News update for Thur 27 March 2025
Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...
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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
PM expected to call Australian election on Friday morning with poll likely to be held in early May - The Guardian
Watch The Sunday Shot - LIVE STREAMED - this Sunday morning at 9am - with Jo Dyer, Dave Milner, Nicki Hutley, Greg Jericho, Rick Morton & ACCOS’ Cassandra Goldie. Subscribe to The Sunday Shot’s Youtube channel for a notification as the panel goes live.
Greg Jericho: Labor’s budget tax cuts make good economic sense – and have backed Dutton and Taylor into a political corner - The Guardian
The tax cuts announced in Jim Chalmers’ fourth budget have left the opposition leader and shadow treasurer with limited options.
If budgets are about choices, then this was one in which very few choices were made. But the one on tax cuts has made life rather difficult for Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor to match without massively increasing the deficit – or telegraphing huge cuts just weeks from an election.
The budget was not a horror. Austerity budgets always are about hitting low-income earners and cutting back on services that are largely unused by anyone earning more than the average full-time wage. So that is good. But to be honest, there just wasn’t any great ambition.
Read more from Greg Jericho for The Guardian
Also >
A cautious responsible budget - Michael Keating for Pearls and Irritations
The 2025-26 budget had one modest surprise, but leaves a lot to the next Parliament (and probably Parliaments after that) - Saul Eslake for Pearls and Irritations
The government is timid, uninspired and uninspiring. This budget fits it perfectly - Ross Gittins for Pearls and Irritations
Budget ignores OPCAT entirely as funding offer expires - Denham Sadler for The Justice Map
From mental health to threatened species: the glaring omissions in the 2025 federal budget - The Guardian
Bad timing: How one in three budgets became bribe contests - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
The top-up budget spills over? - Democracy Sausage Podcast with Mark Kenny
Economist Kristen Sobeck joins Democracy Sausage to break down the budget – the goods, the bads and the ‘X factor’ unknowns. Will the budget do enough to deal with cost-of-living concerns? Is Treasurer Jim Chalmers playing economic chess or political checkers? And how can we engineer a tax system that creates a more equitable ‘good life’ in Australia? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, economist Kristen Sobeck joins Professor Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga to discuss the budget and the lingering tax reform issues influencing our economy.
Listen to Democracy Sausage Podcast
Also >
Treasurer Jim Chalmers Talks Federal Budget, Broncos & Bullets - Betoota Talks Podcast
What Budget 2025 means for women - The Women's Agenda Podcast
Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor on tax top-ups and budget bottom lines - Politics Podcast with Michelle Grattan
Every 3 years, we play the election date waiting game. Are fixed terms the solution? - The Conversation
With another election campaign unofficially underway, voters may feel it hasn’t been long since they were last at the voting booth.
Australia’s Constitution dictates:
every House of Representatives shall continue for three years from the first meeting of the House, and no longer, but may be sooner dissolved by the Governor-General.
This allows the sitting government to call an election sooner than three years after taking office, but recent norms are for governments to use the full term length available to them.
But how do politicians and the public feel about this format, and could this change anytime soon?
The fundamental problem at the heart of defence policy - Pearls and Irritations
The noise over meeting US demands on military spending underlines the fundamental problem at the heart of Australian defence policy: there is no strategy.
You can walk into any pet shop in Australia and find the resident galah talking about what percentage of GDP Australia should be spending on its defence, with apologies to Paul Keating.
The numbers appear to oscillate anywhere from 2.5% to 3%, sometimes higher. It is not so much a case of defence dither, though there has been a great deal of that in recent decades, as defence blather.
Read more in Pearls and Irritations
Also read > The fundamental problem at the heart of defence policy - Pearls and Irritations
Peter Dutton keeps blaming migration for the housing crisis. But can it really be that simple? - The Guardian
The rise in housing costs has been extraordinary. The growth in population has not.
Any way you look at it, and whether you like it or not, migration is shaping up as a major issue for the 2025 election.
As Jim Chalmers did the rounds of media outlets to sell his fourth budget, the treasurer was regularly challenged about the boom in net overseas migration since Labor came to power in 2022.
While the language used in questions sometimes borders on the hysterical, don’t believe what you hear when politicians try to blame migration for the housing crisis.
State of exception - Inside Story
Taswegians tend to go their own way at national elections, and that can matter when the results are close.
Things are getting complicated on the environment front. Late last year the prime minister withdrew plans to create a federal environmental protection agency (promised before the 2022 election), partly at the behest of Western Australia’s Labor premier. Motivations also included Anthony Albanese’s determination — some might say obsession — with propping up his own government’s support in that state, and difficulties getting the legislation through the Senate.
Read more from Peter Brent for Inside Story
Today’s cartoon by Jess Harwood
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.
Kellie Tranter: Trade in a time of genocide. Our exports to Israel growing fast - Michael West Media
In defiance of international rulings to boycott Israel for its ongoing violence and brutal occupation of Palestinian lands, Australia’s exports to Israel have increased by 20% in 12 months. Kellie Tranter of Declassified Australia reports.
This month, Israel unilaterally breached its US ‘guaranteed” ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Without a trace of humanity, it resumed its wholesale murderous slaughter of Palestinian civilians, including killing 174 children with bombs in one night, with countless others requiring amputations without anaesthesia. It also launched policies calculated to deprive all residents of Gaza of essentials, including food, water, sanitary services and electricity.
Read more from Kellie Tranter for Michael West Media
The tabloid panic rewriting bail laws - 7am Podcast
Traditionally, the idea of bail meant that someone accused of a crime had the right to be free until their trial. But over nearly fifty years, that has shifted dramatically, with bail now used as a tool for crime prevention. Jurisdictions across Australia are adopting more punitive bail laws – with Victoria just passing what it calls “the toughest laws in the country”. The government says it’s about community safety, but legal and human rights experts warn that these changes will put more children in custody, disproportionately affect First Nations people, and potentially increase deaths on remand. Today, legal academic, Dr Marylin McMahon, on how media pressure and politics are reshaping bail – and what it means for justice.
Kelly O’Shanassy: Polluting industries like salmon farming need to be properly regulated, not let off the hook - The Guardian
The anger I have witnessed over the past few days within the environment and climate movement has been extraordinary.
I have spent the past four days in emergency meetings with leaders across the environment movement furiously responding to Anthony Albanese’s latest attack on nature.
The government’s carve-out for the salmon industry means the environment is more poorly protected at the end of its three-year term than it was at the start of it.
Read more from Kelly O’Shanassy for The Guardian
Rachel Withers: Green shoots: Has the return of Trump given the minor party its mojo back? - Crikey
From Macnamara to Brisbane, the minor party is confident of playing a major role in the probable hung parliament.
When I spoke to Adam Bandt last October, things weren’t looking so rosy for the Greens.
The party had struggled in recent elections, losing seats in Queensland and the ACT. While the situation wasn’t as bad as Labor proclaimed (the Greens’ primary held in Queensland, while Labor’s plummeted), it wasn’t ideal, with the minor party failing to make gains amid widespread disillusionment with the duopoly.
Read more from Rachel Withers for Crikey (paywall)
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled Trump - The Politics
On this night of nights for the opposition leader, the advice from his biggest supporters is 'Be brave!' Perhaps it should be: 'Don't smile!'
Step up, Peter Dutton, it’s your time to shine. Straighten that back. Polish that pate. Maybe don’t try to smile.
Tonight’s budget reply speech is a big moment for the one-time Queensland cop turned property developer in his thrusting quest for the highest political office. It’s truly extraordinary that a politician considered unelectable not so long ago finds himself with a shot — albeit a long shot — at being prime minister. A lot of work has gone into the Dutton project, not least from the masterminds of the Murdoch media who’ve been prepared to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. Don’t mess with Mr In-between.
Read more from David Hardaker for The Politics
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Quick Links…
‘I thought I was going to die’: director Hamdan Ballal recounts attack by settlers and soldiers in West Bank - The Guardian
Could Trump force us to pay more for our medicines? - Full Story Podcast
New report says middle income earners are struggling with rents - GreenLeft
Israeli politicians sign letter urging Australian MPs to dump two-state policy - The Guardian
Men in local leadership roles have a blind spot when it comes to gender bias, research shows - Women’s Agenda
60-day scripts were supposed to save time and money. So why are we still waiting for cheaper medicines? - The Conversation
Election Watch: No nuke comeback as renewables on a global tear: Plus, Labor’s budget climate resilience fail - Ketan Joshi for Renew Economy
Linda Reynolds tells parliament in leaving speech she had no choice but to sue Brittany Higgins for defamation - The Guardian
Aboriginal women avoid help for domestic violence, fearing their children will be removed: Human Rights Watch - Women’s Agenda
'The Atlantic's' Yemen report: In praise of competence - Independent Australia
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 27th of March. 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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