News update for Fri 30 May 2025

Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...

May 30, 2025

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

BREAKING NEWS: One Nation picks up four Senate spots with surprise NSW seat for former British soldier Warwick Stacey - The Guardian

UNESCO expresses ‘utmost concern’ at the state of the Great Barrier Reef - The Conversation

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has again raised grave fears for the future of the Great Barrier Reef, highlighting the problems of water pollution, climate change and unsustainable fishing.

The committee this week released draft decisions regarding the conservation of 62 World Heritage properties. This included the Great Barrier Reef, for which it noted:

Overall, while progress has been made, significant challenges remain in achieving water quality targets, managing extreme climate impacts, and ensuring the long-term resilience of the property.

The comments confirm what experts already know too well: despite substantial investments from successive Australian governments, threats to the Great Barrier Reef remain.

Back to Back Barries: Albanese’s pressure points - Full Story Podcast

As the Coalition puts itself back together again, Labor is facing the first tests of its resolve on tax, climate and Gaza. Barrie Cassidy and Tony Barry examine if Anthony Albanese is meeting the expectations of his voting base and look at the tension and problems to come for the Coalition.

Listen to the Back to Back Barries Podcast

Also > Laura Tingle on when politics is at its best - Politics Now Podcast

Adam Morton: No one committed to Paris goals can seriously argue Woodside’s LNG project should operate until 2070 - The Guardian

We don’t know all the evidence that the new environment minister, Murray Watt, had before him when he decided to approve a 40-year life extension to one of Australia’s biggest fossil fuel developments so that it could run until 2070.

But we do know this. The decision largely turned on whether the North West Shelf liquefied natural gas (LNG) development on the Pilbara’s Burrup Hub can coexist for decades into the future with an incredible collection of ancient Murujuga rock art, some of it nearly 50,000 years old and unlike anything else on the planet.

And there is enough evidence in the public domain for people to have, at best, serious doubts.

Also read >

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Murray Watt’s climate masterclass: How to destroy the planet while pretending to save it - Renew Economy

Meet Murray Watt, Australia’s new environment minister. His first major act? Approving one of the most polluting fossil fuel projects in the nation’s history – shattering any pretence of climate leadership from a government elected, in part, on that very promise.

Approving Woodside’s North West Shelf expansion doesn’t just undermine Labor’s climate commitments. It exposes the deeper dysfunction at the heart of Australian environmental governance – a system where the laws are weak, the incentives perverse, and real power lies with the fossil fuel lobby.

Georgia Cooper: The Emotional Rollercoaster of Young Women's Activism in Australia - Thought Bubble

From rage to hope to burnout and back again; the feelings no one talks about when you're trying to change the world.

You know that moment when you first realise the world is deeply unfair, and you feel like you're the only one who can see it? That burning sensation in your chest when you learn about the gender pay gap, or watch another climate report, or see how sexual assault cases are handled in the media? Welcome to the beginning of your activism journey—and trust me, it's going to be one hell of an emotional ride.

Gareth Evans: Why Australia should recognise Palestinian statehood - Pearls and Irritations

The question for the Australian Government is, how can we most constructively persuade Israel to change course?

If Israelis are ever to have the security from terrorist attack they rightly crave, it is not going to be through the indiscriminate bombing, starvation, suppression and humiliation of their Palestinian neighbours. As the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023 made horribly clear, without a political solution that satisfies legitimate Palestinian aspirations, Israel will never be free of the spectre of terrorism.

Also >

Lindsey Hilsum On The West's Warning Shots To Israel - Fourth Estate Podcast
‘What’s left?’: Dispatches from a devastated Gaza - Crikey (paywall)

Fresh cabinet, old wounds: The Coalition’s uneasy truce - 7am Podcast

After a week of turmoil, the Coalition has patched things up and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has unveiled her new shadow ministry. The appointments show the Coalition’s wounds are still raw. Nationals Leader David Littleproud secured key concessions in the renewed pact, but his hardball tactics have colleagues wondering how long he’ll last. Meanwhile, Labor is wrestling with its own debate over Gaza, as party elders and backbenchers push for tougher action against Israel. Today, press gallery journalist and Inside Story columnist, Karen Middleton, on the winners and losers of the reshuffle – and where the next parliament’s battlelines will be drawn.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also >

The Liberal Party’s 2025 Catastrophe: A Party Morally Adrift - Sue Barrett
And now, the end is near … Coalition faces the final curtain - David Hardaker for The Politics

NSW is again cleaning up after major floods. Are we veering towards the collapse of insurability? - The Conversation

Once again, large parts of New South Wales have been devastated by floods. It’s estimated 10,000 homes and businesses may have been damaged or destroyed and the Insurance Council of Australia reports more than 6,000 insurance claims have been received for the Mid North Coast and Hunter region.

Hundreds of families are displaced. With many homes now uninhabitable, they face a uncertain future.

As the mop-up begins, stories are emerging of households and businesses not covered by insurance, with some residents saying insurance companies were asking up to A$30,000 annually for cover.

Rachel Withers: The Liberal Party needs better moderates than Jason Falinski - Crikey

The former MP has become Tim Wilson’s biggest hype man. But are these the kind of ‘moderates’ to take the Liberals into the future?

Jason Falinski sure has been busy.

The former member for Mackellar, one of the six Liberals who lost to independents in 2022’s “teal” wave, is perhaps the most media hungry of the former “moderates”, appearing on Sky News at least weekly — clips he diligently rips and posts to his social media and website.

While fellow teal losers Dave Sharma and Tim Wilson have found their way back into parliament, and Josh Frydenberg bides his time, Falinski shouts from the sidelines, having concluded a stint as NSW Liberal Party president over a year ago.

Also read > John Howard’s masterful blunder - Inside Story

Busting the top five myths about the new super tax - Michael West Media

The hysteria about Labor’s proposed changes to the super tax for people with more than $3 million is driven largely by myths. Harry Chemay busts them all.

In recent years, the business media have made it only too clear that wealthy Australians have been using Self-Managed Superannuation Funds (SMSFs) to shelter ($) enormous amounts of wealth in these concessionally taxed vehicles.

Which is why the recent about-face, now railing on a near-daily basis against the Government’s solution, implementing a new tax on large balances, is so amusing. However, even some of the AFR’s commentators are starting to see reason ($).