News update for Mon 7 April 2025
Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...
26 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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Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…
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
Amy Remeikis: Dutton is finally being tested this election, and he's not passing - The New Daily
About two and a half years ago, when Peter Dutton was undergoing his third attempt to find a political persona that connected with people, a Coalition MP told me “until we know what we stand for, and who we represent, this is the best we have.”
Under Dutton, the Coalition is still struggling to decide who it represents and what it stands for. And the ‘best’ it has has started the Coalition’s election campaign floundering for a narrative.
For those who have followed Dutton’s political strategy over the years, this won’t come as a surprise.
Read more from Amy Remeikis for The New Daily
Also read >
Why Peter Dutton bagging China could deny him the crucial votes he needs to win the election - Craig Emerson for The New Daily
Rebranding Peter Dutton: has he done enough to shed ‘heartless hard-ass’ image to win top job? - The Guardian
Dutton’s disastrous start to the campaign - New Politics
From the edge of victory to the jaws of defeat, Dutton hits the panic button - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
A sour smell of failure hangs over Donald Dutton - Murray Hogarth for The Politics
Gina episode 2: Like father, like daughter - Full Story Podcast
Gina Rinehart’s father helped changed the course of Australian history when he lobbied to overturn the ban on iron ore exports in the 1950s, laying the foundation for the Hancock family fortune. In her own life, Rinehart campaigned successfully against Kevin Rudd’s mining tax and has made several attempts to gain influence through key media organisations. In episode 2 of Gina, senior correspondent Sarah Martin explores the extent to which both father and daughter have influenced governments of the day.
Listen to the Full Story Podcast
The Coalition has announced an even more radical plan to cut international students than Labor. Here’s how it would work - The Conversation
Last year, the Coalition made the surprise decision to oppose Labor’s plans for new international student caps.
On Sunday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton proposed an even more radical policy of his own to limit the number of international students in Australia.
He announced a combination of tighter enrolment limits, increased visa application fees and changes to temporary graduate visas, which allow some former students to remain in Australia to work.
This is aimed at either deterring potential students from applying or stopping them from going to their preferred university.
Also read >
Fact check: are international students making it harder to find a place to rent as Dutton claims? - The Guardian
Dutton's student capping policy a chaotic plan - Abul Rizvi for Independent Australia
The declining two party system in federal politics - The Tally Room
Australian politics today is very different to what it was even ten years ago, but the shift in the partisan make-up of the country has been a story decades in the making. For today’s post I’m going to recount and update statistics about how Australia has shifted from a strong two-party system into the fragmented multi-party system we have today.
The story of the declining major party vote begins a long time ago, even though for much of this history the House of Representatives remained almost exclusively a contest between Labor and the Coalition parties (Liberal and Country/Nationals).
Read more from Ben Raue for The Tally Room
Also read > 47% of Gen Z mainly vote to avoid a fine. It’s a sign of younger Australians’ discontent with democracy - The Conversation
Alan Kohler: America is having a break with reality on tariffs. The world will move on to a new order - ABC News
The train has left the station — not just because of the tariffs unveiled on April 2, but because Donald Trump has smashed the global system of alliances and co-operation, led by the United States, that has been in operation since the Bretton Woods conference of July 1944.
The US government is now having a kind of break with reality.
The Trumpists are not even right-wing or conservative in the normal sense, just tribal, recklessly macho and inept.
Read more from Alan Kohler for The ABC
Also read >
Exit stage right: Trump blows up the West as we know it as America’s allies flinch - Nick Bryant for The ABC
What does Australian sovereignty look like? It’s a question we now must answer thanks to Donald Trump - Julianne Schultz for The Guardian
Your Life Will Never Be the Same After These Tariffs - Justin Wolfers for The New York Times
Breaking with the US will be painful for Australia in many ways – but it’s inevitable - John Quiggin
We've all talked about potential economic consequences for Australia of Trump's policies. Now they're happening - Laura Tingle for The ABC
Trump is trashing America’s intelligence capability. It’s very bad news for Australia - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Wendy Bacon: IDF courts Australian universities amid anti-war protests - Michael West Media
Hundreds of university staff and students in Melbourne and Sydney called on their Vice-Chancellors to cancel pro-Israel events this week.
While Australia’s universities continue to repress pro-Palestine peace protests, they gave the green light to pro-Israel events this week, sparking outrage from anti-war protestors.
Israeli lobby groups ‘StandWithUs Australia’ (SWU) and ‘Israel-IS’ organised a series of university events this week which featured Israel Defense Force (IDF) reservists who served during the war in Gaza, two of whom lost family members in Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023.
Read more from Wendy Bacon for Michael West Media
Also read > Institutionalisation: Vice-chancellors’ cowardly collusion with antisemitism lobby - Pearls and Irritations
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.
Tim Flannery: Is eating Tasmanian farmed salmon worth snuffing out 40m years of evolution? - The Guardian
Australia is justly famous as a place where ancient species, long extinct elsewhere, live on. After aeons of adversity, Australia’s living fossils often survive only in protected habitats: the Wollemi, Huon and King Billy pines, the Queensland lungfish and even the Tasmanian devil (which thrived on the mainland at the same time as the Egyptians were building the pyramids) are good examples. Such species are a source of wonder for anyone interested in the living world and they should serve as a source of hope that, given half a chance, even ancient, slow-changing species can survive periods of dramatic climate change.
Read more from Tim Flannery for The Guardian
Also read >
Australia is in an extinction crisis – why isn’t it an issue at this election? - The Guardian
A coalition of climate vandals - The Saturday Paper (paywall)
Exclusive: Salmon from infected pens sold for human consumption - The Saturday Paper
Policy, Parity, Parties - The Sunday Shot Podcast
This week's Sunday Shot is All About Women. Dave had the morning off as Jo mined the minds of journalist and author of the recent stellar Quarterly Essay LOSING IT Jess Hill, Polipedia's Su Dharmapala and Women's Agenda's Angela Priestley. With an interview with Mudgin-Gal CEO Ashlee Donohue.
Listen to The Sunday Shot Podcast
Where is the 'mature debate' about the health impacts of nuclear power? Informed consent matters - Pearls and Irritations
There is a clear disconnect between the claims of the nuclear lobby and the real-world adverse consequences of nuclear energy. Communities, workers and indeed all Australians need accurate information about the health impacts.
Radiation causes damage to living cells, especially to our DNA. It is worse for women and worst of all for children.
Regions have heard a lot of misleading information about radiation and bananas.
Read more in Pearls and Irritation
Angela Priestley: Dutton’s failed WFH ban is a win for women and protecting flexibility - Women’s Agenda
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has apologised and backed down from the Coalition’s attack on working from home.
The turnaround comes as the Liberal party concedes that it misread the country’s mood and has been “listening to what people have to say” by officially dumping a plan requiring public servants to work from the office.
This marks a massive win for anyone accessing flexible work, including working from home options, especially for those with caring responsibilities.
It shows that attacking work-from-home policies is not an election-winning strategy in Australia.
Read more from Angela Priestley for Women's Agenda
Also read >
‘We’ve made a mistake’: Peter Dutton backs down on working from home policy - The Guardian
Dutton changed his tune on forcing public servants back to the office – now it’s dumped entirely. Why? - The Guardian
Ketan Joshi: Dutton’s gas modelling won’t reveal anything but a broken information environment - Crikey
Economic modelling — broadcast by journalists both unwilling and incapable of interrogating it properly — generates a sheen of false precision and faux-empiricism.
One of the worst habits of Australia’s political journalists is angrily demanding economic modelling of climate policies and then blankly refusing to interrogate them. The requested presence of a big PDF provides a neat little escape from thinking critically about a problem like climate change, a crisis truly unsuited to the habits and desires of political journalism.
There is a long-running precedent for engaging with climate through the economic modelling frame. Ahead of the 2019 federal election, a weary Bill Shorten was hounded by then Channel Ten (now Sky News Australia) reporter Jonathan Lea, who demanded
Read more from Ketan Joshi for Crikey (paywall)
Also read > Batteries for all, not just the rich? Labor’s home battery plan must be properly targeted to be fair - The Conversation
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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.
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Politics trumps national interest. Labor wedged over Port of Darwin farce - Michael Pascoe for Michael West Media
“Huge win:” Federal Labor unveils $2.3bn plan to slash home battery costs - Renew Economy
Dutton and Littleproud mislead in bad-faith concern-trolling of home battery rebate plan - Renew Economy
With US bombers at the ready, can Trump cut a deal with Iran and avoid a war? - The Conversation
Election Scam Alert! - Lyrebird Dreaming
Reform clock is ticking - the big policy challenges the next government must urgently address - The Conversation
Falling Australian dollar spells bad news for travellers and shoppers - The Guardian
How Trump's mass deportations targeted men with tattoos - 7am Podcast
Nicolette Boele: The Wildly Popular Independent Candidate for Sydney’s Upper North Shore - Betoota Talks Podcast
What's the Coalition's plan for young people? - The Daily Aus Podcast
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 7th of April. 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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