News update for Thur 6 Feb 2025

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

Feb 06, 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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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 | Also follow The Australia Institute's new Live Blog with Amy Remeikis

BREAKING NEWS: Follow the Antoinette Latouff/ABC hearing

Niki Savva: Donald Trump’s election gives Peter Dutton the chance to play role of a lifetime - The SMH/Age

Peter Dutton has been lucky, until now, to be campaigning at a time when feelings mattered so much more than facts. Lucky that securing sympathetic coverage and plenty of it came cheap if you amplified people’s grievances and anxieties. Lucky that large sections of the media shrugged if policies didn’t stack up or add up. If they sounded good, that was good enough.

Greg Jericho: Labor has managed to tame inflation in an election year – but is anybody listening? - The Guardian

Nobody knows when the federal election will be (not even Anthony Albanese, I suspect; he might have thoughts, but he will also be ready to move should events dictate). But everyone knows what the election will be fought about – cost of living.

Got a new infrastructure proposal? Great, link it to the cost of living.

Healthcare policy? Great, but make sure you also get in a line about cost pressures and cost-of-living relief from cheaper medicines.

Education? Try free Tafe and less Hecs debt – but this is all really about the cost of living (which doesn’t mean they are bad policies).

Defence? Errr … can we say how nuclear submarines we may never get will help our cost of living? (Hah, no, we can’t even convincingly explain how it will help our defence.)

Zoe Daniel - Independent MP for Goldstein at The National Press Club

Independent MP for Goldstein and former ABC journalist, Zoe Daniel addresses the Press Club to outline her case for doing politics differently, where community-backed leaders are a natural force to drive meaningful change.

‘The real risk is expecting the same people to address the problems they created’

Watch Zoe Daniel MP at The National Press Club

Also read >

Bright money? The not-so-shadowy figures funding climate independents - Rachel Withers for Crikey (paywall)
Report: Doesn’t Look Like These Independent Candidates Were A Fad — The Betoota Advocate

Honest Government Ad | Nuclear (Australia) - The Juice Media

The Liberal Party of Australia has made an ad about its nuclear plan, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative!

Watch The Juice Media’s latest Honest Government Ad

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Trump’s plan to ‘own’ Gaza - 7am Podcast

In a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump said the United States would “take over the Gaza strip”, “level it out” and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. He made the comments during Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, the first foreign leader to visit since the inauguration. Trump also said that Palestinians should be permanently settled somewhere outside of Gaza – an idea Arab nations including Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as Palestinian leaders, have rejected. Today, Middle East correspondent for The Economist Gregg Carlstrom on what Trump’s plan for Gaza means for the next phase of the ceasefire.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also >

Trump wants the US to ‘take over’ Gaza and relocate the people. Is this legal? - The Conversation
‘Waterfront property’: What are Trump’s real estate interests in Palestine? - The Guardian
Media plays Trump’s Gaza game, again obsessing over words — not actions - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Trump’s Gaza proposal crosses a red line. The Albanese government must reject it - The Guardian

This is what dictatorship looks like - We’re now in a coup - Robert Reich

It’s a coup.

As Trump talks about taking over Gaza (“beautiful shoreline”), Greenland (“great minerals”), Panama (“very strategic”), and making Canada the 51st state, the media has gone ape-shite wild.

Meanwhile, Trump’s goons are taking over the federal government without congressional authority and very little public awareness.

They’re using two techniques.

The first is to physically take over an agency or department.

Elections mean more misinformation. Here’s what we know about how it spreads in migrant communities - The Conversation

Migrants in Australia often encounter disinformation targeting their communities. However, disinformation circulated in non-English languages and within private chat groups often falls beyond the reach of Australian public agencies, national media and platform algorithms.

This regulatory gap means migrant communities are disproportionately targeted during crises, elections and referendums when misinformation and disinformation are amplified.

The journalist who took the ABC to court - The Daily Aus Podcast

This week, the unfair dismissal case brought by journalist Antoinette Lattouf against the ABC is being heard in court. The case centres around a claim, by Lattouf, that she was fired by the ABC halfway through a short-term contract because of a post she shared to Instagram about the war in Gaza. The ABC is fighting against the claims and says the journalist was not unfairly dismissed. In today's deep dive, we'll revisit the allegations that led to this point, and unpack what we've learnt from the courtroom this week.

Listen to The Daily Aus Podcast

Also >

Sound the alarm: ABC at risk - Pearls and Irritations
ABC staff furious over broadcaster’s legal position on ‘race’ - The SMH/Age (paywall)

Forgetting robodebt - Inside Story

A new report on Services Australia highlights the failings of public service capability reviews.

Services Australia is a critically important government organisation whose work affects millions of citizens. It seems, on the whole, to do a pretty good job. No doubt it can do better with proper care and attention, although its cause will not be much advanced by the report of Mr Thodey and his associates. What is needed is a capability review of the capability review system.

When ideology prevents trans people from accessing healthcare, we all lose - Crikey

Last week, a headline appeared on the front page of The Courier-Mail titled “CHILDREN’S GENDER SCANDAL”. The story focused on Cairns Sexual Health Service allegedly prescribing “unauthorised” puberty blockers to children as young as 12, without informing parents or undertaking the required multidisciplinary consultation.

Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls soon leapt into action, announcing an external evaluation of the state’s entire children’s gender services, as well as an immediate “pause” on all hormone therapies for under-18s in the state.

Due to one clinic in Far North Queensland failing to follow the required protocols for prescribing medication, the state’s children’s gender services were

Fossil fuel subsidies now more than $A2 trillion just in G7 countries - Renew Economy

The G7 group of industrialised nations failed on a 2016 pledge to phase out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” by 2025, according to a report commissioned by NGO Greenpeace Germany.

Instead, the total volume of fossil fuel subsidies rose 15 percent from 1.18 trillion dollars in 2016 to 1.36 trillion dollars in 2023, according to the analysis of International Monetary Fund (IMF) data carried out by economic think tank Forum Ökologisch-Soziale Marktwirtschaft (FÖS).

Of the G7 states, Canada was the only one to reduce fossil fuel subsidies with an 11 percent decrease since 2016. In 2023, the U.S. spent the most on subsidies, followed by Japan and Germany, said the report.

Mandatory minimum sentencing is proven to be bad policy. It won’t stop hate crimes - The Conversation

Weeks after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton announced his support for mandatory minimum jail terms for antisemitic offences, the government has legislated such laws. Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke stated the federal parliament would now be “putting in place the toughest laws against hate speech that Australia has ever had”.

It follows a concerning recent spate of antisemitic attacks in Australia, including on Jewish places of worship, schools, businesses and homes.

The evidence shows that Labor’s official policy platform is correct. Mandatory minimum sentencing is unlikely to help solve this issue – or any other issue for that matter. It has a poor track record of reducing crime.