News update for Thur 7 Mar 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 fight disinformation by sharing selected articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.
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Scroll down for today’s news and views…
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
February was warmest on record globally, say scientists - The Guardian
Having it both ways - Democracy Sausage Podcast
Strategic studies expert Hugh White talks Australia's defence situation, arguing our political leaders are out of step with the rest of the region.
How can we best spend our tax dollars to ensure that Australia's defence capabilities are 'fit for purpose'? What politics internationally and closer to home, are impacting Labor's decisions on shipbuilding and defence? And with the recent ASEAN-Australia special summit in Melbourne, do our leader see eye to eye with the region and each other on how to best manage the shifting strategic environment?
Listen to more on Mark Kenny's Democracy Sausage podcast
Dutton and Ley have created a foolproof what-not-to-do election guide - Niki Savva for the SMH
Rule number one: if you really want to win an election, it’s a good idea to turn up. Take note Peter Dutton. Rule number two: if you do turn up, don’t make a dill of yourself and a nasty one at that. Take note Sussan Ley.
Thanks to their behaviour in the lead-up and aftermath of the Dunkley byelection, the leader and deputy Liberal leader risk being cast as the toxic twins of federal politics.
Read more from Niki Savva for the SMH/Age #auspol
Also read > Letter from Dunkley - The Monthly
The people pushing Australia’s gas expansion - 7am Podcast
Despite the government’s commitment to cutting emissions and reaching net zero, Australia’s gas industry is expanding – and we’re making it easier for gas companies to do their business. So, who is behind the gas lobby? Who puts the most pressure on our politicians, and are they the usual suspects?
F**k Coles and Woolworths - The Shot
Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths post consistent annual profits of more than a billion dollars, hold 60 percent of the market, and enjoy a stranglehold over a vital supply chain of essential items. And with this power they squeeze ordinary Australians dry, from farmers to latte-sippers to marginal families
Read more from Joel Jenkins for The Shot
‘Historic reform’: Government to pay super to parents on paid parental leave - Women’s Agenda
The federal government has announced it will pay superannuation to parents receiving payments on the government-funded paid parental leave scheme from July next year.
Eligible parents with a baby born or adopted on, or after, 1 July 2025 will receive 12 percent of the parental leave payment as a superannuation equivalent payment to their superannuation fund.
Read more from Madeleine Hislop for Women's Agenda
Also read > Super will be paid on parental leave from 2025 - Capital Brief
Cartoon by Fiona Katauskas for The Guardian
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
What’s going on between Peter Dutton and Gina Rinehart? - Crikey
With even right-wing media criticising Peter Dutton for taking time out from the Dunkley by-election to fly to Perth and spend 40 minutes at another Gina Rinehart party, the opposition leader’s slavish relationship with the mining heiress is garnering increasing attention.
Read more from Bernard Keane for Crikey
Also listen to: Gina Rinehart: The other iron lady - BBC Radio 5 Live podcast
The politics behind the Greens radical housing policy - Capital Brief
Political opponents and mainstream economists are scoffing at the Greens’ housing policy. But maybe that’s exactly the point of the plan.
Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather unveiled the party’s first pre-election commitment at the National Press Club on Wednesday, an ambitious and left field plan for a publicly owned property developer.
Australia’s economy has slowed to a halt. It’s time for the Reserve Bank to take its foot off the brake - The Guardian
The latest GDP figures show that the Reserve Bank has slowed things down so drastically that Australia’s economy, for the first time for 40 years, has gone an entire year where it grew only because of population increases.
There really is no good news to find in the December GDP figures. There’s a fair bit of “worst since” about the numbers.
Read more from Greg Jericho for The Guardian
Also read > Crisis, what crisis? Australia’s economy is doing well compared with many in the world - Michael West Media
The succession has happened and legacy media lost - Tim Dunlop for The Future of Everything
The Australian Government’s “media bargaining code”, which forced Facebook/Meta and Google to pay certain media companies for “use” of their content, was always flawed, and I opposed it from the beginning. It was predicated on a dangerously outdated idea of how contemporary, digitalised media works. This meant it threw good money after bad by propping up legacy media organisations in a way that allowed them to ignore obvious shortcomings in their own work.
Read more from Tim Dunlop for his blog, The Future of Everything
Super vs surplus - The Politics
The Albanese government has given Australian women an early International Women’s Day present, announcing it will finally start paying superannuation on paid parental leave, addressing a gap that currently leaves women with, on average, 25 per cent less super than men upon retirement. Experts have long called for this fix.
Read more from Rachel Withers for The Politics
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Quick Links…
What happened to net migration in January 2024 - Pearls and Irritations
Donald Trump’s third presidential nomination has never been in doubt. He’s made an art of political survival - The Conversation
Dutton’s nuclear option condemns us to pricey power and blackouts - Simon Holmes a Court for The SMH/Age
British American Tobacco makes first donation to Nationals in over a decade amid vaping crackdown - The Guardian
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 7th March. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here