News update for Thur 17 April 2025
Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...
16 days until the May 3 federal election
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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
Greg Jericho: After 25 years of the same housing policies pushing up demand, Australia needs a new approach - The Guardian
First homeowners’ grants have long been the go-to policy by state and federal governments. And yet here we are in 2025 with a worsening housing affordability crisis,
This week, the housing affordability crisis was solved when both the Labor and Liberal parties discovered that the key was to give people more money so they can bid a higher price for a home. Phew. Our long national nightmare is over.
Cripes. What a joke.
Here we are in 2025, and the major political parties continue to say that the way to make homes cheaper is to increase the amount that people will be able to pay to buy a home.
Read more from Greg Jericho for The Guardian
Also >
Why Labor and the Coalition's housing policies could make the crisis worse - Full Story Podcast
The cruel housing hoax - Follow The Money Podcast
State of the states: six experts on how the campaign is playing out around Australia - The Conversation
The federal election campaign has passed the halfway mark, with politicians zig-zagging across the country to spruik their policies and achievements.
Where politicians choose to visit (and not visit) give us some insight into their electoral priorities and strategy.
Here, six experts analyse how the campaign has looked so far in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.
Read more from The Conversation
Also > Enrolments hit a record high - The Tally Room Podcast
Albanese v Dutton: The second leaders’ debate - 7am Podcast
Last night, Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton went head-to-head in the second leaders’ debate of the campaign. The difference between the two leaders’ visions for the country was stark. Albanese talked about his “optimism” for the future, while Dutton asked voters to reflect on whether they are better off now than they were three years ago, suggesting that most people are not. But Albanese and Dutton were united on one thing: neither leader really landed a blow – and neither leader won the night. Today, 7am co-host Daniel James on the biggest moments from the debate – from energy, to housing, to diplomacy and defence – and why Dutton has had to admit another mistake.
Also >
ABC Leaders Debate revealed gaps for both Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese - Laura Tingle for ABC News
Dutton brings back old-school climate denial in second leaders debate - Ketan Joshi for Renew Economy
Israel is about to empty Gaza - Pearls and Irritations
As Israel prepares to ethnically cleanse the whole of Gaza, it is also setting the stage for a regional crisis.
Israel is poised to carry out the largest campaign of ethnic cleansing since the end of World War II. Since 2 March, it has blocked all food and humanitarian aid into Gaza and cut off electricity, so that the last water desalination plant no longer functions.
The Israeli military has seized half of the territory — Gaza is 25 miles long and four to five miles wide — and placed two-thirds of Gaza under displacement orders, rendered “no-go zones”, including the border town of Rafah, which is encircled by Israeli troops.
Read more in Pearls and Irritations
Dutton would trash Paris climate agreement whether he stayed in it or not - The New Daily
The latest flip-flopping by the Coalition on whether it would keep Australia in the Paris climate agreement or not overshadows a bigger point.
Irrespective of whether it is committed to Paris or not, the Coalition’s policies are completely out of step with it, would undermine the agreement on the world stage, and come with serious consequences for our country.
If Australia were to actually leave the Paris agreement – as shadow minister Ted O’Brien refused to rule out in last week’s climate and energy debate – we would be the only country in the world to follow Trump out the door.
Also read >
Could humanity be extinct within 10,000 years? A new book is the wake up call our species needs - The Conversation
Peter Dutton’s climate comments draw criticism from scientists, advocates and affected communities - The ABC
The four damaging words that knocked Peter Dutton’s path to power off course - ABC News
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.
The Coalition’s Dangerous Flirtation with Extremism - Sue Barrett
Election 2025 – How the Coalition’s Embrace of Extremism Risks Australia’s Secular Society.
Australia stands at a crossroads. A creeping ideology, cloaked in the guise of “Christian values,” threatens to erode the pluralistic, live-and-let-live ethos that has long defined our nation. The Coalition’s recent pledge to the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), as exposed by the tireless work of journalist Lucy Hamilton, signals a chilling alignment with Christian Nationalism—a movement that has already poisoned American politics and society. This is not a benign call for faith; it is a calculated gambit to import a divisive, coercive ideology that prioritises control over freedom, exclusion over inclusion, and dogma over reason.
We cannot let Australia become America’s dystopian mirror.
Polly Hemming: Despite the narrative that we can’t do without it, the gas industry contributes very little to Australia’s economy. Here’s why - Women’s Agenda
Australia is a wealthy country with the means to act — and a history of doing big, brave things when it counts. We have some of the most extraordinary landscapes and biodiversity on Earth. That’s worth fighting for.
Democracy depends on people believing that better is possible. And demanding it. The mining industry and big corporates never hesitate to demand more — more subsidies, more approvals, more influence. And they get it because they shout louder than everyone else!
Climate action isn’t about buying a KeepCup, it’s about pushing for structural change. And don’t buy the narrative that change happens slowly. Look how quickly gun reform was introduced in Australia.
Read more from Polly Hemming for Women’s Agenda
Abul Rizvi: Bridging visa backlog a sign of poor system health - Independent Australia
Dealing with the backlog of people stuck on bridging visas has to be part of the plan to reduce migration, but politicians don't see the link.
IT IS VERY RARE for our politicians or media to talk about the number of people on bridging visas. Yet they are the most important barometer of the health of the visa system.
With well over 300,000 people currently on bridging visas, our visa system is in poor health but our politicians have no interest in addressing this.
Read more from Abul Rizvi for Independent Australia
Paula Matthewson: This election, Peter Dutton leaves us, the female Liberal diaspora, in no better place than 2022 - The Guardian
When forced to look into the policy cupboard for the folder named ‘women’, he finds it bare – just as Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison did before him.
As I queued to vote at the 2022 federal election, democracy sausage in hand, I wrestled with the problem vexing many women that day. Particularly women who’d previously voted Liberal for most – if not all – their adult lives.
How could I vote for a party that had consciously decoupled from our half of the population and shown no respect for us or the things that mattered to us?
Read more from Paula Matthewson for The Guardian
Also read > Is Peter Dutton aware that women… can vote? - Crystal Andrews for Crikey (paywall)
Rachel Withers: Inside the three-horse, two-independent fight in Calare where preferences are everything - Crikey
The rural NSW seat isn’t the only place where two different independents are going up against the Coalition. But what will these races tell us about politics in 2025?
Like many community independents, Kate Hook had little desire to become an MP. The renewables advocate, who helped found “Voices of Calare”, says she only agreed to run in the last election after trying to tap others on the shoulder, but finding the role repeatedly “bouncing back” to her.
So when sitting MP Andrew Gee quit the Nationals in late 2022, following the party’s decision to oppose the Voice referendum, it seemed Hook was — ahem — off the hook. Gee clearly had some integrity, and Calare now had an independent
Read more from Rachel Withers for Crikey (paywall)
The think-tanks are killing democracy. Australia is next - The Politics
The Coalition is policy-lite and hostile to the idea of government. Waiting in the wings are the right-wing groups, powered up and ready to fill the void.
There’s one subject that is not on the ballot paper this election but should be: the health of Australia’s democracy. America’s present tells us that. And so does Australia’s not-so-distant past.
The common thread is the role of right-wing think-tanks which are hostile to the idea of democracy and which have increasingly driven conservative politics. The political hardheads of the ALP and Coalition judge that the electorate isn’t paying attention to detail, has the memory of a goldfish and cares only about the money it has in its pocket. It is as base as it can be. And it means that democracy — or the abuse of it — is never up for debate.
Read more from David Hardaker for 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…
Cracks in social cohesion - the major parties must commit to reinvigorating multiculturalism - The Conversation
Election entrée: Speakers from other parties - The Australia Institute
Trump: a ridiculous ego and incredibly ignorant - Pearls and Irritations
Increase in extreme weather events poses 'substantial risk' to blood supplies, researchers warn - ABC News
You know our environmental laws are broken, when a coal mine makes 1000 times what it costs to pollute - The New Daily
Australians care about people doing it tough, so why doesn’t this feature more in the election campaign? - Women’s Agenda
‘Significant shortfalls’ in prison crisis care - The Justice Map
Nothing to see here, Press Council says after News Corp tabloids’ front-page undisclosed advertorial gassing up fossil fuel - The Guardian
KIIS experiment takes a bite out of ARN bottom line as worried advertisers flee program - News.com
From Indonesia with love vs Australian suspicion - Michael West Media
Australia to woo US’s ‘smartest minds’ disfranchised by Trump research cuts - The Guardian
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 Thursday the 17th of April. See you on Tuesday! Have a happy Easter.
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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