News update for Thur 20 Feb 2025

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

Feb 20, 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

BREAKING NEWS: ‘This is censorship’: Palestinian flags covered up in major exhibition at National Gallery of Australia - The Guardian

Dancing with the teals: are we heading to a minority government? - Full Story Podcast

Predictions of an election announcement by Anthony Albanese are reaching fever pitch after the RBA announced a cut in interest rates. Many had forecast this would prompt him to name a date, but the decision is not a guaranteed win for Labor, with recent polls pointing to a minority government for both parties.Political reporter Dan Jervis-Bardy speaks to Nour Haydar about how the prime minister and Peter Dutton are both eyeing the crossbench.

Listen to The Full Story Podcast

Also > Rachel Withers: If Dutton’s in the box seat, which crossbenchers will he have on side? - Crikey

Greg Jericho: The RBA is cutting interest rates and unemployment is at historic lows. This is not supposed to be happening - The Guardian

Wages growth is slowing, unemployment is at historic lows and the Reserve Bank is also cutting rates. Welcome to the weird economy of 2025.

In this crazy world where we have an authoritarian in the White House who wants to be friends with Russia – and enemies with Canada – it is good to occasionally realise that what is happening has not always been happening.

It is also worth realising that, right now, we are experiencing something good in the economy that no one under 55 years of age has ever known.

Also read >

Official interest rates have been cut, but not everyone is a winner - The Conversation
The leader vanishes: Dutton goes missing yet again - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)

‘Not even oligarchs can get away with misleading the public’: Rinehart’s ‘clean gas’ claims fall foul of Ad Standards - Mumbrella

Hancock Prospecting has been found in breach of the AANA Environmental Claims Code, after a complaint regarding the company’s “clean gas” was upheld by Ad Standards.

The company, owned by Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, ran an advertisement for its recruitment site futureaustralianjobs.com on The Australian last October.

The ad claimed “Our clean gas keeps the lights, and factories, hospitals, and shops open from Tokyo to Toowoomba”, with the ‘clean’ claim disputed by climate communications group, Comms Declare.

Will the government’s online gambling advertising legislation ever eventuate? Don’t bet on it - The Conversation

As the next federal election came into view before the summer break, concern increased that Labor wouldn’t be honouring its commitment to introduce new restrictions on online (especially sport) gambling advertising during the current parliamentary sitting.

Those fears were well-founded, despite pressure from many sides and broad bipartisan political support.

The Greens made a last-ditch attempt to cooperate with the government to pass some reforms in the February 2025 sitting, but were rebuffed.

Why Australia’s Campaign Finance Reform is Likely to Face Constitutional Challenge - Professor Anne Twomey

After decades of gridlock on campaign finance reform at the federal level in Australia, the major parties reached a deal to pass the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 2025 (Cth) on almost the last parliamentary sitting day before a forthcoming election. The new law will not take effect until after the election. It will lower the threshold for the disclosure of donations and ensure disclosures are published more quickly. It will also impose a cap on political donations and a cap on electoral expenditure. This all sounds like a great improvement for transparency and fairness in election campaigning. In theory, it is. So why and how could it be the subject of a successful constitutional challenge?

Rex Patrick: A win for transparency, a blow to secrecy, a loss for the Maugean Skate - Michael West Media

In a landmark Administrative Review Tribunal decision, public servants have been warned their secrecy culture is unlawful and must end.

The Albanese Government forked out tens of thousands of taxpayer’s dollars in legal fees to Clayton Utz to resist releasing a Ministerial brief on the prospective extinction of the Maugean Skate. That’s public money not well spent.

And the government’s resistance has delayed the release of the brief by more than a year, which will make the information less valuable from a public oversight perspective. That’s not good news for the Skates; and it’s another all too familiar example of political and bureaucratic obstruction of government transparency.

Today’s cartoon by First Dog on the Moon

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

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What if there is no way of Australia placating Trump? - Pearls and Irritations

As a quick study in the psychology of Australia-US relations, last week had it all.

There was the sound of cash registers ringing in Washington as Canberra handed over the first cheque for the US nuclear submarine production base.

There was the self-aggrandisement of Richard Marles at the Pentagon, chuffed at being the first defence minister to gain access to his counterpart, Secretary Pete Hegseth, as Hegseth went on to dismantle European assumptions of NATO security.

Billed as news that could ‘break the Guardian’s website’, it turned out to be Clive Palmer’s best shot at Trump lite - The Guardian

“It will break the Guardian’s website.”

So came the heads-up from an unusually tight-lipped Ralph Babet when pressed for details before a “major political announcement” that his benefactor Clive Palmer was planning for Wednesday morning in Canberra.

After last week’s failed high court bid to re-register United Australia party, Palmer was without a party through which to pour his millions in the final election before campaign spending caps – designed precisely to curb his influence – come into force.

Surely, Palmer would not miss his last dance?

No, no he would not.

Shouting at ABC to raise standards won't help - Independent Australia

With the ABC's quality continually dropping, it's imperative to find a productive way to register our opinions rather than complaining to deaf ears.

WHO THE ABC hires as political reporters matters. And it does matter that, at a time when our public broadcaster is under the most virulent coordinated attack since Keith Murdoch kicked off the “waste of taxpayers’ money” refrain back in the 1930s, Australians fight for its existence.

The insertion into management, editorial and reporting roles of a hefty cohort of ex-Murdoch ideologues appears to have white-anted the solidity of the ABC’s quality. In criticising this decrease in reliability, however, we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Seven ways to support the Indigenous economy for nationwide benefits - Women’s Agenda

Over the last 20 years, Indigenous affairs funding has leaned heavily towards addressing social inequity issues affecting Indigenous people and communities, with initiatives like Closing the Gap used to drive better outcomes.

Yet, every year the updated statistics show change is not happening at the pace required, and the investments made are insufficient to drive tangible outcomes across the board. Disappointingly, the federal government announced that only five of the 19 targets are on track to be met.

One of the biggest opportunities to Closing the Gap is repeatedly overlooked – Indigenous economic development.

Is Don. Is bad - The Politics

An orange-tinted-Musk-scented ill wind's a'blowin' around the world, blasting an icy chill over democracy, humanity and decency.

Ghastly it might be, but LNP leader Peter Dutton, of course, has sniffed where all this can lead. The sight of Rupert Murdoch sitting in the Oval Office egging on Trump as he leads the assault on “woke” America is really all you need to know. If in doubt just follow the Mar-a-Lago trail where you will find a cheery Gina Rinehart doing a new year’s eve knees-up.

Australia sure isn’t the US. We aren’t overrun by evangelical Christian nationalists and are perhaps less likely to be so since the departure of Scott Morrison. But there are danger signs.

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!

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