News update for Fri 21 March 2025
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 curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.
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TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
Josh Butler: Labor braces for weak woke week as Advance steps into the light - The Guardian
The rightwing outfit Advance has been relatively quiet in the pre-campaign campaign, comfortably outspent by green groups and teals on social media and resisting any Clive Palmer-style mass buyout of newspaper ad real estate.
That’s set to change.
After launching its new anti-Anthony Albanese “weak, woke and sending us broke” campaign, Advance spokesperson Sandra Bourke has told supporters to expect full-page ads across Australia’s “biggest newspapers” in the coming week.
The blitz is conveniently timed to coincide with Jim Chalmers’ budget and potentially the start of the election campaign proper.
Read more from Josh Butler for The Guardian
Also > Newsroom edition: can Dutton and Albanese get voters to listen to them?
- Full Story Podcast
Right-wing minor parties and the federal election - The Tally Room Podcast
Ben is joined by Ben Moffitt from Monash University to discuss the role of right-wing minor parties in federal politics, why it is so hard for them to work together, and chances in the Senate. We also discuss the seat of Hunter in New South Wales.
Listen to Ben Raue for The Tally Room Podcast
Australia’s PBS means consumers pay less for expensive medicines. Here’s how this system works - The Conversation
The United States pharmaceutical lobby has complained to US President Donald Trump that Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is damaging their profits and has urged Trump to put tariffs on pharmaceutical imports from Australia.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended the scheme, saying Australia’s pharmaceutical subsidy scheme was “not up for negotiation”. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said he would also protect the PBS, which was the “envy of the world”.
But what exactly is the PBS, and why does it matter?
Also read >
Will the US trade war push up the price of medicines in Australia? Will there be drug shortages? - The Conversation
Trump urged to target ‘coercive and discriminatory’ Australian media laws by Musk’s X, Apple, Google and Meta - The Guardian
‘Vandals in the White House’ no longer reliable allies of Australia, former defence force chief says - The Guardian
Of course Australia’s PBS is despised — it values safety, low prices and best value - Crikey (paywall)
Manufactured antisemitism. Universities relied on fudged numbers - Michael West Media
Australian universities recently adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. Their reasoning was based on fudging the numbers, argues historian Emma Thomas.
When does 5.8% of a specific demographic become 64% of the same demographic? When data is misrepresented in an effort to protect Israel from criticism, it seems.
On 27 February this year, Universities Australia (UA) released a “statement on racism” in which it announced that UA’s 39 members—including all 38 public universities in the country—would “adopt a clear definition of antisemitism that aligns closely with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance [IHRA] definition.”
Read more in Michael West Media
Also > Is Anti-Semitism Being Weaponised? - Fourth Estate
The biggest upward redistribution of wealth in history is coming soon - Robert Reich
Trump’s tariffs will especially hurt lower-income Americans, while his tax cuts will especially benefit the wealthy.
Donald Trump believes his tariffs will bring so much money to the U.S. treasury that the U.S. will be able to afford another giant Trump tax cut.
But Trump’s tariffs — and the retaliatory tariffs already being imposed on American exports by the nation’s trading partners — will be paid largely by the American working class and poor.
And the people who will benefit most from another giant Trump tax cut are America’s wealthy.
It will be a giant upward transfer of wealth.
Also >
No rate cut for a Trump-ravaged US economy — but the next best thing - Crikey (paywall)
Today’s cartoon by David Rowe
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
Join the new Boiling Point community - where we’re growing a group of politically informed Australians in the lead up to the 2025 federal election. See details and sign up here.
ACCC urges reform as Coles and Woolworths named among ‘most profitable’ supermarkets in world - The Guardian
A 441-page report calls for 20 recommendations, including greater transparency around prices, special offers and ‘shrinkflation’
Coles and Woolworths increased prices during a cost-of-living crisis to boost profits and used promotions that made it hard to judge a good shopping deal, the competition regulator concluded in a major report investigating the sector.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) also found the big chains, along with discount rival Aldi, are among the most profitable supermarket businesses in the world, and that the sector requires widespread reform.
Also read >
Coles and Woolies are officially profiteering from us — but years of denial means it’s too late - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
The stark reality of our supermarket duopoly — in gloriously worrying numbers - Crikey (paywall)
Aldi’s expanding profit margins mightn’t sit well with fans - The Guardian
ACCC finds Australia’s supermarkets are among the world’s most profitable – but doesn’t accuse them of price gouging - The Conversation
China, Australia and the warships off our coast - 7am Podcast
Over the past month, a flotilla of Chinese military ships came close to Australian shores unannounced. They conducted live-fire drills off the coast of Eden, New South Wales – disrupting dozens of flights out of Sydney airport. The Chinese ships have arrived at a time when Australia’s ability to rely on the United States for defence is questionable, and their presence has sparked concerns that we’re unable to handle our own security in the event of an attack. Today, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, Sam Roggeveen, on why the Chinese military circled Australia – and what we should do about it.
Also > How AwkwUS! Australia's special relationship with the US - A Rational Fear Podcast
Lidia Thorpe, the UN Declaration and the mob out there - Inside Story
Despite her weakness for hyperbole, the high-profile senator has proposed a simple way of bringing greater Indigenous scrutiny to parliament.
How has the defeat of the Voice referendum affected public debate about Indigenous affairs? One way to answer this question is to look at what’s been said since October 2023 by Indigenous leaders for whom the referendum vote was a victory rather than a defeat: Senator Lidia Thorpe for example.
In the Senate in December that year, Thorpe gloated about the No campaign’s triumph, referring to “this year’s referendum for constitutional recognition — that no one wanted — and a Voice to Parliament — that no one wanted.” What did she want instead?
Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight - The Shot
As the saying goes, everything the Nazis did was legal, under German law.
Hitler began by being lawfully elected, then invited to form government and become Chancellor under the constitution, following which he suspended everyone’s civil rights, suborned parliament and made increasingly repressive laws.
Since government consists of three arms, you need to capture or neutralise all three if you want to be a proper fascist. Having taken possession of the executive arm and co-opted the legislature, the Nazis set about bringing the judiciary to heel as well. There wasn’t much resistance.
Read more from Michael Bradley for The Shot
Cam Wilson: Big tech wants Trump to bully Australia. They should be careful what they wish for - Crikey
The world’s biggest tech companies are smearing their faces with orange make-up, coifing their hair and wrapping themselves in the American flag.
What a surprise. The American lobby group representing Apple, Meta, Google, X and the rest of big tech is seriously concerned about the consequences of the Australian government doing anything to their companies.
Responding to the US government’s call-out for “unfair trading practices”, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) has lobbed up some softballs for the Trump administration to bat away, criticising Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code (NMBC) and its proposed successor, the Albanese government’s News Bargaining Incentive (NBI), as well as local content rules for streamers.
Read more from Cam Wilson for Crikey (paywall)
Also read > Temu Tony Stark does not feel your pain. - John Birmingham for Alien Sideboob
Who me? Donald Dutton’s dilemma as poll nears - The Politics
Does shoot-from-the-lip ‘Pistol Pete’ really want to boast about having more in common with the scorched-earth US president than Anthony Albanese?
Of all the useful idiots who populate Sky News after dark, there’s none more ideologically blinkered and all the way with Donald J. Trump than TV talk show host Rowan Dean. Dickwit Dean’s advice in recent days for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, the wannabe PM who faces a perilous orange-hued haze between him and The Lodge, is to embrace all things Trumpian as the one true path to victory.
Read more from Murray Hogarth for The Politics
Also >
Dutton’s Dangerous Con: The Coalition’s Empty Grab for Power - Sue Barrett
Peter Dutton wants American anti-mafia laws to take on the CFMEU. Could they work in Australia? - The Conversation
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Quick Links…
Australian university researchers told ‘woke gender ideology’ among reasons behind Trump funding cuts - The Guardian
Federal Budget must prioritise initiatives to support Closing the Gap – Croakey Health Media
Friday essay: Trump’s presidency is being compared to America’s Gilded Age – what was it, and what happened next? - The Conversation
New report reveals Islamophobia in Australia reaching crisis levels - Pearls and Irritations
Charlotte’s friends with Down syndrome are paid $3 an hour. It’s legal in Australia - and she’s taking a stand - The Guardian
Every generation thinks they had it the toughest, but for Gen Z, they’re probably right - The Conversation
In this era of extreme weather, how to work with communities on response and recovery – Croakey Health Media
Six graphs reveal the true state of crime in Victoria and who’s behind it - The Guardian
The Project airs MFW's fight against toxic masculinity ... then diminishes it - Independent Australia
“We will not back down:” Court tells Greenpeace to pay billion dollar damages bill to oil and gas company - Renew Economy
To be woke is the worst: Will the word ever recover? - Crikey (paywall)
Dutton wrong to claim interest rates 'always' lower under Coalition - The New Daily
NSW Law Society faces backlash for advertising new book from disgraced judge Dyson Heydon - Women’s Agenda
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
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You’re up to date for Friday the 21st of March. 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
Join the new Boiling Point community - where we’re growing a group of politically informed Australians in the lead up to the 2025 federal election. See details and sign up here.
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