News update for Mon 5 May 2025

Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...

May 05, 2025

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 - and through 6 News here

Julianne Schultz: Australians have soundly rejected Trump-style culture wars. Now Albanese must act with courage and vision - The Guardian

Australians are much better at defining who they are by identifying what they are not, rather than by making lofty statements. And they have now said unequivocally that they are not angry little Americans, cultural warriors or self-interested libertarians.

We always knew that there was a decency at the heart of this nation, but it took the bullying, showbiz bravado of the US president to crystallise it. First as thousands of people cancelled trips to America and then, decidedly, in the privacy of millions of cardboard voting booths.

Also >

Labor wins with a superior campaign and weak opposition – now it’s time to make the second term really matter - Chris Wallace for The Conversation
Trump turns the tides for liberals in Australia and Canada - The Washington Post
Blaming Donald Trump for conservative losses in both Canada and Australia is being too kind to Peter Dutton - The Conversation
Australia rejected the Dutton and the Murdoch agenda, now we’ll see if Labor do the same - Amy Remeikis for The New Daily
5 huge climate opportunities await the next parliament – and it has the numbers to deliver - The Conversation

How this victory will change Anthony Albanese - 7am Podcast

Karen Middleton has known Anthony Albanese for more than 30 years – since before he entered parliament. She’s watched his rise, and documented the moments that have shaped the leader he is today. And Karen says this election is going to change Anthony Albanese, in ways that will change the country too. Today author of Albanese: Telling it Straight Karen Middleton, on why Anthony Albanese won – and what the next three years of Labor government will look like.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also >

The democracy sausage eaten by Labor landslide. What's next? - Michael West Media
A stunning win for Labor - Full Story Podcast
An Old-Fashioned Shellacking - Cheryl Kernot and Michael West - The Sunday Shot Podcast
Labor’s truly unique majority - Crikey's Electioncast
Labor must heed the warnings wrapped up in its election win. Young voters are crying out for action - The Guardian

Independents will not help form government – but they will be vital in holding it to account - The Conversation

When the newspapers delivered their standard election-eve editorials, there were few surprises. Former Fairfax papers and smaller outlets offered qualified support for Labor, while the News Corp papers unashamedly championed the Coalition. In Adelaide, The Advertiser ran a curious line recommending a majority government of whatever persuasion, “lest our futures be in the hands of the mad Greens, self-serving teals or the independent rabble.”

How must those editors feel this morning? On the one hand, they got the majority government they wished for, and then some. The 2025 election will be mythologised in Labor circles for decades to come.

On the other hand, the “independent rabble” defied the expectations of some, and the best efforts of others, holding their seats and making gains in Sydney and Canberra, and potentially Melbourne and Perth as well. New crossbenchers will certainly be welcomed into the 48th parliament. And with the Coalition reeling from an historic defeat, they may all play a critical role in policy the debates to come.

Marcia Langton: Dutton, Advance and the Welcome to Country - The Saturday Paper

On Anzac Day, at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, a sacred moment was ruptured. Neo-fascist Jacob Hersant led a group in abusing Uncle Mark Brown, a Bunurong and Gunditjmara Traditional Owner who was delivering the Welcome to Country. The event heralded a political pile-on and a new chapter in race-baiting in Australia.

Tapping into the historical racism that began with the British invasion has proved easier for the race-baiters than even I could imagine. Building on their success in opposing the Voice referendum, the “No” campaign apparatchiks have manipulated the meaning of the Welcome to Country ceremony to portray it as an assault on the nation’s sovereignty. Following Peter Dutton’s refusal to stand in front of an Aboriginal flag, claiming falsely that Australia has one flag, the drift towards the “blood and soil” slogan is now in full view.

Frank Bongornio: Are the Liberals in danger of becoming the Kodak of Australian politics? - Inside Story

Then there was the absurdity of the Coalition’s nuclear policy, which had Dutton explaining that the federal government could override state governments — including Liberal ones — to build his power stations. This, from a party that used to be committed to meaningful federalism and states’ rights.

The Coalition will presumably junk a lot of this policy but God only knows what it will put in its place. It has abandoned the political centre to Albanese and Labor and seems unlikely to be in a position to win it back any time soon. Some of its most promising younger MPs are either defeated or in danger of losing their seats. Half the MHRs will likely be from Queensland. All but a few survivors will be representing rural and regional seats.

The quality of some of the party’s candidates was appalling.

Also >

Dutton and the Coalition did not do the work, and misread the Australian mood - The Conversation
The Liberal party’s massive defeat leaves it in dire straits. Where to from here? - The Guardian
Was Dutton dishonest about his internal polling, or misled? Liberals believe it’s the latter - Crikey (paywall)

Today’s cartoon by David Rowe

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here

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William Bowe: Forget the lower house, the Senate could be about to lurch left - Crikey

As Labor celebrates a crushing landslide achieved from barely more than a third of the vote, it pays to keep in mind a feature of Australian democracy all too readily forgotten on election night: the existence of a powerful upper house elected by proportional representation.

Party discipline being what it is, it matters little whether Labor carries votes in the House of Representatives by the small majorities that sustained it through its first term or the unexpectedly large ones it stands to enjoy in its second.

Also read > Labor makes Senate gains, and left-wing parties will hold a Senate majority - The Conversation

Back to Back Barries: is the Liberal party a ‘broken institution’? - Full Story Podcast

The morning after a landslide win for Labor, Tony Barry and Barrie Cassidy examine how this election went so badly for the Coalition and what the Liberal party needs to do to entice voters back after a historic defeat. Also on the table: whether this increased majority could encourage Anthony Albanese to show more courage when it comes to policy reform, and why the teals are here to stay.

Listen to the Full Story Podcast

Also > A historic Labor victory and a devastating Liberal loss - New Politics

A record-breaking election - The Tally Room Podcast

Ben is joined by William Bowe from the Poll Bludger to discuss the results of yesterday's Australian federal election, which produced Labor's best result since 1943. We talk about the close seats, how multi-party politics is transforming local electorate contests and what is likely to happen in the Senate.

Listen to The Tally Room Podcast

Also > Notes on a landslide - Peter Brent for Inside Story

Anthony Klan: We “destroyed” Greens: Megamillionaire disinformation group “Advance” - The Klaxon

The group that ran the “No” campaign against the Indigenous Voice to parliament — funded by the Liberal Party and fossil fuels multi-millionaires — claims to have “destroyed” the Greens.

In an email titled “BREAKING: Greens destroyed by Advance blitz”, US-style disinformation group “Advance” has claimed its “critical work” had “helped stop the Greens in their tracks”.

“The Greens have been belted,” Advance executive director Matthew Sheahan writes in an email.

He states the group’s so-called “Greens Truth” campaign “cut them (Greens) down from six seats to at most two. Maybe one”.

Also read > Truth and lies, trust and doubt: how should we be navigating the misinformation crisis? - The Conversation

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Tim Dunlop: Welcome to Country, Mr Dutton - It's beautiful country - The Future of Everything

If Peter Dutton was the biggest loser from last night’s evisceration of his miserable party and worldview, then the Murdoch media was a close second. In fact, of all the right-wing media who have carried Dutton and co. aloft over the last few years deserve our derision. They are spent political force, and nobody outside an aging coterie of conservative voters and the political class pays any attention to them.¹

Still, you can’t go through the deeply cynical, violent, misogynistic, dishonest and racist campaign run by the rightwing side of our politics without feeling something like despair. And anger. I don’t want to take the light off Labor’s win at all, but boy, we need to be cognisant about how the forces of conservatism have treated us and what it means for the future of our politics.

The key lesson of the election? Policy matters and dividing people doesn’t work - Women’s Agenda

What we learn from election campaigns is important. This is because the lessons we learn and assumptions we make inform our actions in the future. This can be both helpful and harmful. For example, we could have chosen to learn from the election in the United States that division and misinformation is critical to winning. But if we did this, as we’ve seen over the weekend, we would be wrong.

The way that the federal election campaign unfolded over the past few weeks has showed us, among other things, that policy matters and creating division does not lead to victory.

News Corp owns much of the Liberals’ spectacular defeat. If they want more of them, keep going - Crikey

News Corp contributed deeply the Liberals’ election disaster. Its agenda, designed to serve its business interests and not the national interest, is deeply damaging to the Liberals.

Reading the chin-stroking commentary from News Corp over the last 48 hours on what caused such a catastrophic defeat for their political allies is a lot like watching the burglar who, having broken in and trashed a house, complains loudly about what a mess the inhabitants live in.

News Corp, and the editors it employs to run its political campaigns, owns a very great deal of this disaster. And the sooner it accepts that — of course, it won’t — the sooner its friends in the Liberal Party can get back to being politically relevant.

Also read >

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