News update for Mon 23 Sept 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 share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.
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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
Tim Dunlop: Welcome to the next ten years of Australian politics - The Future of Everything
The nature of a contemporary society like Australia is that the issues are too complex and diverse to be forced into a two-party system based on the ideological divisions of another era. We need to think with a bigger social brain than a two-party system can generate and that means broadening the pool of people from whom we draw our political leaders.
The transition will be rough, but it is clear that Labor’s small-target, neoliberal approach and the Coalition’s persistent shift to the right, trying to crash through with a small-bore, populist approach built around denial and demonisation, are both only of limited appeal.
Something will have to give; is already giving.
Read more from Tim Dunlop for The Future of Everything
Also read >
The teals stunned the nation in 2022. They could make or break the next government - The SMH/Age
Labor has proposed a public school funding boost – states, crossbenchers and the Greens want more. What happens now? - The Guardian
Laura Tingle: Fixing Australia's housing crisis requires cooperation, not political perfectionism - The ABC
If you ever want to make a Greens parliamentarian bristle, just mention the carbon pollution reduction scheme.
The CPRS was the Rudd government's 2009 emissions trading scheme proposal. The Greens famously voted it down.
The Greens' bristle is so entrenched that it even has its own exasperated page on the party's website.
For the past 13 years, the page (originally posted in 2012) says, "we've been asked the same question: "If the Greens care so much about climate change, why did you knock off Labor's CPRS in 2009?"
"Here's the answer…
Read more from Laura Tingle for The ABC
Also read > Axing negative gearing won’t cause a rental crisis. Here’s the maths - Saul Easlake for The Guardian
Louise Adler: These are the things I’ve learnt you can’t ask about Israel - Pearls and Irritations
In recent years, I have been asked to comment on the Middle East “impasse”, though I am no foreign policy expert. I am merely one of many humanists who mourn this tragic history and rail against the failure of the international community to exert the great influence it has to bring peace and justice to innocent civilians in this area of the world.
Many Jewish supporters of peace have argued that it is precisely because of our own long history of oppression and discrimination that we must stand with the Palestinian people and support their right to self-determination. I have come to the point where I think differently. It is not because of my own history that I have declared myself to be an ally of the struggle of Palestinian people, it is because as human beings injustice and inequality demand that we all care.
Read more from Louise Adler for Pearls and Irritations
Rex Patrick: US Australia prepare for war with China, remain mute on consequences of nuclear attack - FOIs - Michael West Media
There’s a live debate running on building nuclear power stations. But when it comes to the danger of nuclear war, there’s deadly silence. Rex Patrick and Philip Dorling report on a disturbing FOI that confirms that silence.
Indo-Pacific Geopolitics
Australia’s geo-strategic situation is changing rapidly. The Government’s 2023 Defence Strategic Review wasn’t shy in laying out the big concern, highlighting that “China’s military build-up in is now the second largest and most ambitious of any country since the end of the Second World War”.
The Strategic Review went on to say “This build-up is occurring without transparency or reassurance to the Indo-Pacific region of China’s strategic intent. China’s assertion of sovereignty over the South China Sea threatens the global rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific in a way that adversely impacts Australia’s national interests.”
The Strategic Review did not draw attention to a potential China-Taiwan conflict, but that’s unquestionably the big risk driving the current and planned US military build-up in Australia.
Now hold that thought.
Read more from Rex Patrick for Michael West Media
Coalition’s nuclear power plan is ‘economic insanity’, Jim Chalmers says on eve of major Dutton speech - The Guardian
Coalition plans to build seven nuclear power plants are “economic insanity”, Jim Chalmers has said, in the lead-up to a speech by Peter Dutton that is expected to provide new details of the policy.
The federal opposition has outlined plans to build seven nuclear reactors across five states, should it win the next election, with the first to be built by 2035 to 2037 at the earliest.
Today’s cartoon by David Pope
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
Ross Gittins: How to avoid being conned by lobby groups using you to pressure the government - The SMH/Age
I think it’s past time voters were told more about the major role the many lobby groups play in federal politics. It’s as though lobbying has become Canberra’s second-biggest industry.
The business, employer and industry lobby groups engage in three main activities. First, they lobby the government, top bureaucrats and key senators in private, without any of us noticing. They press for policy changes that would make it easier for their businesses to increase their profits, and press against policy changes that would make it harder for their businesses to increase profits.
Read more from Ross Gittins for The SMH/Age (paywall)
Why isn’t dental included in Medicare? It’s time to change this – here’s how - The Conversation
When the forerunner of Medicare was established in the 1970s, dental care was left out. Australians are still suffering the consequences half a century later.
Patients pay much more of the cost of dental care than they do for other kinds of care.
More Australians delay or skip dental care because of cost than their peers in most wealthy countries.
And as our dental health gets worse, fees keep on rising.
Anthony Klan: GUESS WHO? The $600,000 question at the heart of Robodebt - The Klaxon
The National Anti-Corruption Commission has scrubbed from official freedom of information documents the name of its deputy leader who made the “decision” to not investigate any of the six public officials referred by the Robodebt Royal Commission.
In a remarkable move, embattled NACC boss Paul Brereton is not only refusing to say who he appointed to make that “decision”, but the NACC has actively deleted that Deputy Commissioner’s name from documents sought under freedom of information laws.
The ongoing active concealment by the NACC — which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says is “transparent” — is particularly remarkable given the Deputy Commissioner is a “statutory officer”, meaning their position is so high-level it is set out in federal legislation.
Read more by Anthony Klan for The Klaxon
Why not even Obama, Sanders or AOC achieved what Australia is - The New Daily
Nowhere else in the world are independent community movements winning so much ground so quickly. And, if this trend continues, the influence of community independents on your parliament will be extraordinary.
Australia is an organiser’s paradise of hundreds of eager volunteers in neat, independently mapped electorates of approximately 100,000 voters, and an elegant preferential voting system. This makes it possible for good ideas, supported by smart field organising, to gain ground.
Every child deserves access to early learning. Here’s how we can get there - Women’s Agenda
The Final Report from the Productivity Commission (PC) into Early Childhood Education and Care was released last week. This two-part series unpacks the Commission’s proposed road map that involves many stages over the next 12 years to achieve universal access to early learning.
This is where all children can attend three days a week, regardless of location, ethnicity, special educational needs, family income, or parent’s work or study schedules. Universal access is critical because research shows access to early learning improves children’s chances of a good start to school and increases their ability to flourish into adulthood.
The Monday essay: The Labor–Greens infighting over housing leaves Australians in limbo - New Politics
The debate between the Australian Labor government and the Greens over housing policy has descended into an unedifying spectacle and bitter political standoff. What should be a critical conversation about addressing the housing crisis, a fundamental issue for millions of Australians, has instead become a platform for political theatre, childish name-calling, and a clash of egos that reflects a deepening divide on how best to address housing affordability. And, as usual, the public is being left behind.
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Quick Links…
Labor–Greens neoliberal battle and the ABC’s support for Trump - New Politics Podcast
What the fight for the Murdoch family media empire is really about - Paddy Manning for The ABC
Albanese urged to ditch Howard-era native forest logging exemptions - The Guardian
Eric Beecher on media, moguls and what it's like to be sued by a Murdoch - Good Weekend Talks
Lucy’s job should be more secure – but at Australian universities, labour laws are having the opposite effect - The Guardian
PODCAST: Dyson seeks to hoover up a funding fair go for #WannonVotes - No Fibs Podcast
On interest rates, once again Labor is in a half-negotiation, half-cage fight with the Greens - Paul Karp for The Guardian
TikTok politics: Very demure, very Dutton - 7am Podcast
Hot, dry conditions kill masses of native vegetation in WA's Wheatbelt - The ABC
With all these defamation lawsuits, what ever happened to free speech? - The Conversation
Trump claims Harris is inciting violence. Let’s look at his track record, shall we? - Women’s Agenda
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 Monday the 23th of September. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here