News update for Fri 10 May 2024
Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...
Welcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share selected articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.
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Labor caves in to fossil fuel cartel as it locks in gas beyond 2050 amid deepening climate crisis - Renew Economy
Three years ago, when the federal Coalition government flew in the face of climate science and horrified the renewables industry with Scott Morrison’s plan for a “gas-led recovery” for post-Covid Australia, the then shadow minister for environment denounced the policy as a fraud.
“It’s a slogan, it’s not a policy. It’s simply a fraud,” Chris Bowen said. As federal energy minister in December 2022, Bowen doubled down on this view.
Fast forward to May 2024 and federal Labor has come up with something that is, arguably, worse.
Also read >
Labor’s gas strategy: what is it and why do critics call it ‘Back to the Future’? - The Guardian
Australia can have a future for the gas industry, or meet its climate commitments – but not both - The Conversation
The giant gas plan mocking the women’s climate concerns that helped Labor win government - Women’s Agenda
Albanese government ‘twisted’ Indigenous group’s views in ‘future gas’ document, chair says - The Guardian
Anthony Albanese faces internal revolt from inner-city Labor MPs over gas strategy - The Guardian
Labor’s strategy is to reduce emissions from gas – but not if that means doing anything to cut its use - Adam Morton for The Guardian
Albanese sees a path to victory through the victimhood of WA and Qld voters - Crikey (paywall)
Expect gas prices to keep rising, despite federal strategy - The New Daily
Labor’s Future Gas Strategy: The Real Story - Richard Denniss from The Australia Institute
“Gas shortage? Yeah, nah.” A Fact Check on Labor’s fossil gas future strategy - Renew Economy
Andrew Tate’s extreme views about women are infiltrating Australian schools. We need a zero-tolerance response - The Conversation
Earlier this week, two students were expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in creating a spreadsheet that ranked girls using sexist and violent categories (from “wifeys” and “cuties” to “unrapeable”).
There has been a necessary focus on the school and its response and significant community outrage about the actions of the young men involved. But this incident is not an isolated one.
Our ongoing research has found sexism, sexual harassment and misogyny are rife in Australian schools.
Also read > Madonna King: The problem we must confront when boys behave horribly - The New Daily
Australia must vote yes to Palestine at UN - Pearls and Irritations
The Jewish Council of Australia is horrified by what we are witnessing Israel do in Rafah. Israel’s ongoing violence in Gaza and the West Bank is the greatest impediment to peace for Palestinians and Israelis.
As Rafah assault continues, Australia must vote yes to Palestine at UN and do more to prevent genocide
Read more in Pearls and Irritations
Also listen to > Shutdown! Israel Ban's Al Jazeera As The Humanitarian Crisis Worsens - The Fourth Estate
Also watch > Is Australia exporting weapons to Israel? - The Guardian video
Also read > Biden’s Big Dream for the Middle East - Dan Rather for his Steady substack
Newsroom edition: How Labor is trying to sell the 2024 budget - The Guardian
Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers will next week present his government’s third and possibly final budget of this term. He has said it won’t be one of ‘scorched-earth austerity’ and will take into account hardships caused by the cost-of-living crisis. But the 2024 Australian federal budget is not without its economic and social challenges and the government needs to convince voters that the economy is in safe hands
Listen to The Guardian’s Full Story Podcast
Also read > What Tuesday’s federal budget must deliver for renewable energy - The New Daily
Seeing through the government - The Monthly
The Albanese government made promises on transparency, but its use of FOI and NDAs is still disturbingly widespread
Former senator Rex Patrick is on a self-described transparency crusade through the Federal Court.
If rumours around Parliament House are to be believed, Rex Patrick’s win could drive wholesale reform of the FOI system. Perhaps it is little wonder, then, that the government has appealed. Should it lose again, the pro-secrecy settings of the government make it unlikely that it will let the implication of that judgement lie.
Today’s cartoon by Matt Golding
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
Mehreen Faruqi’s case against Pauline Hanson is about racial discrimination, not defamation. There’s a big difference - Crikey
“Pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.”
That’s what Pauline Hanson tweeted at her fellow senator Mehreen Faruqi in 2022, on the day of the queen’s death. Her tweet was a reply to one posted by Faruqi. You can read both of them below to get the full context:
Last week the Federal Court heard Faruqi’s claim that Hanson’s tweet put her in breach of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. The onus is on Faruqi to prove that the tweet was a public act that was reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or group, and the act was done because of that person or group’s race, colour or national or ethnic origin.
Read more from Michael Bradley for Crikey (paywall)
Same-sex parenting book-ban today, world domination tomorrow - Independent Australia
In the special Far-Right universe inhabited by people like Steve Christou, Donald Trump, Pauline Hanson and Peter Dutton, everything that doesn’t conform to the narrowest possible conservative measure needs to be opposed at all costs. This includes but is not limited to: LGBTIQ+ rights; Indigenous rights; anything that advances women; poor people; refugees; non-Anglo migrants and the downtrodden in general.
Read more from Michelle Pini for Independent Australia
It’s going to take a lot more than financial help to convince me to have a baby for the country - Women’s Agenda
In an interview on The Morning Edition podcast with The Sydney Morning Herald, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he would like to see more people having children for the good of the country.
“It would be better if birth rates are higher,” he said.
“I think people are leaving it later. And sometimes that means you get timed out. But there are a whole range of reasons people’s preferences are changing. It’s expensive to raise kids.”
Chalmers is right – having children is a major financial decision, and it’s even harder to support a family in this economy than it was in the Howard-Costello period two decades ago.
The cognitive dissonance of planetary abuse - The Shot
Corporations are not human. Nor are the national oil and gas companies, especially not those in despotic regimes. The purveyors of fossil fuels have no empathy, no conscience. They are selling us denial, delay and false solutions with feelgood names like carbon capture and storage and blue hydrogen. The fossil fuel industries leak toxic substances into our air, waterways, soil and oceans with impunity. The poisoning is literal, as well as corrosive to our democracies, when politicians are convinced their states’ economic wellbeing depends on coal, oil or gas.
Also read > I understand climate scientists’ despair – but stubborn optimism may be our only hope - Christiana Figueres for The Guardian
High Court dismisses key challenge to indefinite immigration detention. What does it mean? - The Conversation
The High Court unanimously ruled today that the Australian government can keep asylum seekers in immigration detention indefinitely in cases where they do not “voluntarily” cooperate with their own deportation.
This includes, for example, when a person refuses to apply for travel documents due to a longstanding fear for their life if returned to their home country.
Q. Which high profile former politician has just been appointed Chair of a new multi-billion dollar green energy fund to be launched later this year??
2. Julie Bishop
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Eggs: Queensland's weapon of choice for political dissent - Independent Australia
No, Minister. It’s you who should be in court - Pearls and Irritations
Celebrity reactions to The Chaser’s 25th Birthday - The Chaser
‘Here’s to the Wine Mums’: We need to talk about alcohol marketing and Mother’s Day - Women’s Agenda
Money Launder Heaven – The West Report
Katy Gallagher thinks the budget can win over critics of a Future Made in Australia - Capital Brief (paywall)
Is the Treasurer turning over a new leaf, or is this how he plans to kick some goals - InQLD
Qantas pilots rail against airline's greenwashing tactics - Crikey
Guns and explosive chemicals found at Adelaide home of defence analyst accused of terror plot, court hears - The Guardian
‘On edge’: Fresh interest rates uncertainty as RBA battles sticky services, petrol prices - The New Daily
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
Share your views on Australia’s media landscape through TrueNorth’s short survey
You’re up to date for Friday the 10th of May. See you on Monday!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here