News update for Thur 4 July 2024
Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...
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 today’s news and views…
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
ASIC has comprehensively failed and its role should be split in two, according to long-awaited report - The Conversation
Australia’s corporate watchdog, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), should be broken up and replaced by new and more responsive regulatory agencies, a damning report has found.
The Senate Economics References Committee handed down its 200-page report Tuesday evening after a 20-month inquiry into the corporate regulator.
The inquiry involved five days of public hearings and 198 submissions from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and an array of other financial, accounting and legal interest groups.
The report calls for greater transparency and accountability from ASIC and a fundamental change to how it approaches enforcement.
Also read > Something is deeply wrong with business regulation. Even the Liberals know it - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Rachel Withers: Labor’s outdated rules come back to bite in Payman saga -Crikey
Early profiles of West Australian Senator Fatima Payman — Parliament’s first hijab-wearer, first Afghan Australian, and youngest member — feel somewhat prescient.
The union organiser and community leader hadn’t expected to win in 2022; a red wave saw her elected from the usually unwinnable third spot on the WA Labor ticket. But the comments given by the newly elected Payman now seem prophetic, foreshadowing those she made last week after crossing the floor on a Greens motion to recognise the state of Palestine — a position that aligned with the ALP platform, but went against its binding parliamentary caucus.
Read more from Rachel Withers for Crikey (paywall)
Also read > ‘My conscience leaves me no choice’: Fatima Payman quits Labor Party - Women’s Agenda
Fear and loathing in the American alliance - Inside Story
Even before Joe Biden’s dismaying performance in the first presidential debate, Australia’s political and defence establishments were assuring us, perhaps a little too shrilly, that the alliance — and the nuclear submarine deal latterly pegged to it — would survive unscathed if Donald Trump returned to the White House.
They lauded Kevin Rudd’s opening up of Australia’s Washington embassy for a launch of Scott Morrison’s folksy book about his intertwined Pentecostal and political beliefs as a deft diplomatic overture to the Trump camp. Indeed Morrison, after quitting parliament, has joined Trump’s former CIA chief and secretary of state Mike Pompeo in a defence-oriented consultancy. If Trump is elected, he would be pushing Australia’s interests with gusto and no doubt taking a cut.
Also listen to > Presidential Debate: We Have Notes and Rebuttals - The Antoinettes Podcast
Peter Dutton: Australia’s MAGA rock star - Pearls and Irritations
Last month New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks interviewed self-described MAGA (Make America Great Again) War Room street fighter Steve Bannon about the rise of right-wing populism. Among the takeaways were Bannon’s view that the MAGA movement is moving further and faster to the right than Donald Trump, that the battles they’re fighting are essentially ‘unrestricted narrative warfare’ in the media and that a central tool for fighting the war is listening for the ‘signal’, not the ‘noise’.
Bannon said to Brooks “You’re a conservative, but you’re not dangerous. You’re reasonable. We’re not reasonable. We’re unreasonable because we’re fighting for a republic. And we’re never going to be reasonable until we get what we achieve. We’re not looking to compromise. We’re looking to win.”
Read more from Paul Begley for Pearls and Irritations
Nuked: The submarine fiasco that sank Australia’s sovereignty - The Shot Podcast
Jo Dyer and Dave Milner are joined by Andrew Fowler to discuss the disaster that is AUKUS.
Today’s cartoon by First Dog on the Moon for The Guardian
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
The Coalition wants divestiture powers to fight supermarket price gouging. How would it work? - The Guardian
For years, those who have pushed to give authorities the power to forcibly break up big businesses, including supermarkets, for bad behaviour have failed to muster enough support to enact the tough changes.
But some believe their time has now come, as the pricing practices of major supermarkets fall under heavy scrutiny and cost-of-living pressures emerge as the central battleground for the next federal election.
Zoe Daniel calls on government to address hiring delays in domestic violence sector - Women’s Agenda
Goldstein independent MP Zoe Daniel has joined peak bodies representing more than 200 specialist service providers to call on the government to address the delay in frontline family and domestic violence workers.
In a statement, Daniel said: “Frontline family and sexual violence services save lives. They are critical to ensuring victim-survivors receive the tailored and timely support they need to be safe and to recover from violence. But across the country, these services are struggling under increasing demand and a dire lack of funding.”
Do voters want Peter Dutton’s nuclear power plants? - Guardian Essential Report Podcast
Paul Karp and Peter Lewis from Essential Media talk about voter concerns over the cost and safety of Dutton’s nuclear energy policy. Also, Albanese’s approval rating dips to an all-time low, and the birds aren’t real satirical conspiracy theory.
Listen to The Guardian’s Essential Report Podcast
Dan Rather: For The Good of The Country - Steady
The buzzards are circling close to President Biden’s reelection campaign as the fallout from last Thursday’s debate performance worsens. His hopes are not yet dead, but they are on life support. There are now many politicians and journalists who think Biden must decide soon if he is staying in the race or giving it up.
With calls to exit the race from within his own party, post-debate poll numbers falling, and renewed and relentless questions about his mental fitness for the job, Biden finds himself at a crossroads where no politician wants to stand.
As of this writing, he is running.
Read more from Dan Rather for his Steady blog
Right wing media serves up more nonsense about blackout warnings and nuclear - Renew Economy
It’s entirely possible that the nation’s only financial daily, the Australian Financial Review, is still taken seriously by those interested in its coverage of economic issues. It’s no longer clear why that should continue to be the case.
As David Leitch, a principal at ITK and co-host of Renew Economy’s popular weekly Energy Insiders podcast noted last month, the AFR is a highly respected newspaper. But its coverage of climate and energy, the great economic and environmental issues of our time, has been poor. And it continues to be so.
Its economics editor John Kehoe has served up the paper’s latest take on Australia’s green energy transition. And like previous articles from the AFR, it seems to prove that the conservative echo-chamber is real, deafening, and just a little bit scary.
Peter Greste: Who’d be a whistleblower? - The Politics
For years, Australia’s politicians bickered about Julian Assange, but in the months before he came home, they reached a remarkable consensus.
“This case has dragged on far too long,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told parliament. “There is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia.”
In May, the opposition leader Peter Dutton – once a vociferous Assange critic – told ABC radio, “the matters, I think, have to be dealt with and if the Prime Minister’s charting a course through to an outcome on that, that’s a good thing.”
But Australia is in no position to be sniffy about the way the United States has treated Assange. Whether whistleblower, journalist or free speech radical, it’s likely that under Australian law, he would have had an even tougher run.
Read more from Peter Greste for The Politics
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Life expectancy has dropped in Australia for the first time in decades, a new government report says - The ABC
Dick Smith enters nuclear debate but CSIRO analysis shows his argument in meltdown - The Guardian
Australia’s long-awaited national anti-corruption body is a year old. Is it meeting expectations? - The Conversation
The enigma of Keir Starmer - The Guardian’s Full Story Podcast
Australia is set to ban live sheep exports. What will this mean for the industry? - The Conversation
Are we really proud of AUSPOL? - Talking Sh!t by Toilet Paper Australia Podcast
eSafety commissioner issues graphic content ultimatum - The Mandarin
Labor branch in Albanese’s electorate passes motion supporting Fatima Payman - The Guardian
Labor believes Fatima Payman’s rebellion was plotted for a month - Niki Savva for The SMH/Age (paywall)
Australia is pushing big tech to ‘protect kids from porn’. What can they actually do? - The Conversation
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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You’re up to date for Thursday the 4th July. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here