News update for Thur 22 May 2025

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

May 22, 2025

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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: Sussan Ley and David Littleproud signal Coalition reunification possible amid renewed talks - The Guardian

Anthony Klan: The Price is Right? Liberals in early MAGA test - The Klaxon

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has written to thousands of Australians spruiking far-right disinformation group “Advance”, in a major test for the Liberal Party just one day after its split from the Nationals.

In the mass missive early this morning, Price brags about Advance “smashing the Greens”, and spruiks for support for the US MAGA-style group — so that it can “have real influence on the next election”.

“If it wasn’t for Advance, the Greens would have NINE lower house MPs, instead of just one,” writes Price.

RIP the Coalition - 7am Podcast

Just a week after taking charge in the wake of the Liberals’ disastrous election result, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley now finds herself without a coalition partner. Nationals leader David Littleproud says he walked from the agreement after the Liberals refused to lock in a list of policy commitments, while Ley accused the Nationals of holding the agreement “hostage”. The split is a major setback for the Liberals, but it may be worse for the National Party – now relegated to a minor party on the crossbench. Today, special correspondent for The Saturday Paper, Jason Koutsoukis, on why the Coalition broke up and what it will take to bring them back together.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also >

Why is the Coalition breaking up? - The Daily Aus Podcast
NSW Nationals MPs criticise ‘distasteful’ move by federal counterparts - The Guardian
David Littleproud cites nuclear energy disagreement as major factor in Coalition split - Pearls and Irritations
Breaking up is hard to do: the end of the Coalition - New Politics
View from The Hill: Coalition split puts Victorian and NSW Nationals Senate seats at high risk - The Conversation
Has the Liberal party lost Chinese Australian voters for good? – The Guardian
The departure of the Nats is far from the end of the Liberals’ problems (hint: it’s themselves) - Rachel Withers for Crikey (paywall)
The Coalition marriage breakup: A nuclear meltdown - Michelle Pini for Independent Australia

NSW is copping rain and flooding while parts of Australia are in drought. What’s going on? - The Conversation

Emergency crews were scrambling to rescue residents trapped by floodwaters on Wednesday as heavy rain pummelled the Mid North Coast of New South Wales.

In some areas, more than 200 mm of rain has fallen in 24 hours. At the town of Taree, low-lying areas are flooded as the Manning River reached record levels, passing the 1929 record of six metres.

At the same time, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia are in drought amid some of the lowest rainfall on record.

So what is going on, and when will the wet weather end?

Starvation of Gaza a continuation of a decades-old plan - Pearls and Irritations

Israel’s plan to push out all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip has been contemplated as long back as 1967, soon after the Six-Day War ended.

Reading an NBC News report a couple of days ago about a Trump administration plan to relocate 1 million Gazans to Libya reminded me of a conversation between the legendary Warsaw Ghetto leader Marek Edelman and fellow fighter and survivor Simcha Rotem that took place more than quarter of a century ago.

In the conversation, first reported in Haaretz in 2023, Rotem said the Jews who walked into the gas chambers without a fight did so only because they were hungry.

Greg Jericho: You would think after nearly three years of being wrong, the RBA might start to question its economics. But no - The Guardian

Now that inflation is back within the target range, suddenly the RBA has rediscovered that it is supposed to also care about full employment.

The decision by the Reserve Bank to cut rates on Tuesday was welcome and well overdue. While all signs point to more rates cuts to come, unfortunately the RBA remains wedded to the idea that we need more people to lose their jobs in order to keep inflation low.

You might have missed it, but the inflation fight is now officially over.

Today’s cartoon by Pat Hudson

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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Who knew? High-level Afghanistan war crimes cover-up exposed - Micheal West Media

A two-year MWM investigation reveals top Australian Army Generals may know much more about war crimes in Afghanistan than previously thought. Retired army officer Stuart McCarthy reports.

A US Air Force Liberty surveillance plane with top-secret signals intelligence (SIGINT) equipment flew a surveillance mission in support of an Australian special forces raid in Darwan, Uruzgan province, at the time of Ben Roberts-Smith’s alleged war crimes in September 2012.

Jim Chalmers on keeping Australia out of recession amid the 'dark shadow' of global instability - Politics Podcast with Michelle Grattan

From super changes to avoiding recession, federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers joins the podcast to discuss the government's priorities when Parziament returns in July.

Listen to Politics Podcast with Michelle Grattan

Labor now has the political clout to reset Australia’s refugee policy. Here’s where to start - The Conversation

Australia’s policy towards refugees and asylum seekers stands at a critical juncture.

Global displacement is at record highs and many countries are retreating from their responsibilities. At this moment, Australia can lead by example.

As Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on election night:

We do not need to beg or borrow or copy from anywhere else. We do not need to seek our inspiration overseas. We find it right here in our values – and in our people.

Those values should guide a principled and evidence-based response to the global refugee crisis. This response should be grounded in fairness, humanity and respect for Australia’s international human rights obligations.

Do law and order campaigns win votes in Australia? - Crikey

Stoking public fear over crime was effective for Donald Trump in securing the US presidency in both 2016 and 2024. In Australia, that approach has been less potent.

Crime and public safety are usually the domain of state politics. But the Coalition tried to elevate them as key issues for voters in the recent federal election.

Claiming crime had been “allowed to fester” under Labor, the opposition promised a $750 million Operation Safer Communities plan, which included police strike teams targeting drugs, a national child sex offender register, and more money for Neighbourhood Watch. A Coalition government would also have given grants to community groups to install public lighting, bollards and CCTV cameras.

Revealed: the secret polling which foretold the fast and furious collapse of Peter Dutton - The Politics

Data obtained exclusively by The Politics shows Dutton’s numbers were crashing in his own seat. It was a far cry from the ‘tight contest’ predicted by the major polls.

This is a story about where political hubris goes to die, and also the old truism that all politics is local.

We reveal for the first time how Peter Dutton began haemorrhaging voter support on his home ground, in the electorate of Dickson, over the Christmas-New Year holiday break. This was well ahead of an escalating collapse months later in his national popularity as Opposition leader.

Dutton’s personal electoral death spiral also preceded the sudden fall in support for the Liberal-National Coalition, which only became apparent much later, at the end of March.

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