News update for Mon 30 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.
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 UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
Paul Keating: Marles, with all pretension, flogging a dead seahorse - Pearls and Irritations
Richard Marles and his mate, the US defence secretary, are beginning to wilt under the weight of sustained comment in Australia critical of the AUKUS arrangement.
Marles, unable to sustain a cogent argument himself, has his US friend propping him up in London to throw a 10,000-mile punch at me – and as usual, failing to materially respond to legitimate and particular criticisms made of the AUKUS arrangement.
Read more from Paul Keating for Pearls and Irritations
Tim Winton: Our leaders are collaborators with fossil fuel colonialists. This is the source of our communal dread - The Guardian
If young people feel they’ve been conspired against, it’s because that’s exactly what’s happened. The numbers are in. A child born now will experience 24 times the number of extreme climate events as a politician born in the 1960s. Here, then, are the wretched, those damned for the sins of others. The burden of that legacy is being expressed physically and mentally right now in every time zone and culture. But while its might is terrible, it is not insurmountable. And neither is the occupying force that exerts it.
Read more from Tim Winton for The Guardian
Joëlle Gergis: Exposing net zero’s climate delusions - The Saturday Paper
Denial is a funny thing. We have to find slippery ways of trying to live with high levels of cognitive dissonance: the discomfort we feel when faced with the reality that our thoughts and actions are contradictory. We must somehow rationalise the ways in which we fool ourselves. In the words of Seinfeld’s George Costanza: “It’s not a lie if you believe it.”
Nowhere is the denial of reality clearer than the political response to dealing with the existential threats posed by climate change.
Read more from Joelle Gergis for The Saturday Paper (paywall)
How the assassination of Hezbollah’s leader will reshape the Middle East - 7am Podcast
The leader of Hezbollah has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. Hassan Nasrallah led the group for more than 30 years, building it into a powerful political force within Lebanon and the most heavily armed non-state militia in the world. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly ordered the killing from his hotel room in New York, before his speech at the United Nations general assembly. Joe Biden has called the killing a “measure of justice”. But Lebanon is entering three days of mourning, at a time when more than half a million people are displaced there and airstrikes continue.
Also read > Benjamin Netanyahu is triumphant after Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination. But will it change anything? - The Conversation
Same Job, Lame Pay: BHP and the black coal wage swindle - Michael West Media
Coal miner Simon Turner was recovering from a broken back when the penny dropped. He was victim of a billion-dollar wage scam pulled off by BHP and its labour hire firms.
Simon Turner recalls the accident clearly. It was December 2015, 11.20 in the morning. Location: BHP’s enormous Mount Arthur coal mine in the Hunter Valley.
Read more from Michael West Media
Today’s cartoon by Jon Kudelka for The Saturday Paper
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
One in ten pregnant Australians are going hungry and facing food insecurity, new research shows - The ABC
Thousands of pregnant women in Australia are going hungry with many of those too scared to ask for help, according to new research.
The survey of more than 1,500 women found more than one in ten expecting mothers had gone hungry while two in five were worrying about food, changing the quality of their diet and eating less.
Rachel Withers: Who gives a stuff about the surplus? - Crikey
Even those who might care about being 'back in black' seem underwhelmed by Chalmers’ latest victory lap.
The Albanese government was once again “crowing” this morning, as it confirmed a $15.8 billion surplus for 2023-24 — the first back-to-back surplus since 2008, and the first Labor consecutive surplus since Paul Keating in the late ’80s. Treasurer Jim Chalmers was eager to boast of a $6 billion improvement on the May forecast, claiming it came down to lower spending, and was therefore “proof of our responsible economic management”.
Read more from Rachel Withers for Crikey (paywall)
Sean Kelly: They’re tackling Coles and Woolies, but who’ll dare break up the political duopoly? - The SMH/Age
The two major parties seem unwilling to do much more than respond piecemeal to specific outrages, like the Colesworth allegations – by, say, telling a clear and sharp story about just how badly workers, customers and citizens have been let down by an approach that has been consistent across too many large corporations for too long. On one level, that’s understandable: a duopoly, be it political or corporate, is a comfortable place to be. But with the teals and Greens creeping up on the major parties, it could be worth a rethink: it’s not clear the old business model is working anymore.
Read more from Sean Kelly for The SMH/Age
How do economists judge Australia’s response to the COVID pandemic? - The Conversation
It was only a matter of time before someone wrote a book about Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I was expecting it to come from an eminent epidemiologist or public health expert, but it has been written by two economists. As an epidemiologist who covered the pandemic closely for The Conversation, I read it with interest.
Read more from Prof Adrian Esterman for The Conversation
“I’m not a moron:” Barnaby Joyce warns of exploding solar PV and hot water systems - Renew Economy
Nationals MP, former deputy prime minister and anti-renewables campaigner Barnaby Joyce has dug deeper into the Coalition’s concerns about Chinese software, warning that rooftop solar systems and hot water systems could be used by bad actors.
The Coalition warnings – they have been banging on about them for several years as part of their campaign against non fossil fuel technologies, be they inverters, electric vehicles or anything else that threatens legacy industries – have been revived by the Israeli attack against Hezbollah, where it used remote controls to cause thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies to explode.
Tim Costello: The AFL and NRL are pushing aside gambling harm to profit at their fans’ expense - The Guardian
At a time when it seems every political leader is happy to join the pile-on against our two major supermarkets, there is a stunning resistance to levelling any criticism at our two major sporting codes despite their wholehearted embrace of gambling and the damage it is causing, especially during a cost-of-living crisis.
Read more from Tim Costello for The Guardian
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!
Quick Links…
When will public schools be fully funded? - The Guardian’s Full Story Podcast
Dutton is unacceptable, but Labor under Albanese doesn’t deserve to be re-elected - Pearls and Irritations
The Greens interest rates overreach and who is going to stop Israel? - New Politics
Media complicit in the crimes of Israel - Pearls and Irritations
GP visits costing Australians more than ever, survey finds - The Guardian
As Keir Starmer flails, a new Rupert Murdoch emerges in Britain - Crikey
Dave is Back! - The Shot Podcast
If gambling advertising isn't the problem, what are we doing about the problem? - Mumbrella
Far-right Freedom party to come first in Austrian election, first results suggest - The Guardian
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 30th 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