News update for Mon 12 Mar 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 help to counter disinformation by sharing selected articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.
Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.
Scroll down for today’s news and views…
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
BREAKING: Climate risk assessment report warns of threats to healthcare, finance and infrastructure - ABC
Could climate change mean the end of music festivals? - The Daily Aus
Last weekend, a major music festival in Victoria was cancelled due to severe weather warnings, but it's not the first time this has happened. There have been around 45 Aussie music festivals that have been partially or fully cancelled due to weather impacts since 2015. So, with temperatures soaring and climate change an increasing concern, what does the future of festivals look like in Australia?
Listen to the Daily Aus podcast
Read more > Pitch Festival debacle raises serious questions about sustainability of big outdoor music events - Ben Eltham for Crikey
Climate action denial is behind Coalition’s big target nuclear push - The New Daily
Peter Dutton’s Coalition ally, Nationals leader David Littleproud, gave the game away in a morning TV interview when he linked the Opposition’s rekindled fervour for nuclear energy to the survival of the coal industry.
It should come as no surprise because Littleproud has been under pressure in his own party room from the likes of Barnaby Joyce and other coal champions pushing for the Opposition not to adopt more ambitious interim emissions reduction targets, and even to abandon the commitment to net zero by 2050.
Read more from Paul Bongiorno for The New Daily
Stan Grant on Sam Kerr and the media’s failings - 7am Podcast
Stan Grant left the ABC, citing the media had failed — it had failed him and his family, and it had failed the country. Last week, he was struck by a stark reminder when the news of the charging of Sam Kerr in the UK led to an enormous amount of coverage that failed to deal with the story with grace, humanity and a real interrogation of what racism means.
We looked at all the recent evidence on mobile phone bans in schools – this is what we found - The Conversation
Mobile phones are currently banned in all Australian state schools and many Catholic and independent schools around the country. This is part of a global trend over more than a decade to restrict phone use in schools.
Australian governments say banning mobile phones will reduce distractions in class, allow students to focus on learning, improve student wellbeing and reduce cyberbullying.
But previous research has shown there is little evidence on whether the bans actually achieve these aims.
Wealthy older Australians should pay more for aged care services, expert panel recommends - The Guardian
Older Australians with more wealth should have to pay more for the cost of their aged care, a government-appointed expert panel has recommended, potentially from their superannuation balances.
Given the increasing wealth of many older people and the declining working age (that is tax paying) population, there is a strong case to increase participant co-contributions for those with the means to contribute, noting that there will always be a group of participants who need more government support.
Over the next 40 years, the number of people over 80 years of age is expected to triple to more than 3.5 million.
Read more from Josh Butler for The Guardian
Read more > What will aged care look like for the next generation? More of the same but higher out-of-pocket costs - The Conversation
Cartoon by Cathy Wilcox for SMH/Age
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
Can Australia trust Glencore with the Great Artesian Basin? - Pearls & Irritations
If you watch a TV channel that airs commercial advertising (my preference is SBS) no doubt you would have seen the recent advertisement by Glencore.The advertisement does not clearly identify if it is referring to Glencore plc, the multinational commodity trading and mining company based in Switzerland or to Glencore Pty Ltd, its Australian subsidiary or to any one or more of its many subsidiaries located around the world.The reference to the time Glencore claims to have mined responsibly, may be false or misleading to the public.
Read more in Pearls & Irritations
The story of Gaza’s destruction on 100 lives - The GuardianIf Gaza's population of 2.2 million people were distilled into 100 characters, they would look something like this...25% are starving.85% have been displaced.
See The Guardian's visual story of Gaza's destruction
Also see > 4Corners’ The Forever War - on ABC Iview
Australia's Climate Contradiction: Rising Risks vs Fossil Fuel Favours - Lyrebird Dreaming
The Australian Government has just published an official reminder of the dire implications of climate change: the National Climate Risk Assessment Report. But despite its acknowledgement of the huge and escalating costs of climate change, the government is keeping the fossil fuel pumps flowing.Sadly and ironically, the report coincides with the fifth mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef in the past eight years.
Read more in the Lyrebird Dreaming blog
Also read > Hosting Cop in 2026 could be the incentive Australia needs to turbocharge climate action - Richie Merzian for The Guardian
Feeling the heat - The Politics
The Coalition is ramping up its anti-renewables, anti-EV, anti-science crusade, as it does whatever it can to keep fossil fuels alive. No amount of experts pointing out that nuclear doesn’t stack up here, that it is “by far” the most expensive energy, that it will be many years before it is ready, has been able to dim Peter Dutton’s nuclear fervour, with the Opposition leader using a speech to today’s AFR business summit to announce he will soon reveal six “potential host sites” for plants (curiously, none will be in Tasmania, where an election is imminent).
Read more from Rachel Withers for The Politics
Also read > The climate crisis is accelerating — and Australia’s news media isn’t keeping up - Crikey
Inspired by a local group of people in Sydney's north who were looking for t-shirts to wear on their regular walks, Democracy Walks champions, supports and actively engages in our democracy.
CLICK here to see Democracy Walks’ t-shirt designs - and BUY!
Quick Links…
Albanese and NT governments to spend $4 billion over a decade to tackle Indigenous housing - The Conversation
Revealed: US conservative thinktank’s links to extremist fraternal order- The Guardian
Big money to be taken our of politics in a radical electoral overhaul - SMH
Coalition’s super for housing policy would drive up property prices says analysis - SMH
Dutton's fearmongering over asylum seeker arrivals is overtly hypocritical - Independent Australia
Farmers fear for future as supermarkets crunch costs - 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 Tuesday the 12th 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