News update for Mon 10 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
BREAKING NEWS: ‘Weak and ineffective’: Donald Trump lashes out at former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull - The Guardian
Ben Raue: Assessing the WA landslide - The Tally Room
Labor won 41 seats out of 59 at the 2017 election, alongside 18 Liberals and Nationals. The 2021 result saw Labor win 53 seats, to just six for the conservative parties.
At this time of writing, Labor has won 40 seats, the Liberal Party has won five, and the Nationals have won 4. One seat (Albany) will either fall to Liberal or Nationals, bringing the conservative parties to a total of ten. There is also one seat where an independent is in with a strong chance of defeating Labor. That is Fremantle, where the independent was leading for much of last night, but is now on 29% behind Labor on 33%.
Read more from Ben Raue for The Tally Room
Also >
WA Labor’s third landslide - The Tally Room Podcast with Ben Raue and William Bowe
Three key takeaways from the WA election which hint at Labor’s fortunes (and challenges) in federal vote - The Guardian
Another decisive Labor win in WA, but much remains at stake - The Conversation
The WA election couldn’t have gone worse for the state’s Liberal Party - William Bowe for Crikey (paywall)
Josh Taylor: Labor was warned its perceived ‘one-sided’ Israel support over Gaza raised social cohesion concerns - The Guardian
Exclusive: Department told minister in November 2023 Palestinian and Muslim communities were ‘extremely angry, hurt and betrayed’
The home affairs department warned the government as early as November 2023 that its perceived one-sidedness in support of Israel during the Gaza conflict left Palestinian and Muslim Australians feeling “extremely angry” and “betrayed” , as well as concern about social cohesion, documents reveal.
Read more from Josh Taylor for The Guardian
Cyclone politics - 7am Podcast
Cyclone Alfred hits as we gear up for the federal election, bringing back memories of the floods and bushfires that tore through the country last time we voted. How Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton handle this moment could be crucial, as voters refocus on the increasing impact of climate change and closely scrutinise the plans both parties have to address it. Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Paper, Mike Seccombe, on the politics of natural disasters – and why every election is a climate change election.
Also >
More households than ever are under-insured. Here’s what needs to be done - The Conversation
The Alfred effect: when climate gives politics a wake-up call - Murray Hogarth for The Politics
Disruption (with Australian characteristics) - Inside Story
A credible teal threat to the Liberals in Sydney’s Bradfield raises the question: would minority government be so bad?
The respected political journalist George Megalogenis revealed in his recent Quarterly Essay, Minority Report: The New Shape of Australian Politics, that his attitude towards minority government has changed over the years. Once fearful of its potential for gridlock, he’s now more optimistic. It could be the shot in the arm Australian democracy and policymaking needs.
We hear a lot about disruption nowadays. Minority government might be disruption, but in this case it would come with Australian characteristics — and might not be such a bad thing.
Also read >
Community Independents - Diversity Over Political Careerism & Vested Interests - Sue Barrett
What a modest political donation by Rupert Murdoch’s son-in-law tells us about the family divide - Crikey (paywall)
Teal MPs decry anonymous ‘push poll’ sent to voters in two independent seats - The Guardian
New $100,000 war chest to bankroll female independents - The AFR
Dr Victoria Fielding: Trump’s overreach making the world finally see the Right - Independent Australia
The extreme nature of Donald Trump's presidency ought to serve as a wake-up call to Western democracies and those who take them for granted.
THE FIRST SEVEN WEEKS of Donald Trump’s second term as President have been a horror show. No matter how bad you expected Trump’s presidency to be, it’s safe to assume your worst fears weren’t as bad as the political, social and economic reality of what America and the world are facing.
But despite it all, I have hope. Call me naively optimistic (it’s a character flaw), but I believe America and the world could benefit from seeing the consequences of Trump in all its horrific reality.
Read more from Dr Victoria Fielding for Independent Australia
Also read >
Donald Trump is a bully, not a strongman. And Australia will pay for his destruction as he panders to the mega-rich - Julianne Schultz for The Guardian
To make America great, Donald Trump is undoing its greatness as global stock markets fall - Alan Kohler for The ABC
Michael Pascoe: Un cri de coeur. Where to, when trust in our government is gone? - Michael West Media
What happens when people no longer trust a Government that abandons whistleblowers, surrenders its citizens to a foreign power and hides behind ever-increasing secrecy.
I no longer trust Australia’s Government.
That statement will seem trite to some, perhaps to many, naïve to more. It is not to me. The sense of betrayal is visceral. Wrestling with the words at this keyboard, the realisation hurts. It would not be hard to cry.
Read more from Michael Pascoe for Michael West Media
Today’s cartoon by Fiona Katauskas
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.
Environment: Albanese sacrifices the marine environment for Tasmanian votes - Pearls and Irritations
Prime minister showers salmon farmers with treats despite the environmental destruction and massive salmon deaths. Nations have opportunities during 2025 to improve ocean health. Exponential increases in global battery storage capacity. People alive today have produced most of the world’s greenhouse gases.
Albanese helps salmon farmers destroy Tasmanian harbours
The serious environmental problems caused by salmon farming in Tasmania’s coastal waters are well documented – pollution of the harbours with food, excreta and chemicals, deoxygenation of the water, accidental and not-so-accidental killing of seals, pushing the “Endangered” Maugean skate to the brink of extinction, unsustainable hoovering up of krill to feed the salmon, and more.
Read more in Pearls and Irritations
How Australian households are changing - The Daily Aus Podcast
Every year since 2001, a study has looked at how Australian households are changing. It's called the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia, or HILDA, survey, and it captures trends across a broad cross-section of Australians’ finances, social life, mental health, household activities and family life. Among its most recent findings is that men are doing the same amount of housework on average as they were 20 years ago. On today’s podcast, we dissect its findings, and discuss what has and hasn’t changed about Australia since the turn of the century.
Listen to The Daily Aus Podcast
Belinda Noble: Billboard blunders reveal dangerous double standards on climate change - Renew Economy
In 2021, an article published in the Journal of Environment Research found that pollution from burning coal, petroleum and gas was causing far more deaths around the world than previously thought.
In fact, the fine particulate matter (known as PM 2.5) from cars, planes, furnaces, coal plants and more, was behind the deaths of 1 in 5 people – slightly more than cigarette smoking.
This is a simple medical fact was put on the design for a billboard that Comms Declare and Doctors for the Environment recently submitted to Ooh Media, hoping it would be published on bus stops in Perth.
But it was knocked back, for being “political” and for depicting smoking.
Read more from Belinda Noble for Renew Economy
Dutton is jumping on the Elon Musk bandwagon with lazy bureaucrat bashing - Crikey
Peter Dutton is wheeling out tropes about ‘lazy’ public servants driving down productivity by working from home. But does this argument stand up to scrutiny?
The Liberal Party came a dismal third place in the seat of Canberra in 2022, suffering a 6% swing against it. And given Peter Dutton’s recent attacks on federal public servants, this year’s result might be even worse.
The Coalition’s fatwa against bureaucrats started with its recent suggestion that it may cut as many as 36,000 public service jobs (approximately 20% of the federal workforce). How many of those will be redundancies versus “natural attrition” or not hiring proposed future positions remains unclear.
Read more in Crikey (paywall)
The cracks in the empire: America’s allies are drifting away - New Politics
Australia must seek a more balanced and honest partnership with the United States – one that primarily serves Australian interests.
Most of the Western world is preparing for a shift in their relationship with the United States, as the once-unshakable alliances that defined global politics in the post-war and Cold War eras are beginning to erode, replaced by a cautious pragmatism among America’s closest partners. The assumption that Washington would always be the uncontested leader of the free world is being reconsidered as allies – quietly or openly – recalibrate their strategic positions.
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Quick Links…
Women have seen gains on many fronts. Can Australia hold on to them? - Crikey (paywall)
How to rescue a recession election - Back to Back Barries Podcast
The Murdoch plague on world politics - Pearls and Irritations
Fool or fabricator? ABC in the spotlight - Pearls and Irritations
Optus sponsors Israel lobby, responds "no comment" - Michael West Media
Sorry, the full Gonski won’t be enough - Pearls and Irritations
Dutton's stuff-ups: N-plan could add up to $600 per year to bills by 2030 - Pearls and Irritations
Julie Bishop and the mine that could ruin Greenland - 7am Podcast
Well, this is AUKUS - The Sunday Shot Podcast
Aus Super Industry is Giddy About Tech and AI ... - Sandy Plunkett
Can Albanese seize the opportunity to think big in a budget reset? (Eh, probably not) - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Labor is promising a national food security strategy – but there’s no mention of Australians who are going hungry - The Conversation
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 Monday the 10th of March. See you tomorrow!
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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