News update for Mon 13 Jan 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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Happy new election year! Scroll down for today’s news and views…
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
PUBLISHER’S DAY OFF: TrueNorth will not publish on Wednesday 15th of January. Thank you for your support. TrueNorth is a solo run newsletter. See further information about us here.
Why becoming more politically active is the best new year’s resolution you can make - Womens Agenda
Every issue we face stems from political decisions. And we choose the people who make them. The power is in our hands to elect leaders ready to shape a better, fairer future.
No one is coming to save us — it’s up to us. Together, we can build the future we want to see – especially in this 2025 election year.
Cathy McGowan: How community independent campaigns actually work - The Saturday Paper
The community independents movement is motivated by a shared sense that our democracy is not delivering the benefits it could or should. The offer of this movement is for each and every one to be the change, to turn up, speak up and step up. The community independents movement asks of every voter the question, “If not you, then who?”
Read more from Cathy McGowan for The Saturday Paper
Also read >
Without Scott Morrison to hate on, can teals deal a blow to the Coalition this election? - The Guardian
Peter Dutton has a women problem as Teals gear up for Election - Michael West Media
There is no such thing as a safe seat - The Australia Institute
What we learned – and didn’t – from Peter Dutton’s unofficial campaign launch - The Guardian
Peter Dutton emerged from his summer break on Sunday to launch the Coalition’s unofficial election campaign.
In a 38-minute pre-prepared speech to MPs and party loyalists at a campaign-style rally in Melbourne, the federal opposition leader framed the upcoming contest as a “sliding doors moment” for Australia.
Here’s what we learned – and didn’t – from Dutton’s opening pitch ahead of the 2025 poll.
Also read >
Dutton’s MAGA Down Under pamphlet shows how vulnerable he is on migration - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Medicare - bulk-billing, bluster and a ‘Mediscare’ redux? - Michael West Media
Albanese v Dutton: The 'small target' v 'no target' election - 7am Podcast
The 2025 federal election campaign has already begun, even if unofficially. While most Australians are still enjoying their summer, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton are already in fight mode. For Labor, the stakes are high. To secure a second term, they’re hoping to reverse their losses in Queensland and regain popularity with an apathetic electorate. For the Coalition, it’s about regaining ground in suburban seats and capitalising on the government’s self inflicted wounds. Today, The Saturday Paper’s associate editor, Martin Mackenzie-Murray, on the “shadow campaign” already underway – and what Labor insiders say is the biggest threat to the government winning a second term.
Also > The election is coming: what moments will define the campaign? - Full Story Podcast
Foxtel: transactions you can’t trust, tax evasion you can’t ignore - Michael West Media
While Rupert Murdoch’s pundits at News Corporation decry welfare bludgers and ‘Their ABC’, Foxtel gets a free ride on tax. Michael West consults the (actually independent) experts.
Sky News presenters regularly fulminate about Australian taxpayers funding the “Their ABC”, that taxpayer-funded hotbed of woke “leftists”.
“What a hide!” thundered prominent Sky News commentator Prue MacSween at the government’s move last month to reinstate $83m in funding to the ABC which had been cut by the previous Coalition government.
Read more in Michael West Media
Today’s cartoon by Matt Golding
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
NACC finds “no corruption” – spends $140m to date - The Klaxon
After more than 18 months — and installed after one of the most corrupt governments in the nation’s history — the National Anti-Corruption Commission has completed its first investigations.
And in all three cases it says it found no corruption.
That’s despite the NACC only launching “investigations” in the most serious of cases — after multiple stages of triaging — and it having refused to investigate over the $1.76 billion Robodebt scandal.
Read more by Anthony Klan for The Klaxon
The UN says Australia violated human rights law, but it’s unlikely to change the way we treat refugees - The Conversation
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has ruled that Australia breached international human rights law by detaining a group of young asylum seekers in immigration detention in Nauru.
The committee found the asylum seekers were subject to prison-like conditions, potentially indefinitely, and without knowing what was going to happen to them in the future. This, the committee found, was in breach of their human rights.
It also found that although the “cruel and degrading” treatment happened in Nauru, Australia was responsible.
Also read > Australia’s cruelty to refugee children again exposed by the United Nations: Time for accountability - Women’s Agenda
Dreyfus’ trip to Israel makes a mockery of Labor’s foreign policy - Pearls and Irritations
This is a regime headed by a Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who, along with his erstwhile Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, is under threat of arrest via the mechanism of International Criminal Court warrants issued against them last year. A government that has murdered men, women, and children in Gaza in a grossly disproportionate response to the horror perpetrated by Hamas on 7 October 2023. A government that is starving a population, and destroying healthcare, including critical life-saving facilities.
If Dreyfus was going to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government, there would be an outburst of hysteria among members of the political class, the media and community groups.
Read more from Greg Barns for Pearls and Irritations
Also read > Israel is not our friend - Pearls and Irritations
In 2024 global warming topped 1.5C. Have we failed the Paris Agreement? - The ABC
It's official — 2024 was the hottest year on record and the first calendar year in which the earth was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times.
That's a significant number, because it's the target that world leaders agreed to under the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015, to try to limit global warming.
But, while the hot year certainly isn't good news, this breach of 1.5C doesn't mean we've broken the Paris Agreement.
Let's break down why that is, what it means for our climate and weather, and where 1.5C marker came from in the first place.
Also read >
LA is on fire. How will Australia cope when bushfires hit Sydney, Melbourne or another major city? - The Conversation
Labor can, and should, take this promise on coal to the election - The New Daily
Labor can go out on its managerialist knees or embrace boldness - Crikey
Will Labor embrace boldness in its election campaign, or settle for trying to sell economic managerialism to disgruntled voters?
According to at least one poll, the Coalition has entered the informal stage of the election campaign with a winning lead: Roy Morgan kicked off 2025 with a 53-47 poll. Although as William Bowe has pointed out, this was down to an unusual preference allocation, with Labor’s primary vote actually having lifted.
Bowe’s BludgerTrack poll aggregator — the only poll you need to pay attention to — shows the Coalition has a tiny 0.6-point lead with a swing of 2.4%.
On Bowe’s state-based aggregates, Labor is facing swings against it in all mainland states.
Read more from Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
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 join the democracy walkers today!
See a list of the 29 community independents - who have (so far) announced their candidacy in the upcoming federal election. Subscribe, volunteer, donate to support their campaigns.
Quick Links…
The disruptions to come: Australian foreign policy in the Trump era - Pearls and Irritations
Steve Bannon condemns Elon Musk as ‘racist’ and ‘truly evil’ - The Guardian
This talk of nuclear is a waste of time: Wind, solar and firming can clearly do the job - Renew Economy
Australian social cohesion under threat - Pearls and Irritations
Logging in forest earmarked for koala national park increasing under NSW Labor, analysis finds - The Guardian
The women world leaders already standing up to Trump’s threats - Women’s Agenda
Reproductive leave could be a ‘gamechanger’ for Australian workers – how would it work? - The Guardian
Where is the 'mature debate' about the health impacts of nuclear power? - Pearls and Irritations
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 13th of January. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
PUBLISHER’S DAY OFF: TrueNorth will not publish on Wednesday 15th of January. Thank you for your support. TrueNorth is a solo run newsletter. See further information about us here.
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