffering daily, yet silent enough to avoid triggering international outrage. This is a ceasefire that still kills, confines and denies aid. It doesn’t dismantle the mechanisms of violence, but normalises the continued disregard for Palestinian lives.

Amid this uncertainty and ongoing violence, our Palestinian colleagues have continued to run field hospitals, treat injured patients, provide mental health support, distribute water and provide general healthcare to people in Gaza. This is what they’ve observed.

Read more in DeepCut

Also >

The parable of the Reflecting Pool: In a symbolic setting, the most emblematic of sagas - Nick Bryant

For three months now, however, it has become a summer blockbuster, an epic tale rivalling Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. One half expects Matt Damon to star in the movie version, waste-deep in green algae fighting the barbarians who have supposedly vandalised the vanity project of a president who frequently likens himself to a god.

That said, the saga is more Armando Iannucci than Homer. The stuff of Veep rather than the classics. A comedy of errors. A self-satirising yarn. One of the contractors brought in to carry out the renovation is even called Greenwater Services. In this most symbolic of settings has unfolded the most metaphoric of events. The shonky renovation of the Reflecting Pool has become perhaps the most emblematic news story of Trump 2.0, because it brings so many narrative strands together in a true Trump weave.

As far back as June, The Atlantic ran a piece by Charlie Warzel listing “The 13 Steps of a Trump fiasco”.

Read more from Nick Bryant

Also >

Today’s cartoon by David Rowe

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Saul Eslake: Homes in Australia are now cheaper – why can’t the government sell this good news story? - The Guardian

Ministers love to claim credit for things like cheaper petrol and cheaper pharmaceuticals – why not cheaper housing?

Residential property prices in Australia’s eight capital cities have fallen by an average of 2.5% from their most recent peak in March, according to data published earlier this week by both Cotality and Proptrack. The declines have been somewhat greater in Sydney and Melbourne – 5.6% and 5.7% respectively – where they started earlier, than in other cities. Indeed, prices have not yet begun to fall in Perth, Hobart or Darwin, nor have they (on average) declined outside the capital cities.

Those falls are likely to continue, and to become more widespread, for some time yet. The major banks are predicting that capital city prices will be flat to down 5% over the course of 2026, with larger declines of between 3 and 10% in Sydney and Melbourne. Others have forecast that prices could fall by between 5 and 10% this year.

Read more from Saul Eslake for The Guardian

The ‘extremely effective’ campaigns undermining support for renewables - Full Story

Despite most Australians supporting clean technology, the campaign against wind and solar infrastructure has proven to be effective, striking a chord with many of those living in remote and rural areas. So how do we bring everyone along on the transition to a renewable energy-focused future? And who’s putting up roadblocks? The Guardian’s environment and climate correspondent Graham Readfearn joins Reged Ahmad to unpack Australia’s relationship with renewables.

Listen to the Full Story Podcast

Also >

Rinehart sues ABC over comedy skit, Morocco ‘migrant crisis’ debunked + boycott Daily Telegraph campaign - We Used to be Journos

In this episode, we unpack how the major global mainstream media outlets spurred on the far-right and obscured the real story behind the 50,000 Moroccans who entered Spanish territory. even though there were obvious red flags from the beginning. Plus, Gina Rinehart launches legal action against the ABC over a comedy sketch, is the law there to protect billionaires' feelings, or is a chilling effect the real aim? And a new campaign is calling for a boycott of the Daily Telegraph over its inflammatory coverage of minorities. We look at the opportunities and challenges ahead. Support Ette Media by becoming a subscriber here. Boycott the Daily Telegraph petition here. Want updates on Jan’s doco on Khaled Sabsabi?

Listen to the We Used to be Journos Podcast

Sky infrastructure: Starlink, Australia and the dynamic global telecommunications order - Independent Australia

Australia’s broadband strategy faces pressure to reassess its investment priorities, particularly in rural areas where one in five switched to Starlink in the past year, writes Paul Budde.

A RECENT GLOBAL analysis by Opensignal highlights a turning point in telecommunications: satellite broadband, long considered a last-resort option, is rapidly becoming a primary connectivity choice.

Its March 2026 report on the rise of Starlink shows that the service has moved beyond niche rural use into a serious competitor to traditional fixed broadband — something that carries significant implications for Australia’s digital future.

Concerns align with broader themes raised in earlier discussions on digital sovereignty and infrastructure control.

Read more from Paul Budde for Independent Australia

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Rachel Withers: Of course, widows with investment properties elicit more media sympathy than widows who rent - Crikey

How much sympathy are we to have for ‘widows with a negatively geared investment property’? A lot, it seems, as the media demands Labor move faster on the so-called ‘widow’s tax’.

Thank goodness. Labor has finally addressed the most pressing issue facing the nation, unveiling its promised fix to the so-called “widow’s tax” — so-called because the media started calling it that back in June. Won’t the government please think of the widows who wish to continue negatively gearing their investment properties?

It’s staggering how much attention the “widow’s tax” has received in the wake of Labor’s tax reforms, which have otherwise faded (except, of course, when Sydney property values plunged by 0.6%).

Read more from Rachel Keane for Crikey (paywall)

Ross Gittins: Australia’s federation has survived 125 years of economic shocks - Pearls and Irritations

Australia’s economic history shows that major shocks often come from overseas, but better policy settings over the past three decades have helped keep unemployment, inflation and debt under greater control.

Did you know that Australia has one of the oldest federations in the world? And did you know that this year we are – or should be – celebrating its 125th birthday? Apparently, this is known as its quasquicentenary.

In a recent speech to high school economics students, Dr Steven Kennedy, the former Treasury secretary and now boss of the prime minister’s department, offered a potted history of the economy’s many ups and downs over that time.

I drew two conclusions from his graphs of unemployment, inflation, government debt and home ownership. First, most of the big knocks to our economy come from overseas and so are beyond our control. The question is how well we responded to the hit.

Read more from Ross Gittins for Pearls and Irritations

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]]><![CDATA[Tue Aug 4 2026 - The secret nuclear waste files the government is fighting to keep hidden]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/tue-aug-4-2026-the-secret-nuclearhttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/tue-aug-4-2026-the-secret-nuclearTue, 04 Aug 2026 06:00:45 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

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Newsletter 589: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

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Three-cornered contest - Inside Story

One Nation’s support remains surprising high, but the implications for the next election are less clear.

One Nation Retakes Lead Over Labor in Latest Poll,” says the Australian Financial Review’s headline, and it’s almost right.

The latest Redbridge/Accent survey does indeed have One Nation in front on primary votes, with 31 per cent, followed by Labor on 29, the Coalition 22 and Greens 10. But we all know from decades of experience that primary votes don’t decide elections: two-party-preferred ones do, or at least two-candidate-preferred… and in fact three-candidate-preferred ones, because they decide who gets to contest the two-candidate-preferred counts.

Read more from Peter Brent for Inside Story

Media and political complacency is letting Pauline Hanson re‑write the rules on accountability - The Conversation

“Disappointing” was the best Guardian Australia could muster when Pauline Hanson’s One Nation banned it from a press conference, this time called to announce the party’s candidates for the forthcoming Victorian state election.

“Unorthodox” was the reaction of The Age, which was also banned, along with the ABC.

These are the latest in a series of bans imposed by One Nation on media it does not like. The first occurred on the eve of the byelection for the federal seat of Farrer in southern New South Wales on May 9. The ABC was chucked out, and the rest of the media stood by and did nothing.

Read more from Denis Muller for The Conversation

Also >

The secret nuclear waste files the government is fighting to keep hidden - 7am

What do Jacqui Lambie, Pauline Hanson, Lidia Thorpe and David Pocock all have in common? Usually not much. But they're part of an unlikely group of politicians backing former senator Rex Patrick in a legal fight with the Albanese government over information the government does not want released. At the centre of that fight are documents about potential sites for nuclear waste storage from AUKUS submarines, a bill that could see Patrick forced to pay $150,000, and a warning about what happens when ordinary Australians push too hard for answers. Today, transparency campaigner Rex Patrick on the case that has united some of parliament's most unlikely allies.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Jeff Sparrow: Why ‘social cohesion’ is a dangerous phrase in Australian politics – DeepCut

The establishment loves this phrase. But as Ed Husic found out, imposing consensus from the top isn’t democracy – it’s erasure.

Anthony Albanese has, after all, made ‘social cohesion’ central to his administration, going so far to anoint Peter Khalil as ‘Special Envoy for Social Cohesion’. But, as Husic’s lament suggests, ‘cohesion’ – a term that implies universal agreement – possesses, at best, an uneasy relationship with ‘democracy’, a concept that requires contestation.

‘Social cohesion’ has been bandied about for a long time: the Sydney Morning Herald declared it under threat as far back as 1851. Andrew Jakubowicz notes that Gough Whitlam referred to the term in his 1972 ‘It’s time’ campaign speech. Infamously, John Howard identified Asian immigration as a threat to ‘social cohesion’; the anti-racist academics associated with the Scanlon Foundation have made it central to their research paradigm.

But if you look at Proquest or other databases of Australian media, you find that, from about 2024, the term’s usage spiked massively.

Read more from Jeff Sparrow for DeepCut

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NDAs for NFPs? Environmental groups hide funding from carbon credits advocate - Michael West Media

Are Australian environmental protection charities being funded, and silenced, by a foundation that heavily promotes controversial carbon credits?

Several of New South Wales’ leading environmental organisations have declined to disclose whether they have received funding from the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation (ACBF), a charity lobbying for a controversial carbon credit scheme.

The issue has raised questions about transparency within the conservation movement after the National Parks Association of NSW (NPA) acknowledged in an advisory note to members, seen by MWM, that it had received funding from ACBF for campaigns related to the Great Koala National Park and its “30 x 30” conservation initiative.

Read more from Stephanie Tran for Michael West Media West

John Menadue: Terrorism and the deliberate corruption of language and meaning - Pearls and Irritations

The word “terrorism” is applied selectively to enemies of the US and its allies, turning a legal and moral category into propaganda that obscures state violence and normalises genocide.

Allies of the US are never designated as “terrorist”.

Richard Nixon’s “war on drugs” failed. Drugs are now more widely used around the world than ever before. Police forces disguise the failure by telling us about another record drug haul.

And George Bush’s “war on terror” has failed because continuing US attacks on Muslim people – as in Iran – inevitably triggers a response.

‘Terrorism’ has become a descriptor for organisations that annoy or antagonise the US and its allies. Or won’t do what they are told.

The word is used as propaganda rather than diagnosis.

Read more from John Menadue for Pearls and Irritations

Joseph Stiglitz: Trump’s hypocritical new tariffs are a chance for the world to fight back - The Guardian

Here he goes again. The US President, Donald Trump, is increasing and decreasing tariffs willy-nilly, violating international agreements that he himself signed and almost surely violating federal law. The only difference this time is that he has a new pretext for abusing tariffs: stopping forced labour.

Of course, the administration is right that too little is being done about forced labour. But its stated concern is a ruse. With the new tariffs closely tracking the ones that Trump imposed on the basis of trade balances, are we supposed to believe that bilateral trade deficits just so happen to be highly correlated with the use of forced labour?

After the supreme court struck down Trump’s previous tariffs, the administration imposed 150-day temporary tariffs – already deemed illegal by the courts but still under appeal even as they expired in late July – and now these new ones following an “investigation” into other countries’ supposed failure to police labour abuses.

Read more from Joseph Stiglitz in The Guardian

Also >

Today’s cartoon by Fiona Katauskas

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New study shows there’s a growing constituency reshaping Australian politics: renters - The Conversation

The ongoing housing crisis is having severe repercussions on individuals and families in Australia. It has limited young people’s ability to move out, increased the rate of involuntary lifelong renting, and pushed vulnerable populations into homelessness.

These are not the only changes that flow as a result of housing unaffordability. Our new research demonstrates it’s also reshaping how people vote.

A longstanding body of academic work links individuals’ assets to their political and ideological beliefs, including the parties they vote for.

This literature shows people with more valuable assets are more likely to hold right-leaning political beliefs. They are also more likely to support conservative parties that favour the status quo over efforts to redistribute money and wealth more equitably throughout a society.

Read more in The Conversation

What’s on my berries?! How industry shapes chemical approvals & health star ratings - Podcast With David Pocock

In this episode we speak with Dr Nick Chartres, Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and co-lead of the Center in Corporate Harm. Nick explains how corporate interests and industry-sponsored research influence government regulators and distort public health policy. We discuss the key regulatory flaws in Australia, including the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority's (APVMA) decision on Paraquat, a herbicide linked to Parkinson's disease that is banned in 70 countries, and proposed increases to insecticide residue limits on berries.

Dr Chartres exposes the systemic biases in relying on unpublished industry safety data, outdated uncertainty factors, and non-transparent "weight of evidence" evaluations. We then turn our attention to Australia's Health Star Rating system, detailing how food industry involvement created an algorithm that rewards ultra-processed foods while ignoring harmful cosmetic additives. And last but not least, practical steps individuals can take at home while advocating for systemic political reform.

Listen to David Pocock’s Podcast

Labor faces growing challenge on migration target - Independent Australia

The Albanese Government has reduced net migration sharply, but further reforms will be needed if it is to meet its promised target by 2027-28.

THE LIBERAL PARTY says migration to Australia is “exploding”.

Senator Pauline Hanson has followed suit and promises to get net migration down to negative 100,000. The Prime Minister says net migration has fallen by 45% since its peak in 2022-23 of over 500,000 and that he intends to bring net migration down to 225,000 by 2027-28. Who should Australians believe?

The Liberal Party’s assertion that migration is “exploding” is based on misuse of data by the Institute of Public Affairs — misuse that has been called out by the Bureau of Statistics (ABS). And while net migration has indeed fallen significantly since the 2022-23 peak (mainly due to tightening of policy on overseas students), it remains at historically high levels of around 300,000.

Read more from Abul Rizvi for Independent Australia

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In the fantasyland of AUKUS, even the good news shows how badly things are going - Crikey

The Pentagon is spending tens of billions buying new Virginia-class submarines. It sounds like good news, but it actually points to why AUKUS is unviable.

The $370 billion strategic gamble of AUKUS operates in two dimensions. There’s the real world — one where nuclear submarines are funded, built and maintained; the workforces who do those things are properly resourced; and strategic naval needs are assessed against hard facts. Then there’s the fantasyland inhabited by Anthony Albanese, Richard Marles, the defence establishment and the shills and spivs making a living from spruiking AUKUS.

In this fantasyland, it was never acknowledged that the production rate for US Virginia-class attack submarines is far below what it needs to be for America to hand over several second-hand subs, filling the gap while British firm BAE tries and spectacularly fails to build the giant new SSN-AUKUS submarines to a British design between now and 2050.

Read more from Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)

Ketan Joshi: Why data centre greenwashing is about to explode - The Point

Data centre developers in Australia, and their various customers (big tech companies like Microsoft, Anthropic and Amazon), were clearly not expecting to be held to any sort of mandated standard when it comes to the energy they consume.

In March this year, a series of ‘expectations’ were announced that included “secure new and additional clean energy generation and/or storage to offset demand”. Since then, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has been tasked with figuring out what ‘new’, ‘additional’, and ‘clean’ all actually mean.

You’ll find the industry’s greenwashing lifeline buried in these grey areas and jargon. What they’re hoping for is something – some sort of ‘regulation’ that’s put in place, but with no real teeth. Weak, ineffective pseudo-regulation is far, far better than no regulation at all.

Read more from Ketan Joshi for The Point

Also >

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]]><![CDATA[Mon Aug 3 2026 - Albanese keeps backing lobbyists over public opinion]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/mon-aug-3-2026-albanese-keeps-backinghttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/mon-aug-3-2026-albanese-keeps-backingMon, 03 Aug 2026 06:01:27 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

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Royce Kurmelovs: Albanese keeps backing lobbyists over public opinion, our analysis shows - DeepCut

From salmon to supermarkets, gas to Gaza, the PM has consistently backed those with power and wealth.

On paper democracy is meant to represent the will of the people, but in practice it’s the interests of the few who tend to win out.

Deepcut has reviewed instances where the Albanese government has engaged with lobbying campaigns. Our analysis shows a pattern of Labor consistently siding with powerful lobbyists against the public and national interest.

The following is a non-inclusive selection of significant moments when the Albanese government, for better or worse, appeared to give way to lobbying on a particular issue.

And these decisions are often against the public will – on almost every issue listed below, the Albanese government has gone against public opinion.

Read more from Royce Kurmelovs for DeepCut

Also > The public loses — twice — when media and Labor leadership play cat and mouse - Wanning Sun for Crikey (paywall)

The Real Story Behind Morocco's Migrant 'Invasion'. Plus, the ABC vs. Gina Rinehart and News Corp - Lamestream

Os and Scott go beyond the headlines to break down exactly why 50,000 Moroccans crossed into a Spanish territory, sparking a huge new debate about immigration. They discuss the diplomatic and political power plays driving the situation, the role played by misinformation online, how the situation was amplified by the US and Israel, and the attempts by the far-right around the world, and in Australia, to capitalise on it. Later in the show, they discuss how Gina Rinehart and News Corp have launched a new attack on the ABC and whether the broadcaster’s leadership are willing to defend comedy and satire.

Listen to the Lamestream Podcast

Amy Remeikis: Forget the ‘politics of joy’. Australians are rightfully getting angry - The New Daily

When did we decide joy was a commodity we couldn’t afford?

Much has been written on the ‘politics of joy’, the term coined to explain New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s mission as a politician.

While still in the race, Mamdani addressed the absence of joy in people’s lives and said:

“When I speak about making our city more affordable, my vision is not limited to the homes that we live in or the childcare that we’re making universal—it’s also a vision where we make it possible for working people to afford lives of joy, of art, of rest, of expression.”

In Australia, do we expect working people to live lives of joy, art, rest and expression? Do we even afford workers the expectation of living a life of joy and rest?

Increasingly no.

Read more from Amy Remeikis for The New Daily

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Kos Samaras: Strangers in their own land: Victorian Labor forgot the suburbs that made it - Pearls and Irritation

Victorian Labor’s crisis is not just about leadership, but a decade of governing as though its western and north-western heartland would remain loyal while investment flowed elsewhere. Changing the leader may not be enough.

On the morning of Tuesday 28 July 2026, Jacinta Allan walked into a press conference and resigned as Premier of Victoria, a day after cross-factional delegations of her own MPs told her she had lost majority support in caucus. By that evening Ben Carroll, her deputy and the member for Niddrie, had been elected unopposed, seeing off a late counter-bid from Sonya Kilkenny that had more to do with vanity rather than the state’s future, with Gabrielle Williams elevated to the deputy’s job. Four months out from a state election, Victorian Labor had seen off its second premier in three years. Allan had held the job for two years and ten months and spent most of that time servicing decisions and putting out political fires that she inherited.

Read more from Kos Samaras for Pearls and Irritations

Also > A wing and a prayer: Can a new premier turn around the Victorian government’s electoral fortunes? - Inside Story

Anne Davies: How the ‘Braveheart’ tribe of young Liberals descended from the Hills only to have their kilts lifted by Icac - The Guardian

“A cult” is how former NSW MP David Elliott described the Reformers, the secretive sub-faction of the NSW Liberals at the centre of the sensational Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation, which has just completed its first week of hearings.

Akin to a Scottish tribe from the movie, Braveheart, was how one of the Reformers, Robert Assaf, described it, telling Icac the group sometimes slaughtered their fellow rightwingers in the Liberal party but came together for the big fights.

Icac is investigating whether, in pursuit of funding these battles, the Reformers took illegal donations and broke electoral funding laws, by taking funds from banned donors, including developers and hoteliers and in amounts that exceeded NSW’s donations caps.

It is also revealing the outsized influence of conservative Catholicism in the NSW Liberal party and its right faction.

Read more from Anne Davies for The Guardian

Today’s cartoon by Cathy Wilcox

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Change or die: how the Liberal Party’s long resistance to reform has left it fighting for life - The Conversation

The Liberal Party of Australia has fallen on hard times. The party has struggled to attract voters and has gone through leadership uncertainty. In his first press conference as leader in February 2026, Angus Taylor said that his party needed to “change or die”.

To try to modernise itself, the party announced a commission to gather ideas and build consensus for an organisational reform agenda. In May 2026, the commission released a discussion paper and a survey, addressing issues of organisational hierarchy, representation and factionalism that have long plagued the party.

The scope of the commission – its willingness to engage with ideas that it has resisted for decades – is a reflection of the dire circumstances in which the party finds itself in mid-2026.

Our new research shows that it is the party’s lack of appetite for reform that has left it out of touch with voters and now in existential crisis.

Read more in The Conversation

Is the US military secretly killing our planet? - 7am

It’s the largest institutional emitter in the world. A bigger polluter than 140 countries. And yet its emissions are hidden from sight. Now a new documentary ‘Earth’s greatest enemy’ is exposing the impact of the US military empire on the planet: the waste, the billion dollar budgets, and the political maneuvering that’s kept it all out of the public eye.Today, Journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin, on what the world’s biggest war machine is doing to our Earth.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also > The ‘great net zero debate’ was anything but – so beware Coalition claims of renewables taking over ‘two Tasmanias’ - Graham Readfearn for The Guardian

Noel Pearson: The inability to deliver the changes Indigenous Australians need is no longer just a moral failure but a civilisational one - The Guardian

After the rejection of the voice, the conversation about structural reform of the federal arrangements governing Aboriginal affairs must resume.

The Uluru statement from the heart was our prayer to the Australian people.

There was hope in its words.

The statement was written with love. It stands as probably the most beautiful unrequited letter of love in Australian political history.

For those of us who urged faith, hope and love, there is an account to be given for the hopes raised, the faith urged and the love lost in the referendum.

I must account for that. So, three years later, I stand here with great reluctance.

What right has anyone to raise hopes when those hopes were so badly misplaced?

Read more from Noel Pearson for The Guardian

Also >

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Bernard Keane: Tony Abbott and the fine art of waving away corruption - Crikey

Tony Abbott’s efforts to downplay the NSW ICAC scandal counter his own record of reforming his party when in power — and reflect exactly the kind of hypocrisy that makes voters so fed up.

Once upon a time, Tony Abbott took one of the more important steps toward curbing the disease of soft corruption in Australian politics.

As newly minted prime minister in 2013, Abbott told his party “you can either be a powerbroker or a lobbyist, but you can’t be both”. And while Abbott’s edict had the effect of dislodging power brokers from opposing moderate and centre-right factions of the NSW Liberals, it also revealed what for Abbott was an unusual level of insight into the workings of power.

Read more from Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)

Tarla Lambert-Patel: Note to Karl and Kyle: If the Prime Minister is calling, you’re probably not the victim - Women’s Agenda

There’s something truly excruciating about listening to two of Australia’s most successful media personalities lament their self-induced fall from grace. Doubly so, when it’s Karl Stefanovic and Kyle Sandilands.

Last week, the pair reflected on Stefanovic’s podcast about everything they’d both endured and lost in their respective dismissals from Nine and ARN.

Referring to themselves as “two failed media giants”, Sandilands condemned the “people rejoicing and stamping all over the death and the ashes”, as Stefanovic nodded in agreement.

“I was one year into the 10-year plan and then, due to someone’s bad mood, that all fell apart. I’m not sure why. We still don’t know the real reason”, he said.

Sandilands went on to call himself a “little person” fighting an unfair legal system and suggested he would “bash” anyone who came after him in the press.

Read more from Tarla Lambert Patel for Women’s Agenda

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You’re up to date for Monday the 3rd of August. See you tomorrow.

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]]><![CDATA[Mon 27 July 2026 - Where is Australia’s Zohran Mamdani]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/mon-27-july-2026-where-is-australiashttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/mon-27-july-2026-where-is-australiasMon, 27 Jul 2026 06:00:52 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

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Newsletter 588: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

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PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: TrueNorth is unable to send an independent news update on the 28, 29 and 30th of July . TrueNorth is a solo created project. Read more about us here.

Amy Remeikis: Albanese’s ‘disciplined’ Labor risks making a very big mistake - The New Daily

Labor’s national conference has come and gone as expected – without bloodshed or public disagreement.

Labor, under Anthony Albanese, has been a model in what political watchers like to call “discipline” – disagreements are brief and in-house, and the leader’s view prevails.

That is praised by Australia’s modern political and media class, which puts a primacy on order above almost anything else – including good policy. It doesn’t matter if Albanese and Richard Marles are behind the beat or failing to meet the moment – they are doing it orderly, with control over their caucus, and any change is incremental and within the bounds of what the media and political classes have deemed acceptable.

Read more from Amy Remeikis for The New Daily

The ABC’s Red Wedding. Plus, Hannah Ferguson vs. Anthony Albanese - Lamestream

Os and Scott discuss the news that Cheek Media’s Hannah Ferguson looks set to challenge Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in his inner-west Sydney seat of Grayndler at the next election, including how the story broke, what Ferguson’s chances are, and what the news could mean for Cheek Media’s independence.

Then they discuss the outcomes of the Labor party national conference, including on Gaza, and Ed Husic’s failed attempts to force Labor to acknowledge Israel’s genocide, before diving in the latest turmoil at the ABC.

They break down a new long-read in The Monthly covering divisions at the public broadcaster, including what led to the axing of former news director Justin Stevens, and look at why two episodes of Four Corners were removed by the ABC.

Listen to the Lamestream Podcast

Also >

Rachel Withers: Where is Australia’s Zohran Mamdani Or do we actually already have a couple? - DeepCut

You hear it often in progressive circles: where is Australia’s Zohran Mamdani?

The Democratic Socialist mayor of New York has won hearts worldwide for his unapologetic focus on the cost-of-living crisis, specifically targeting housing, transport and childcare.

Australia doesn’t have a position quite like the NYC mayorship, which possesses powers well beyond our local councils (although it’s also worth noting that several of his policies do rely on state funding, which he has had to lobby for). We do however have some politicians pursuing similar goals at the local, state and federal level, to varying degrees of success.

Read more from Rachel Withers for DeepCut

Also > Trump’s campaign against progressives - Pearls and Irritations

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Barnaby Joyce backs One Nation’s ‘monocultural’ vision of Australia. But the reality in his NSW electorate is very different - The Guardian

New England MP previously supported Armidale becoming a refugee resettlement site. Now he’s flagging a possible exception to new party’s strict English-language requirement.

Last December, the area’s federal MP, Barnaby Joyce, defected from the Nationals to One Nation, saying he was “philosophically aligned” with the rightwing party.

On a national level, One Nation is pushing a vision of a “monocultural” Australia alongside an anti-immigration agenda. But in the electorate of the party’s most high-profile recruit, a different story is playing out.

Refugees tell Guardian Australia about arriving in Armidale and being embraced by the local community. Years after arriving, many refugees are buying their first homes, putting down roots and choosing to call Armidale home. There are the bonds that are forged over shared meals and weekend football matches.

oyce’s newly adopted party advocates limiting incoming migration to Australia to those who can speak English. One Nation’s website states the party’s policy is: “If you do not speak English, under no circumstances should you be able to settle in Australia”.

Read more in The Guardian

Also >

China and Australia cooperation: is it too much to ask? - Pearls and Irritations

Australia and China can rebuild trust through practical confidence-building measures and cooperative projects, especially in the Pacific, where shared interests are urgent.

Working together towards a common goal is the best way to deepen understanding and build trust. This is a truism in international as well as personal relationships. In the case of Australia-China relations, I call on my own experience as evidence that this approach works.

Before the minerals export boom, the bedrock of Australia-China economic relations was wheat, wool, sugar and other agricultural commodities. Twenty-five years ago, Australia was the world’s largest producer of fine wool and China was emerging as the largest textile manufacturer. The then Australian Wool Corporation and its offshore arm, the International Wool Secretariat, engaged me to establish cooperative links between the two industries so that technically advanced and fashionable Chinese products could take Australian wool products into Europe and the Americas. Working with designers and textile mills across the breadth of China – including Hong Kong and Taiwan – experts on both sides shared information and worked to solve problems. Australia benefited and so did China.

That was several decades ago, but such cooperation could be revived and even expanded in this decade.

Read more in Pearls and Irritations

Today’s cartoon by Matt Golding

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Support Australia’s independent news publishers and commentators through a donation

Click here to register now to secure your spot at the Burning Platforms live event, or to be sent the link to the livestream. This event is supported by Democracy Counts, a new campaign to renew democracy in Australia.

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The dangerous climate driving California’s wildfires — and a warning for Australia - The Conversation

California is once again confronting a rapidly escalating wildfire season fuelled by extreme heat, drying vegetation, drought and strong winds.

As of 24 July, the state has recorded more than 3,800 wildfires so far this year, burning approximately 79,000 hectares. The largest active blaze, in Lassen County, had grown to more than 28,000 hectares.

The immediate images are familiar to Australians: towering smoke columns and orange skies. But these wildfires are not simply the result of hot summer weather. They are driven by a chain of interacting climatic, environmental and human factors.

In Australia, a powerful El Niño and the possible emergence of a positive Indian Ocean Dipole would bring drier, warmer weather. This could create similarly dangerous conditions in southern and eastern Australia this spring and summer.

Read more in The Conversation

Also >

Back to Back Barries: Barnaby bends the media cycle - Full Story

Tony Barry and George Megalogenis (filling in for Barrie Cassidy) give their view on One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce’s viral moment this week and why they think it played well to his party’s base. George takes us back to past elections that produced favourable results for One Nation to remind us that we have been here before and that political predictions often don’t come true. And they sign off with a listener email asking if the rise in polling is damaging democracy.

Listen to the Full Story Podcast

Also > Like Trump, Pauline Hanson plays the media and attacks the media simultaneously. Who’s using who? - Zoe Daniel for The Guardian

Rex Patrick: AUKUS Inquiry exposes nuclear weapon-sized crater - Michael West Media

The AUKUS Public Inquiry has reminded Australians of a nuclear weapon proliferation problem that the Government is yet to solve and one that could change the program from full-steam-ahead to a dead stop.

AUKUS Public Inquiry

It’s the inquiry the Labor government and Coalition opposition didn’t want. It’s the “AUKUS Inquiry unauthorised!”

The inquiry will likely have little direct effect on Prime Minister Albanese and his Cabinet National Security Committee.

They’re completely blinded by the gold epaulets on the shoulders of the admirals that are briefing them (the same admirals who spent $3B not buying French submarines, buying the most expensive frigates known to man and procuring patrol boats that were found not fit for purpose).

But the Inquiry will inform the public.

Read more from Rex Patrick for Michael West Media

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Defence is now more wasteful — and secretive — than during the Coalition era - Crikey

In another example of Labor’s obsessive covering up of Defence failures, allegations of a major scandal involving Henderson shipyard in Perth will be cloaked in secrecy.

The Albanese government will do virtually anything to avoid scrutiny of one of its worst areas of performance, and one of the most alarming for taxpayers: defence procurement.

Despite its promise to fix the Coalition’s failures in procurement on major defence projects — the single biggest procurements the Commonwealth undertakes — Labor’s performance has deteriorated below the already low standards set under the previous government. That’s according to the Australian National Audit Office in its “Major Projects” report series, initiated by parliament’s Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit back in 2006 to give parliament some additional transparency regarding Defence’s repeated, and sometimes spectacular, failures.

Read more from Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)

Greg Jericho: Workers have paid the price for inflation driven by corporate profits, OECD report confirms - The Point

The OECD’s annual employment outlook confirms that not only did profits drive Australia’s inflation in 2022, but that growing profits are also behind the most recent increases in prices that led to the Reserve Bank raising rates.

In February this year, the Reserve Bank raised interest rates because it was worried about rising inflation in the last 6 months of last year. However, analysis by myself and David Richardson, showed that the major cause of increased inflation was increased profits.

Unfortunately, this was just a repeat of what occurred in 2022 and 2023, where the RBA punished workers with higher interest rates out of a misguided belief that inflation was being driven by higher wages and out of fear of a ‘wage-price spiral’.

Read more from Greg Jericho for The Point

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TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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You’re up to date for Monday the 27th of July. See you on Friday.

PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: TrueNorth is unable to send an independent news update on the 28, 29 and 30th of July . TrueNorth is a solo created project. Read more about us here.

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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]]><![CDATA[Fri 24 July 2026 - One Nation’s spectre hangs over Labor national conference]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/fri-24-july-2026-one-nations-spectrehttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/fri-24-july-2026-one-nations-spectreFri, 24 Jul 2026 06:00:12 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

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Newsletter 587: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: TrueNorth is unable to send an independent news update on the 28, 29 and 30th of July . TrueNorth is a solo created project. Read more about us here.

Grattan on Friday: One Nation’s spectre hangs over Labor national conference - The Conversation

Independent economist Saul Eslake says the conference is reflecting Labor’s “more interventionist stance” across various areas, which is in some ways a contrary philosophy to that of the Hawke-Keating government. “But there is not much indication so far of any thinking of how [we] will pay for the expanding role of government.”

More generally, Eslake points to “a transition [under Labor] from the traditional Australian social security system, based on means-tested cash payments to people with particular needs, to a European-type system of providing services to people who meet various determined criteria – for example being old, being sick, people living with a disability, people with children – irrespective of means. But no one is prepared to say we need to have European-style taxes to pay for it.”

In the celebration of unity, the highest-profile discordant voice around the corridors is that of former minister Ed Husic.

Husic is an advocate for a new gas tax, an initiative that has strong support among the public but not from the government – at least not at the moment.

Read more from Michelle Grattan for The Conversation

Also >

An El Niño summer looms – we need to talk about climate change - Full Story

Political and media attention this week has once again been squarely focused on One Nation’s antics. But while Pauline Hanson had her Euro summer, many of that continent’s biggest cities were enduring their worst heat stress in recorded history. In Australia, an El Niño summer is not far away and we may be headed for our hottest winter on record. Jo Tovey speaks with Mike Ticher and assistant climate editor Donna Lu about whether Australia is being too complacent about the changing climate.

Listen to the Full Story Podcast

Also >

Dave Milner: The fight to end the US military occupation of Australia (and the entire world) - The Shot

For 64 years – an insignificant speck of time under a sky this large – from a stolen, sacred site of the Arrernte people called Kuyunba, the American military base Pine Gap gathers data that is used to subjugate millions of innocent, ordinary people across this world.

Kuyunba still holds ancient rock art and even older knowledge. Its people want to return.

Although Australians are sold a flimsy narrative about this “joint” base and its “defensive” capabilities, in the real world, in actual reality and not just fascistic propaganda narratives, since 1962, Pine Gap has played a crucial role in the murders of millions of predominantly black and brown people from Vietnam to Cambodia, Iraq to Afghanistan, Lebanon to Palestine.

Read more from Dave Milner for The Shot

Also > The number one health issue in Palestine is the Israeli occupation - The Point

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Kenneth Roth: Why would Trump agree to the Saudi nuclear deal? - The Guardian

The agreement offers the Saudis the same options Trump has sworn Iran will never have.

The stark contrast between Donald Trump’s nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia and his nuclear demands for Iran would be comical if not so tragic. Trump has handed the Saudis the same nuclear options he swore Iran would never have.

To make matters worse, Trump seems to have offered the Saudis this sweetheart deal to make amends for his disastrous war of choice with Iran. Meanwhile, he continues to bomb Iran in a push to open the strait of Hormuz, which was not closed until Trump launched his counterproductive war.

Hegseth now wants a total of $67.1bn to keep the war going. Because Trump cannot articulate a persuasive rationale for his pointless war, Congress should say no. This war never should have started and now clearly should not continue.

Read more from Kenneth Roth in The Guardian

Also >

How the USA and Israel compare on the spectrum of fascism - Independent Australia

The USA and Israel are assessed against ten defining characteristics of fascism, revealing disturbing similarities and critical differences, writes Dr Mark Diesendorf.

TO ENGAGE in a serious discussion of this issue, we need a clear definition of fascism. But concise dictionary-type definitions fail to distinguish fascism from ruthless dictatorships.

Does fascism have characteristics that permit us to identify, say, Italian fascism under Mussolini with German fascism under Hitler, despite some differences, and to compare degrees of fascism between countries?

Historian and author Rutger Bregman has proposed ten characteristics of a fascist state (see below), based on his knowledge of Nazi Germany. In a clear, concise video, Bregman makes a clinical diagnosis, finding that the United States under President Trump satisfies all ten characteristics of a fascist state, like the former Nazi Germany.

Read more in Independent Australia

Also >

Today’s cartoon by David Rowe

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Support Australia’s independent news publishers and commentators through a donation

Click here to register now to secure your spot at the Burning Platforms live event, or to be sent the link to the livestream. This event is supported by Democracy Counts, a new campaign to renew democracy in Australia.

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The vulnerable humans that may pay the price for automated systems - Cheek Media

The Robodebt scandal was enormous and costly, both in financial terms and human suffering. But there is a question looming about whether the government has taken the right lessons from the episode. We are starting to see similar automated decision-making systems rolled out in other social services, like aged care and the NDIS. The lack of clarity and guardrails creates a risk that vulnerable people might end up paying a price for inflexible and poorly designed systems.

In a recent decision about the Robodebt class action, the Federal Court’s Justice Beach was scathing of the Morrison Government’s policy for its “unfairness, probable illegality and cruelty”. He issued a stern warning that ministers and departments must inform themselves about the technical and legal complexities of automated decision-making systems.

One of the recommendations made by the Robodebt Royal Commission was that the Commonwealth should introduce a consistent legal framework for automation in government services.

Read more from Lizzie O’Shea for Cheek Media

Also > Access to essential medicines shouldn’t depend on profit margins - The Point

AI, Nepo Babies & Barking Barnaby - Fourth Estate

Hannah Ferguson (Cheek Media), Scott Mitchell (Lamestream Media) and Daanyal Saeed (Crikey) join Tina Quinn to unpack another big week in Australian media. This week, the panel examines the future of journalism in the age of artificial intelligence following the Andrew Olle Media Lecture, where Reuters editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni argued AI companies should pay for the journalism that powers their products. But with Nine announcing another round of newsroom redundancies on the same day—despite recently signing an AI licensing deal with Microsoft—we ask the question many journalists are now asking: if AI is creating new revenue for publishers, why are newsrooms still getting smaller?

The panel also debates Mamamia's appointment of founder Mia Freedman's 28-year-old son, Luca Lavigne, as chief executive, and what it says about nepotism, merit and leadership in an industry still criticised for being overwhelmingly white, middle class and dominated by familiar networks. Plus, Sarah Ferguson's now infamous interview with Barnaby Joyce, the spectacle that followed, Pauline Hanson's latest comments on domestic violence, and Karl Stefanovic's next possible podcast guest —shock surprise or completely expected?

Listen to the Fourth Estate Podcast

Will data centres save the wind industry or kill our climate targets? Or could they do both? - Renew Economy

Will data centres save the Australian renewable sector? Or will they blow the country’s renewable and climate targets out of the water? It’s a polarising debate, almost as deep as the arguments around social licence, location, and to what extent this so-called AI boom is in fact real.

And the issue is moving at a frightening pace. Project announcements are no longer made in the billions, but the tens of billions. Data centre proposals emerge out of nowhere in someone’s backyard. OpenAi admits that one of its off-line models has gone rogue, connected itself to the internet and attacked another company’s data base.

What exactly do we know and understand about this technology? And what will its impacts be on the grid, and on other consumers? Oh, them!

Read more from Giles Parkinson for Renew Economy

Also > Beetaloo gas-powered data centre becomes first test of Albanese’s vision for an AI boom powered by renewables - The Point

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If Labor wants to sock it to One Nation, introduce a gas tax. Ignoring it isn’t brave — it’s stupid - Crikey

Hopes of enshrining a gas tax in Labor’s platform were dashed on Thursday, as the party — and its once rebellious leader — kept a firm lid on dissent.

In another case of “disappointed but not surprised”, hopes of a gas tax being enshrined in Labor’s platform were dashed at the party’s national conference on Thursday, where some had hoped to turn a vague section about getting a “fairer return” into concrete calls for an export tax.

It was a poor choice from a party that is supposedly now focused on fighting One Nation — and addressing the very real grievances Pauline Hanson is mining. Hanson, after all, has proposed a “gas tax” (even if experts say it’s not what it sounds like), picking up on the fact voters across the political spectrum want gas companies to pay a fair share.

Read more from Rachel Withers in Crikey (paywall)

Tarla Lambert-Patel: Vikki Campion knows how to help her husband turn a sh*t sandwich into political gold - Women’s Agenda

#DogGate reminded Australians why Barnaby Joyce remains one of politics' most polarising figures. But his repeated ability to survive, and the role Vikki Campion has played in reshaping his public image shouldn't be underestimated.

Anyone who watched Sarah Ferguson’s interview with Barnaby Joyce this week on ABC’s 7:30, is likely to have some thoughts.

The dog is to blame. Barnaby’s temper is to blame. The woke left are to blame. Or, maybe, he just created a diversion tactic to take our attention away from Pauline Hanson’s constant ball fumbles?

But prominent journalist and media adviser, Vikki Campion (also the wife of Barnaby) has come out with a sensationally different take. She blames the ABC and has pledged that the public broadcaster will never enter her home again.

In a post to her Substack, Campion wrote “Barnaby is a big boy and can take the heat. But it is one thing for Ferguson to cast a live stream into my house, and then question whether my dog exists.

Read more from Tarla Lambert Patel in Women’s Agenda

SUPPORT OUR PRECIOUS DEMOCRACY THROUGH DEMOCRACY WALKS T-SHIRTS.

Inspired by a local group of people in Sydney's north who were looking for t-shirts to wear on their regular walks, Democracy Walks champions, supports and actively engages in our democracy.

CLICK here to see a range of Democracy Walks’ t-shirt designs.

DEMOCRACY WALKS T-SHIRTS - THEY NEVER FAIL TO START A CONVERSATION.

Quick Links…

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TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Support Australia’s independent news publishers and commentators through a donation

Share your views on Australia’s media landscape through TrueNorth’s short survey

You’re up to date for Friday the 24th of July. See you on Monday.

PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: TrueNorth is unable to send an independent news update on the 28, 29 and 30th of July . TrueNorth is a solo created project. Read more about us here.

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Support Australia’s independent news publishers and commentators through a donation.

Share TrueNorth News

Discover independent news media. See the clear difference.

Thanks for reading TrueNorth News! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

]]><![CDATA[Thur 23 July 2026 - From DV to deportation, Hanson has spent decades telling us who she is]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/thur-23-july-2026-from-dv-to-deportationhttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/thur-23-july-2026-from-dv-to-deportationThu, 23 Jul 2026 06:00:10 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

Share TrueNorth News

Newsletter 586: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: TrueNorth is unable to send an independent news update on the 28, 29 and 30th of July . TrueNorth is a solo created project. Read more about us here.

Amy Remeikis: From DV to deportation, Hanson has spent decades telling us who she is - The Point

It may seem counter-intuitive, but Pauline Hanson and others in her far-right ilk may be among Australia’s most open politicians – at least when it comes to their agendas.

Hanson does not care about the everyday Australian. She cares about what benefits her. This has always been the case.

Her views, over 30 years, either in or around politics, have squarely focused on her experiences and the experiences of those around her. She does not care to learn the perspective of others – she assumes, as many in the far-right do, that her experience and view of the world is the only view of the world worth having.

When someone tells you who they are, believe them. Hanson has spent three decades telling people who she is – but the media tends to forget.

Read more form Amy Remeikis for The Point

Angela Priestley: ‘Don’t put up with it?’ Cost of leaving family violence up 71% in ten years - Women’s Agenda

In yet further comments disconnected from reality, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson declared today that “if these women are getting abused by men out there, then don’t put up with it” and that domestic violence “is wrong, but it’s also a two-way street”.

While Hanson’s comments failed to account for the fact that most of the recent murders of women involved former intimate partners, estranged family members, and in the news coming out of Perth today – a 16 year old boy charged with murdering his mother – she also fails to recognise that for those who do live with their abusers, the “choice” is far from straightforward, affordable and safe.

Indeed, new research from Anglicare Sydney today highlights the challenge, finding that the cost of leaving domestic and family violence has risen 71 per cent in a decade, significantly outpacing inflation.

Read more from Angela Priestley for Women’s Agenda

Also >

Israel's New Foreign Interference, The Odyssey Culture War, and the Media's One Nation Addiction - Lamestream

Os and Scott kick off the show by talking through Dave Hughes' latest meltdown and the bizarre and disturbing allegations raised by comedian Melanie Bracewell. They step through a number of news items, including Barnaby Joyce's failed attempts to defend Pauline Hanson, the latest round of job cut at The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, and revelations that Israel is trying to influence Labor's national conference. Finally, they discuss Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' by reviewing the film, talking about why it's become such a cultural phenomenon, why the movie's politics and message feel so timely, and the right-wing culture war it's become embroiled in.

Listen to the Lamestream Podcast

Also >

Peter Garrett: Labor has a proud history of debate. So why won’t it interrogate the $368bn Aukus pact? - The Guardian

Despite substantial reservations about the submarine deal, it’s unlikely to be seriously examined at the ALP national conference.

In 2021 the leaders of Australia, the UK and the US – Scott Morrison, Boris Johnson and Joe Biden – stood together to announce a plan to co-design and build eight nuclear-powered submarines for Australia.

Morrison championed the pact, having reneged on a previous agreement to purchase French-built submarines that would have cost about $90bn, (the cancellation cost alone was $5bn), and after losing office went on to work with the US defence industry.

His decision, effectively made in secret, was accepted by the incoming Albanese Labor government.

Read more from Peter Garrett for The Guardian

Also >

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Close Pine Gap protesters challenge Australia’s U.S. alliance - Independent Australia

Protesters are renewing calls to close Pine Gap as criticism grows over the secretive facility’s role in U.S.-led military operations, writes Dr Binoy Kampmark.

IT REMAINS a prickly reminder that Australia is still an embarrassed vassal of power, annexed to the security interests of another state basking in imperial and fast-diminishing splendour.

Pine Gap, known more technically as the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap (JDFPG), is a largely U.S.-operated effort in Alice Springs, Central Australia. As the late scholar of strategic studies Desmond Ball pithily remarked in 1988, it is “an espionage operation. Euphemisms should not be allowed to obscure this essential point”.

The base grew out of a desire on the part of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1965 to establish a remote Australian-sited ground control station intended for signals intelligence satellites. Land belonging to the Central Arrernte people was accordingly excised the following year for the site.

Read more in Independent Australia

Project 2026: Donald Trump’s assault on democracy - Nick Bryant

While the focus naturally continues to be on Donald Trump’s war of geopolitical choice with Iran, he is also waging a campaign of domestic political desperation, the ongoing assault on democracy. Let’s call it Project 2026: the scheme being put in motion to interfere with this November’s congressional mid-term elections which are widely expected to end with the Democrats winning back control of the House of Representatives and possibly even gaining a slim majority in the Senate.

Trump, after losing the 2020 presidential election, propagated the “Big Lie,” which ended with the storming of the US Capitol on January 6th, one of the darkest days in 250 years of US history. Ahead of the 2026 midterms, he has been previewing the “Big Fix.”

Read more from Nick Bryant

Also >

Today’s cartoon by Cathy Wilcox

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Support Australia’s independent news publishers and commentators through a donation

Click here to register now to secure your spot at the Burning Platforms live event, or to be sent the link to the livestream. This event is supported by Democracy Counts, a new campaign to renew democracy in Australia.

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Kos Samaras: The half-empty hall: why Gen X broke Australian politics - Pearls and Irritations

One Nation’s rise is being driven by economically stranded Gen X voters in outer suburbs and regions, not the racial and culture-war constituency Pauline Hanson keeps trying to address.

Last weekend Pauline Hanson delivered a speech to CPAC London titled The Australian Fight Back. Around 120 people turned up. Fewer than a quarter of the seats were filled. She used the platform to defend her remarks blaming the end of the White Australia policy for the country’s migration problems, and to attack the concept of white privilege.

That half empty hall is the perfect image for the moment we are in. Hanson was speaking to an audience that largely does not exist.

To understand who they are, we have to look deeper. And that means looking at a generation Australian politics has ignored for 30 years.

Read more from Kos Samaras for Pearls and Irritations

Australia’s university sector is in tatters. Why? - Cut Through

Australia’s most prestigious universities have been plagued by governance and corruption scandals over the past few years, all the while public debate continues on what role universities should play in modern Australian society. Julie Hare, one of the country’s most experienced higher education journalists, joins Cut Through to unpack the ICAC investigation into the University of Wollongong, explain how executive greed and policy changes created a perfect storm for the sector, and puts her ideas for how to restore Australian universities to their former glory – and public good.

Listen to the Cut Through Podcast

Michael Pascoe: Merchants have become princes – and threaten us all - Michael West Media

If you thought capitalism has been guilty of excess in its dealings with society and the environment, the bad news is that it’s getting worse, existentially worse.

This is primarily a lift from the Economist magazine, specifically a piece by Silicon Valley guru Tim O’Reilly. Odds are you haven’t read it hence a summary before getting to the danger for us all from the threat he exposes.

O’Reilly’s thesis boils down to “the merchants are becoming princes”, upending the market disciplines that made it preferable to have “merchants” in charge rather than princes with untrammelled power.

Read more from Michael Pascoe for Michael West Media

Also > Why are OpenAI and Anthropic cheering on regulation in Australia? The answer has global reach - The Guardian

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Defence refuses to release conflict of interest docs in $3bn property sell-off - Crikey

Neither a freedom of information request by Crikey nor the Senate’s powers have been enough to gain access to the documents, which were filed by Defence’s hand-picked consultants and fiercely protected ever since.

The Defence Department has refused to release conflict of interest declarations made by a pair of consultants it hired to review the strategic value of military sites the government wants to sell off for $3 billion.

Jan Mason and Jim Miller were hired as consultants via their private firms in August 2023 to oversee what the government labelled “an enterprise-wide defence estate audit”, and handed in their report four months later in December.

In February this year, the government said this report had identified 68 sites that could be sold, including Victoria Barracks in Sydney’s inner-east and RAAF Williams in Melbourne’s south-east.

Read more in Crikey (paywall)

The way Australia taxes gas production is stuck in the past – this is why companies aren’t paying their fair share - The Conversation

Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports peaked at just over A$90 billion in 2022-23 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, easing to $65 billion in 2024-25. That placed Australia third in value of LNG exports, behind the United States and Qatar.

More recently, the US-Iran war has delivered a $6 billion boost to Australian LNG exports for the last fiscal year, with 2026-27 forecasts also revised upward by $21 billion, according to government estimates.

That’s why many Australians have been surprised to learn that our national gas tax, the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT), raises only modest revenues each year: about $2.2 billion at its peak, before easing recently to about $1.5 billion.

Right across the political spectrum, pressure for a tax on gas exports is mounting.

Read more in The Conversation

Also >

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PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: TrueNorth is unable to send an independent news update on the 28, 29 and 30th of July . TrueNorth is a solo created project. Read more about us here.

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]]><![CDATA[Wed 22 July 2026 - ‘This is neglect’: Controversial NT child protection laws passes despite overwhelming opposition]]>https://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/wed-22-july-2026-this-is-neglecthttps://truenorthnews.substack.com/p/wed-22-july-2026-this-is-neglectWed, 22 Jul 2026 06:00:14 GMTWelcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

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Newsletter 585: Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: TrueNorth is unable to send an independent news update on the 28, 29 and 30th of July . TrueNorth is a solo created project. Read more about us here.

‘This is neglect’: Controversial NT child protection laws passes despite overwhelming opposition - National Indigenous Times (NIT)

Controversial changes to child protection laws have passed the Northern Territory Parliament, sparking warnings the impacts will be carried by First Nations families for generations.

On Tuesday evening, the Northern Territory Parliament passed the Country Liberal Party (CLP) government’s child protection reforms, promoted since the tragic death of five-year-old Kumanajyi Little Baby in April and described as the “most significant overhaul of the Territory’s child protection system in a generation”.

The new law removes the legal enforceability of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (ATSICPP) — designed to ensure children removed from their families maintain connections to family, community and culture — so that it applies only “as far as practicable,” while also capping protection orders at two years in favour of permanency placements.

Read more in NIT

Also >

Gina Rinehart sent us an email, 7’s Hanson ‘exclusive’; Argentina loses more than World Cup - We Used to be Journos

In this episode Jan Fran and Antoinette celebrate Spain’s win at the FIFA World Cup acknowledging they’ve probably been influenced and/or brainwashed by their algorithm which morphed the football final into an Argentina hate-fest. Plus, they shine a spotlight on Seven’s exclusive interview with Pauline Hanson, and the decades-long role the media company has played in reviving her career and airing her views. Also, Australia’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart doesn't like our opinion, and sent us a complaint email. We reveal what was inside.

Listen to the We Used to be Journos Podcast

Also >

Jeffrey Loewenstein: Is Bondi Royal Commission evidence making social cohesion worse? - Michael West Media

Much of the evidence at the Bondi Royal Commission is one-sided, uncontested and delusional. So much for ‘social cohesion’.

Anyone who followed the evidence given at the Royal Commission on July 13 will have heard what a young woman, Liat (not her real name), said about how she was accused of being a “baby killer” and a “genocide supporter”, as well as the almost unchallenged “evidence” of Antisemitism Envoy Jillian Segal.

Liat is a young woman studying at Canberra University. While Liat felt put upon and threatened by what she was accused of, she was not cross-examined about her feelings and attitude to Israel. It would also seem that Liat is either ignorant of or not prepared to accept that Israel has killed 20,179 children in Gaza, starved and maimed children, and left 58,550 as orphans – a direct result of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Like so many of the witnesses at the hearing, Liat expressed no empathy, concern, sadness, or even being slightly troubled by the situation in which Gazans find themselves. One has to assume that Liat, too, is a rusted-on 100% supporter of Israel no matter what.

She would doubtlessly accept that Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu speaks for all the Jews everywhere in the world.

Read more from Jeffrey Loewenstein for Michael West Media

Also > Is a genocide modelled on Gaza happening in Lebanon? - Michael West Media

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What boom in international students? The total number living in Australia is lower than before the pandemic - The Conversation

International students have become a flashpoint in immigration and education debates in recent years.

Since international student numbers surged after the pandemic lockdowns, they have been blamed for housing pressures in some city areas. And universities have been accused of “cashing in” on the high fees they can charge students from overseas.

Since late 2023, the federal government has made repeated moves to cut overall numbers.

The latest example is the decision to freeze new international students at 295,000 in 2027. Student visa fees were also just increased by A$500 to $2,500, as of July 1.

Education Minister Jason Clare says international student numbers must be sustainable and in the “national interest”.

Meanwhile, migration continues to be a major political issue, and the federal government has been eager to demonstrate its control over the area.

Read more in The Conversation

THE MYTH OF A ‘JOINT’ PINE GAP - Declassified Aus

While Washington sets the priorities and commands decision-making, Australian operational staff at the base are outnumbered by Australian 'guards and gardeners'.

In the fast-moving first moments of the US conflict with China, Australia won’t have time to consider whether to become involved.

The Australian locations that have been made into forward warfighting military bases against China, like Darwin, Fremantle and Tindal, operate as arms and legs of the US military machinery. And if they are the ‘arms and legs’, then the radomes and dishes of the Pine Gap intelligence and surveillance base are the ‘eyes and ears’.

Pine Gap is already an active war-fighter base, a key part of the United States global system of intelligence and military capability. The satellites of Pine Gap have been helping the US – in places like Gaza, Ukraine and Afghanistan – fight its wars for years, collecting intelligence, identifying targets, monitoring movements, helping to direct the drones and missiles and bombers.

Read more in Declassified Aus

Today’s cartoon by Matt Golding

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

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Paul Budde: AI resilience is the next step after the Government’s AI regulatory framework - Independent Australia

The Government has taken an important first step by developing an AI regulatory framework; the next step should be an AI infrastructure strategy.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DESERVES CREDIT for recognising that artificial intelligence has become an issue of national importance. Its new AI strategy addresses governance, energy and water consumption, and the protection of Australian copyright.

These are sensible initiatives.

But they are not the issues that will determine Australia’s future in the AI economy.

The strategy largely treats AI as another technology requiring regulation. Yet AI is rapidly becoming something much bigger.

Read more from Paul Budde for Independent Australia

Also >

The Cohesion Question - Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny

Why has social cohesion — a concept researchers still can't agree how to measure — become one of the most contested ideas in Australian politics? What separates the multiculturalism built by successive Australian governments from the harder, more exclusive boundaries being drawn by Pauline Hanson and Tony Abbott today? And with the political cost of saying the unsayable at an all-time low, can government and society rebuild trust before the fracture gets worse? Dr Michael Zekulin joins Mark and Marija to unpack why "social cohesion" has become the buzzword of the moment, as Pauline Hanson returns from a UK tour with Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage, and Barnaby Joyce warns against fraying community bonds.

Listen to the Democracy Sausage Podcast

Also > The fallout from Pauline Hanson’s Euro Summer - Full Story Podcast

Crunch time for school education? - Inside Story

Propped up for more than half a century, Australia’s hybrid school system is proving unsustainable. Can it be reshaped to work for all students?

In the 1970s Australia established our present system of funding for both public and private schools. Public schools remained fully funded, open and free to everyone. Private schools, partially funded by government, were open to some, at a price.

It was the perfect script to create today’s mess.

What went wrong? Partisan politics and an ad hoc federalism are frequently blamed, and almost every reform fix thrown at the system has made little difference.

Australia’s schools have long suffered the vagaries of politics, rampant vested interests and changing governments.

Read more in Inside Story

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Rachel Withers: Labor, we’ve invited you here for a gambling intervention. Please sit down - Crikey

With Labor hoovering up millions in donations from gambling bodies — and a pokies giant nestling up to its recent national conference — is it time we had a little chat?

Gambling is on the agenda at this week’s triennial Labor conference in Adelaide, as members push for the party to go further than the Albanese government’s watered-down limits on advertising, introduced to parliament in early July.

The Left faction is contemplating whether to try to strengthen the national platform, which currently pats Labor on the back for what it has done, alluding to addressing “inducements” next. The ABC and Nine newspapers flag a potential amendment for a dedicated national regulator, which is a recommendation from the late Peta Murphy’s You Win Some, You Lose More report (that the government ignored), along with the committee’s calls for a total ad ban.

Read more from Rachel Withers for Crikey (paywall)

Age bans will not fix social media’s harms - Pearls and Irritations

Social media age bans won’t make children safer; requiring social-media platforms to prove the safety of their products will.

As the European Union considers how to protect and empower young people in a digital world, it must resist the urge to enact a ban on social media for young people. A more effective strategy would be to hold tech companies to product-liability standards that force them to remove addictive features. This happens with most other industries.

When I joined Facebook in 2009, I believed in the mission that founder Mark Zuckerberg espoused: to connect and empower people around the world. We all know how that turned out. Meta, now the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is focused on generating as much engagement as possible, which has led to platforms that addict, enrage, misinform and polarise users.

Read more in Pearls and Irritations

SUPPORT OUR PRECIOUS DEMOCRACY THROUGH DEMOCRACY WALKS T-SHIRTS.

Inspired by a local group of people in Sydney's north who were looking for t-shirts to wear on their regular walks, Democracy Walks champions, supports and actively engages in our democracy.

CLICK here to see a range of Democracy Walks’ t-shirt designs.

DEMOCRACY WALKS T-SHIRTS - THEY NEVER FAIL TO START A CONVERSATION.

Quick Links…

Articles and Commentary

Podcasts

Videos

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Support Australia’s independent news publishers and commentators through a donation

Share your views on Australia’s media landscape through TrueNorth’s short survey

You’re up to date for Wednesday the 22nd of July. See you tomorrow.

PUBLISHER’S DAYS OFF: TrueNorth is unable to send an independent news update on the 28, 29 and 30th of July . TrueNorth is a solo created project. Read more about us here.

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - AAP Latest News here - through 6 News here

Support Australia’s independent news publishers and commentators through a donation.

Share TrueNorth News

Discover independent news media. See the clear difference.

Thanks for reading TrueNorth News! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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