News update for Fri 9 May 2025

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

May 09, 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

"Bandt could not survive our attacks" – Advance - The Klaxon

Disinformation group “Advance” has said Adam Bandt “could not survive” the “massive”, “year-long campaign” it had “unleashed” on the Greens leader.

In an email today, Advance executive director Matthew Sheahan said Bandt’s loss was a result of the “damage caused” by the group’s “multi-million dollar attack”.

“Bandt could not survive the massive year-long campaign unleashed by Advance and its supporters,” Sheahan said.

“He suffered a catastrophic hit to his vote”.

Also read >

How Advance’s anti-Greens campaign backfired and helped elect Australia’s most progressive Parliament ever - Cam Wilson for Crikey (paywall)
Former Greens leaders urge party to stand up to Labor ‘arrogance’ as jockeying begins to replace Bandt - The Guardian

David Pocock wants us to aim for up 90% reduction in emissions - Politics Podcast with Michelle Grattan

David Pocock joins us today to talk about the new Senate situation, his aspirations for the next three years and the election generally.

Listen to Politics Podcast with Michelle Grattan

Also >

Australia’s clean energy industry has just survived a near-death experience. Where to from here? - The Guardian
‘No silver medal in politics’: Did Climate 200 get bang for its buck this election? - Rachel Withers for Crikey (paywall)
It’s almost winter. Why is Australia still so hot? - The Conversation
Dutton and Nats gasping under nuclear fallout - Murray Hogarth for The Politics

Ross Gittins: The climate won’t change for the Liberals without more women and fewer oldies - Pearls and Irritations

If the Liberals have any sense, they won’t waste too much time blaming their shocking election result on Peter Dutton, Donald Trump, Cyclone Alfred, the party secretariat, an unready shadow ministry or any other “proximate cause”, as economists say. Why not? Because none of these go to the heart of their party’s problem.

The Liberals’ problem is that Australia has changed, but their party hasn’t. They’re like someone still driving a Holden Commodore: a great car in its day, but looking pretty outdated today.

Also read >

Grattan on Friday: Bitter struggle in Liberals for likely poisoned chalice, as Jacinta Price defects from Nationals - The Conversation
A Taylor-Price leadership would push Liberals to Trumpian right - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)

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Greg Jericho: The Reserve Bank played it safe and didn’t cut interest rates in April – and households suffer - The Guardian

As we focused on the election, the latest retail trade figures came out – and they stunk. Another reason why the RBA should have cut.

The latest retail spending figures show that households continue to do it tough and that the Reserve Bank of Australia was wrong when it chose to keep rates steady in April.

Back in the first week of the election campaign, if you recall, the Reserve Bank monetary policy board met and decided to do nothing. Things were confusing, things were uncertain. Better to do nothing. Also, there was an election on – best not to look political, play it safe.

In the age of the influencer, does the political backing of News Corp matter anymore? - The Conversation

This year’s federal election demonstrated that Australia’s media landscape has changed. Big players are no longer “kingmakers” in politics.

Influencers on TikTok and Instagram have seemingly become journalists. Politicians are going on podcasts, and campaign advertising has become memes.

Australia’s news media has historically been concentrated in the hands of a few large companies. Now there are fresh new voices.

But who are these new players? Are they even “journalists”? And to what extent are older media, such as News Corp, still influential?

A victory beyond expectation: Labor’s biggest triumph - New Politics

A Labor government may never have another moment quite like this and to waste it out of fear would be a greater failure than any misstep made in pursuit of bold, progressive change.

The federal election held last Saturday has produced one of the most resounding and historic victories for the Labor Party in modern political history. Although most observers anticipated a Labor win – especially given the Liberal Party’s chaotic campaign – almost no one foresaw the magnitude of the result that unfolded on the night. What began as a conventional re-election bid for a first-term government has ended as a political landslide that reshaped the electoral map, defied almost a century of precedents, and delivered a mandate to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that few leaders have ever enjoyed.

Anthony Albanese’s next big test - 7am Podcast

A week ago, most pundits were predicting a hung parliament as the likely outcome of Australia’s federal election. Instead, Labor has secured one of its largest majorities in recent decades – eclipsing even Bob Hawke’s first-term result. Anthony Albanese now commands near-unquestioned authority within his party. But as the celebrations subside, questions are already emerging about how his government will use that mandate and whether hubris could undo it. Today, columnist for The Saturday Paper, Paul Bongiorno, on Labor’s historic win and the risks that follow a landslide.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also >

Exclusion of Ed Husic from the Albanese Ministry Statement | Pearls and Irritations - Paul Keating in Pearls and Irritations
Second-term Albanese Government can escape the Liberal veto - The New Daily

Liberal Party China syndrome another campaign disaster - Michael West Media

The Liberal Party ran a disastrous campaign in electorates with large Chinese-Australian populations, with swings against the Liberals far greater than the national average.

The Perth seat of Tangney, Sydney metropolitan seats of Reid and Bennelong, as well as Chisholm in Melbourne, were all comfortably retained by Labor with swings well above the national average of 2.2%. In Tangney, the swing was 4.9%; in Chisolm, 4.6%; in Reid, 7.5%; with a swing of 13.5% in the once rock-solid Liberal seat of Bennelong.

Sussan Ley for Liberal leader? Is this the ultimate glass cliff? - Women’s Agenda

The Liberal Party has long grappled—or some may argue, wilfully ignored—its problem with Australian women.

Now, in the days after its catastrophic defeat, deputy leader Sussan Ley has emerged as a frontrunner to take on the leadership. She faces competition in the form of Angus Taylor, the shadow treasurer who has been blamed for the party’s dire lack of economic policy.

Speaking on Sunrise this morning, Ley said “We did let the women of Australia down.”

Also read > In Australia the conclaves continue for the top jobs in politics - ABC News

Crystal Andrews: All those right-wing young men coming to save Dutton? A mirage - Crikey

Political commentators got the read on young men very wrong, in part because they would not be swayed from their US-inspired framing.

The alarming far-right radicalisation of gen Z men has delivered Peter Dutton a resounding victory in the ele— Wait, hold on, that’s not right. Let’s try again: the right-wing shift of young men was a mirage. One of several, it seems, that Dutton used as the foundation of his campaign.

While a final picture of exactly who voted for which candidates is still months away, it seems much of the political commentary got the read on young men very wrong, largely due to the way it editorialised selective polling data points.

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