News update for Mon 31 March 2025
Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...
33 days until the May 3 federal election
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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TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
Liberal Party’s “Advance” kicks off with outright lies - The Klaxon
Liberal Party-funded disinformation group “Advance” has kicked off the official election campaign with a host of outright lies, including that an ALP minority government would see utes “banned” and immigration “tripled”.
Advance operates as the Liberal Party’s disinformation wing, targeting “farmers” and outer suburban voters with outright lies and other extremist messaging, which the Liberal Party doesn’t want mainstream and city voters seeing it is connected to.
Read more from Anthony Klan for The Klaxon
Also read > Michaelia Cash’s reckless Netanyahu stunt exposes the Coalition’s dangerous agenda - Tarla Lambert for Women's Agenda
‘A female Donald Trump’: how Gina Rinehart is pushing the Maga message in Australia - The Guardian
Australia’s richest person has close ties with the US president’s ‘Trumpettes’ and has even styled her company headquarters with Maga-inspired designs.
The founder of a key support group for the US president has praised Gina Rinehart as a “female Donald Trump” and backed a push by the mining magnate to bring Trump’s policy ideas to Australia.
Toni Holt Kramer, the president and founder of The Trumpettes USA, told Guardian Australia she had been friends with Rinehart since the first Trump presidency in 2016, describing her as an “extremely brilliant woman”.
Also >
Gina episode 1: Becoming Mrs Rinehart - Full Story Podcast
Mates with money - Aust Independent Media Network
Federal election 2025: Why do some men find the teals so triggering? - The SMH/Age
As for criticisms that the teals are a green-left front, there is a kernel of truth to it – most teal voters are Greens and Labor supporters who live in electorates where those parties are never going to get up.
They vote strategically for their second-best option (a teal), or at least direct their preferences that way.
But this cohort of voters is not enough to get a teal candidate over the line. She also needs a boost from traditional small-L liberal voters disillusioned with the Coalition – they are the teals’ special sauce.
The more Liberal blokes reveal their fear and horror of the teals, the more likely they are to drive voters into their arms.
Read more from Jacqueline Maley for The SMH/Age
Also read >
Why this election campaign is looking like 1987 deja vu all over again - Craig Emerson for The New Daily
Turning the marginal electorates, one hi-vis vest at a time - Crikey (paywall)
Dutton's gas reservation plan more about politics than price - Michael West Media
Peter Dutton’s plan to introduce a gas reservation scheme on the East Coast may be good politics, but industry experts say it is unlikely to lower domestic gas prices for a long time, if at all.
A gas reservation scheme – forcing suppliers to set aside a certain amount for domestic use – is not a new idea. It was last floated by the LNP government in 2019, but nothing much came of it then.
As is his wont, Dutton’s plan is low on details, particularly when it comes to how the reservation policy would work in practice.
Read more from Kim Wingerei for Michael West Media
Also read >
Election Watch – Will Dutton’s ‘methane election’ backfire? - Renew Economy
The Pacific is fighting for climate justice: Will Australia listen? - Pearls and Irritations
The offshore wind debate could influence this federal election and it's already an 'absolute blood-fest' - ABC News
Much of the anti-offshore wind farm rhetoric in Australia around marine life mirrors arguments that have originated in the US. Most prominent, and arguably effective, are claims the projects are catastrophic to whales and their migration corridors.
Facebook groups administered by RFI members are littered with AI-generated or photoshopped images of whales dead among wind turbines and infographics about the project that suggest it could lead to their slow, painful demise.
Read more from Steve Cannane for The ABC
Also read >
Labor and the Coalition both dodging two things that matter most this election - Alan Kohler for ABC News
As the campaign starts, something has changed with the leaders. The next five weeks will be crucial - Laura Tingle for ABC News
Pre-election giveaways: The last week of parliament exposed where the tensions lie on both sides of politics - Inside Story
It’s always instructive to see how a government behaves in the days before an election is called. At the end of a budget week we weren’t meant to have — and with 3 May finally named as polling day after Cyclone Alfred kyboshed plans for 12 April — we can already glean quite a bit about the contest now formally underway.
For starters, it’s become clear just how many seats Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party fears losing, and precisely where they are. The pressure-point evidence is usually hiding in plain sight. And so it was this week.
Read more from Karen Middleton for Inside Story
Also read > Dutton’s Last Stand? A Budget Reply That Echoes Defeat - Bogan Intelligentsia
Today’s cartoon by Matt Golding
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
Join the new Boiling Point community - where we’re growing a group of politically informed Australians in the lead up to the 2025 federal election. See details and sign up here.
Uncertainty and pessimism abound. Will fear be enough to push Dutton into office? - The Conversation
Tony Abbott was once unelectable. So were Donald Trump and Boris Johnson.
And so was Peter Dutton, not so long ago. But opinion polls over much of 2024 and early 2025 indicated otherwise, and a nightly assault of pre-election political advertising – as my wife and I watched reruns of Law & Order: Criminal Intent – suggested that the Liberals had done their research and needed to humanise their man.
Read more from Frank Bongiorno for The Conversation
Also read > Fact-check: Coalition migration claim omits key context - Crikey (paywall)
All signs point to a hung parliament: what does this mean, and what should crossbenchers do? - The Guardian
‘Don’t be bullied by anyone’ and avoid ‘horse trading’. Former kingmakers Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott advise new crop of independents.
For the first time in living memory Australia is going into an election campaign facing not just an outside chance, but a strong probability, of a hung parliament.
If no party wins an overall majority, the Coalition and Labor will look to members of the crossbench to guarantee “confidence and supply”. They need them on side to stop any no-confidence motion against the government, and to vote for appropriation bills so the government can spend money to keep the country running.
Prof Anne Twomey, a constitutional law expert at the University of Sydney, says it is a myth that the governor general would call on whoever wins the most seats to form government.
“That’s just rubbish,” she says.
Dollars and Sense - The Sunday Shot Podcast
The Sunday Shot pulls in the big guns! Econmists Greg Jericho and Nicki Hutley join Jo and Dave to give their post-budget analysis and look forward to the coming campaign.
Listen to The Sunday Shot Podcast
Also watch The Sunday Shot Replay on YouTube
The first impressions: Labor is getting momentum and a shaky start for the Coalition - New Politics
While it’s far too early to claim that this election result is clear and it’s all over – it’s not – the early optics matter and set the tone for the campaign.
The opening days of the federal election campaign have revealed more than just policy announcements and talking points – they’ve exposed a difference between a government that appears match fit and ready to go, and an opposition still fumbling around and trying to find its balance. While the early parts of any campaign are marked by adjustments and recalibration – it’s only day four of a 36-day campaign – one major party has hit the ground running, and it’s not the Coalition. Of course, this will change – or, at least, it should change – but it should be of concern that the leader of the Liberal–National Party Peter Dutton seemed so unprepared. The prime minister Anthony Albanese didn’t call an early or a snap election and the final date that the election could be held was always going to be May 17, so this lack of preparation comes as a surprise.
Your house is becoming uninsurable due to climate risks. Albo and Dutton won’t mention it - Crikey
Premiums in disaster-prone regions have increased by up to 400%, posing a systemic financial risk. Don’t expect it to be an election issue.
On the day Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivered his budget, an Austrian insurance executive, Dr. Günther Thallinger, published a short essay on LinkedIn that made a mockery of the government’s long-term plans and projections. The board member at Allianz SE was writing about a fast-approaching and existential financial risk — one that appeared nowhere in the treasurer’s speech and will barely rate a mention in the election campaign.
Thallinger’s succinct warning regards climate-related weather events and the global insurance industry. “Heat and water destroy capital,” he writes.
Read more from Nick Feik for Crikey (paywall)
Time to take a rasp to ASPI - The Politics
The ghost of Peter Dutton's old, stale ScoMo-era defence ministry looms over the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the think-tank that China loves to hate.
We need to talk about the Australian Strategic Policy Institute during this campaign, a defence and national security think-tank administered via a government-owned company.
ASPI is core to the “strategic face” Australia presents to our allies, our rivals, our region and the world. It was also created by the Liberal-National Coalition — and is its political plaything. With Trump 2.0 turning our strategic world on its head, it’s well and truly time to ask if ASPI houses the kind of up-with-the-times, plain-speaking policy wonks Australia needs to maintain and build geostrategic bridges across troubled Indo-Pacific waters. Or are we looking at a bunch of neocons who’ve passed their use-by dates?
Read more from Murray Hogarth The Politics
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Join the new Boiling Point community - where we’re growing a group of politically informed Australians in the lead up to the 2025 federal election. See details and sign up here.
Quick Links…
It’s On – 3 May 2025: To Everyone Who Cares, Let’s Turn Our Angst Into Action - Sue Barrett
This election will have significant consequences for women - Angela Priestley for Women’s Agenda
Bullied, slut-shamed, overworked: why Australia could lose an ‘entire generation’ of school principals - The Guardian
What are caretaker conventions and how do they limit governments during election periods? - The Conversation
Turnbull Press Club summit: Trump 2.0 means it’s time to strengthen Defence - Rex Patrick for Michael West Media
Britain has been paying a high price for Uncle Sam’s craziness. It’s time to turn to Europe - The Guardian
Brisbane 2032 is no longer legally bound to be ‘climate positive’. Will it still leave a green legacy? - The Conversation
‘Best that exists globally’: South Australia’s domestic violence disclosure scheme provides relief and freedom - The Guardian
In Myanmar, tragedy follows tragedy - Pearls and Irritations
It’s On: The 2025 Election Preview and Budget Analysis - New Politics Podcast
The real impact of Trump's cuts to Australian research - 7am Podcast
Election 2025: The Horse Race Begins - Fourth Estate Podcast
Interview: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese - Big Small Talk Podcast with Hannah Ferguson
The election's been called. Now what? - The Daily Aus Podcast
Back to Back Barries: we’re off and running to a May election - Full Story Podcast
FULL INTERVIEW: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to Leo Puglisi and Austin Pollock - 6 News
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
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You’re up to date for Monday the 31st of March. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
Join the new Boiling Point community - where we’re growing a group of politically informed Australians in the lead up to the 2025 federal election. See details and sign up here.
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