News update for Mon 24 June 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
BREAKING NEWS: Former Liberal NSW treasurer Matt Kean named new chair of Climate Change Authority - The Guardian
Paul Keating: Peter Dutton: climate denialist – peddler of danger - Pearls and Irritations
Peter Dutton is a charlatan – an inveterate climate change denialist.
A denialist now seeking to camouflage his long held denialism in an industrial fantasy – resort to the most dangerous and expensive energy source on the face of the earth – nuclear power.
In advocating this, Dutton continues his party’s manic denialism, first articulated by Tony Abbott over a decade ago – turning his back on the most debated, most discussed problem of the Industrial Age – carbon and carbon sequestration.
Dutton, like Abbott, will do everything he can to de-legitimise renewables and stand in the way of their use as the remedy nature has given us to underwrite our life on earth.
Only the most wicked and cynical of individuals would foist such a blight on an earnest community like Australia.
Read more from Paul Keating for Pearls and Irritations
Also read >
Nuclear and gas expansion weakens our national security - Pearls and Irritations
Jobs and Hope – the election slogan I’d love to hear - David McEwen for Michael West Media
Peter Dutton’s nuclear policy sets a new low for political debate - Sean Kelly for The SMH/Age
Only 60% of Australians accept climate disruption is human-caused, global poll finds - Graham Readfearn for The Guardian
Should Australia invest in nuclear energy? - The Daily Aus Podcast
Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan could cost as much as $600bn and supply just 3.7% of Australia’s energy by 2050, experts say - The Guardian
The Coalition's nuclear plan for Australia is a costly farce - Ebony Bennett for The Canberra Times
The wrecking ball of Australian politics: The Coalition’s nuclear energy proposal is not in the public interest - New Politics
‘I’m not anti-nuclear, I’m anti-bulls---’: Why this energy expert says Dutton’s plan ignores reality - Peter Fitzsimons for The SMH/Age
The Coalition says its nuclear plants will run for 100 years. What does the international experience tell us? - Peter Hannam for The Guardian
Tucker Carlson Takes Putin’s Propaganda on Tour Down Under - Why Should Australians be Concerned? - Australian Institute of International Affairs
This week, Tucker Carlson, one of America’s most notorious pro-Putin conspiracy-peddlers began a five-state tour across Australia. The tour is sponsored by Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer, the country’s biggest political donor and backer of the far right United Australia Party (UAP) whose slogan “Make Australia Great” borrows from the campaign of the former president and convicted felon Donald J. Trump. Why should Australians be concerned about Palmer’s latest American import, Carlson’s tour?
Read more from Dr Emma L Briant for The Australian Institute of International Affairs
Mike Seccombe: The forces behind Australia’s teal independents - The Saturday Paper
If Paul Fletcher had been more tactful to Nicolette Boele a few years ago, his political future might be a lot more secure today.
As Boele tells it, about six months ahead of the 2022 federal election she had been approached to run as a community independent candidate in Fletcher’s safe Liberal seat of Bradfield, on Sydney’s affluent North Shore. At first, the finance sector executive was reluctant.
Read more from Mike Seccombe for The Saturday Paper (paywall)
Paul Karp: Should Australia recognise housing as a human right? Two crossbenchers are taking up the cause - The Guardian
Should adequate housing be considered a human right?
The Australian Human Rights Commission thinks so, including it in a list of rights that should receive legislative protection.
That call for a Human Rights Act was backed in May by a parliamentary committee chaired by Labor MP Josh Burns.
Now the crossbench will take up the cause, with independent senator David Pocock and MP Kylea Tink set to introduce a private members’ bill in both chambers this week.
Read more from Paul Karp for The Guardian
Alan Kohler: How large language models and large money go together - The New Daily
AI chip maker Nvidia was briefly the world’s most valuable company last week, having risen 40 per cent in a month, which is what small companies do, not big ones like that.
Also Geoffrey Hinton, the British-Canadian computer scientist known as the father of artificial intelligence, told 60 Minutes that AI might be more intelligent than we know already and will eventually “take over”, whatever that means.
Read more from Alan Kohler for The New Daily
Rex Patrick: The making of a criminal … from a whistleblower - Michael West Media
The reasons of the South Australian Court of Appeal on why Richard Boyle will face criminal charges will make every Australian (except the Australian Tax Office leadership) sick in the stomach.
Read more from Rex Patrick for Michael West Media
Today’s cartoon by Glen LeLievre
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
Mark Kenny: Climate and energy have emerged as a federal election flashpoint. But unless the economy improves, will voters be listening? - The Conversation
With a federal election due by May 2025, few doubt it will be fought over the high cost of living, with emphasis on energy policy and the punishing effects of electricity prices. But the underlying condition of the economy will determine the salience of these arguments with voters.
In other words, the “climatic” or structural conditions of the economy – which are largely beyond the control of politicians – will help either to validate or to neutralise the charges of the various parties, be they government, opposition, Greens or independents.
This matters given the centrality of climate and energy policy. A campaign fought on those issues might be expected to benefit the Greens and the Teal independents – but the Coalition believes it can turn these issues into hip-pocket concerns.
Read more from Mark Kenny for The Conversation
Also read >
Global impacts of heat and water stress on food production and severe food insecurity - Nature
Fact over Fiction: What's Really Driving Up Electricity Bills - Lyrebird Dreaming
Lucy Hamilton: Australian Libertarians and Theocrats unite in Albury - Pearls and Irritations
The Triple Conference took place in Albury in March. Conspiracists and hustlers appeared alongside the well-meaning and self-important to inform a small audience of largely white-haired elders about the North Korean conditions overtaking Australia. We are dark in politics and spirit.
The “triple” in the name referred to the uniting of three distinct events. The third day was dedicated to “The Aussie Wire,” a Red-pilled Right YouTube channel integrating transnational rightwing figures.
Read more from Pearls and Irritations
The spy base we’re not supposed to know about is getting bigger - 7am Podcast
Once upon a time, Australians were told Pine Gap was a space base. Then we were told it was a weather station. But now, of course, we know the installation deep in the Northern Territory outback is a US spy base.
Which isn’t to say it’s any less secretive – we still don’t know a huge amount about what goes on there.
We do know it’s likely America’s biggest offshore spy base and that it gathers critical intelligence about current conflicts.Now, we also know that it’s undergone a rapid expansion.
Listen to Peter Cronau for the 7am Podcast
Daisy Dumas: Australia’s ‘broken’ childcare system blamed for cost-of-working crisis. What needs to change? - The Guardian
On 1 July, the Productivity Commission will hand down its report on a path to universal early childhood education and care. It is expected to be made public later in the year, with last year’s draft version recommending that every child have access to three days of quality childcare a week and families earning less than $80,000 should not have to pay for quality childcare.
Six months on from the ACCC report and approaching the end of the financial year, the outlook has not improved as childcare centres enter another season of fee increases.
Read more from Daisy Dumas for The Guardian
Bernard Keane: While the states crack on with reform, Don Farrell leaves federal donation laws in a mess - Crikey
You may be interested to know that there’s a special minister of state in the Albanese government. You likely haven’t heard of him: it’s South Australian Senator (and “powerbroker”) Don Farrell.
Being special minister of state (SMOS) — a position that in the past has been filled by such key Labor figures as Mick Young, Kim Beazley, Susan Ryan and John Faulkner — isn’t Farrell’s day job. That is trade and tourism minister, which occupies an awful lot of Farrell’s time. To give an indication of how busy he is in that role, Farrell has issued 36 media releases about his trade and tourism portfolio this year alone.
Read more from Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Alan Fell: Fines of $10 million will force supermarkets to think carefully before exploiting suppliers, but more could have been done - The Conversation
Suppliers of food and other products have been complaining for years about their treatment at the hands of Woolworths, Coles and Australia’s other big supermarket chains, although rarely to the supermarkets themselves – perhaps, as suggested in a recent Four Corners program, because they feared retribution.
The final report of the independent review of the food and grocery code of conduct released today by economist and former government minister Craig Emerson finds they’ve had reason for complaint, and devotes an entire chapter to the “fear of retribution”.
Read more from Professor Alan Fels for The Conversation
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Australia needs a national identity based on civic belonging, not ethnic or religious exclusion - Julianne Schultz for The Guardian
Mistrials and tribulations: Bruce Lehrmann’s legal proceedings cast doubt on whether the justice system can deliver real truth - The Politics
The fascist wave must be defeated - Pearls and Irritations
Most plastics are made from fossil fuels and end up in the ocean, but marine microbes can’t degrade them – new research - The Conversation
Doctors accuse Nationals of serving interests of tobacco lobby by opposing vaping prohibition - The Guardian
You were right... It's a scam - Punters Politics Podcast
Ben Raue: NT election guide unlocked - The Tally Room
Brisbane’s Nordacious reveals what drives his political art - QNews
The chill that remains in the Australia-China relationship - Full Story
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 24th of June. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here