News update for Tue 13 May 2025

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

May 13, 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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TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here

Sussan Ley takes command of the Liberals — but can she keep the right at bay? - Crikey

Sussan Ley is the first female leader of the Liberals — but will the right of her party provide the same support that moderates gave Peter Dutton?

Sussan Ley has made history by becoming the first woman to leader the federal Liberal Party, after defeating right-wing candidate Angus Taylor 29-25 in a partyroom ballot this morning.

Queenslander Ted O’Brien — the Coalition’s nuclear energy advocate under Peter Dutton — is deputy leader after Jacinta Nampijinpa Price withdrew from the deputy race in the wake of Taylor’s defeat. O’Brien will be able to select his own portfolio, with the expectation he will become shadow treasurer.

Also read >

Liberals elect first woman leader, with Ley defeating Taylor 29-25 - Michelle Grattan for The Conversation
Leaders’ bodies lie strewn on Liberal battlefield - The Politics

By just four votes: Liberals went kicking and screaming to appoint a woman - Women’s Agenda

After 81 years, the Liberal party will be led by a woman, with Sussan Ley winning the leadership contest over Angus Taylor this morning.

Her elevation comes just in time for the most significant post-election cleanup in the party’s history. The Liberal party was further decimated at the May 3 Federal election polls following its previous decimation in 2022.

Ley’s historic appointment also comes as the Liberal party has struggled to elevate women into top jobs for years.

However, Ley still only won the race by four votes. Angus Taylor achieved 25.

It’s hard to call this anything but a “glass cliff” situation for Ley.

Julia Banks on what it’s like to be a woman in the Liberal party - 7am Podcast

Today, the Liberal party will elect a new leader. Whoever is chosen will have to figure out how to attract women back to the party – both candidates and voters. But Julia Banks thinks that ship has sailed and it’s time for a new coalition. Today, the former Liberal MP on what it’s like to be a woman in the party – and why she’ll never go back.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also read > Record 12 women in Cabinet as Anthony Albanese unveils demotions, promotions and new look team - Women’s Agenda

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Littleproud’s first comments as re-elected Nationals leader: Blackout disinformation - Renew Economy

The first few weeks of the post-election shake-down are useful indicators of the tone politicians intend to take, and freshly re-installed Nationals leader David Littleproud kicked off the next term with something grim. When pressed on the position the party intends to take on emissions target, climate and renewables, Littleproud said this:

“You cannot run an economy of the industrial scale the size of Australia on an all-renewables approach, just look at Spain and Portugal … the reality is, even Anthony Albanese is saying your energy bill is going to up”.

It’s a reference to nuclear power – but as I discovered soon after the blackout, Spain hasn’t ditched nuclear power at all.

Also read > Coalition bombs itself with nuclear energy policy - Independent Australia

Productivity with purpose: Roy Green, structural reform and Australia’s place in the world - Pearls and Irritations

Roy Green’s recent article on productivity reform offers one of the most cogent and hopeful visions for Australia’s economic future.

Where others reach for recycled prescriptions — deregulation, market incentives or digital gloss — Green maps out a deeper, more ambitious reform pathway: one grounded in innovation, institutional capacity and long-term structural renewal.

He is right to frame Labor’s second term as a critical turning point. For too long, Australia has relied on mineral rents, population growth and speculative housing to prop up national income.

Constitutional fortitude - The Monthly

As the US institutions of government – if not its very democracy – come under threat from within, Australia’s Constitution offers no protection from similar threats.

Sixty-nine days after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by a man shouting “Sic semper tyrannis”, the news reached the antipodean colonies. Despite the delay, word of the death of the president quickly spread east and north. In Sydney, collective grief and outrage provoked demonstrations; in Melbourne, a memorial service for the much-admired American president was speedily organised. The local papers urged readers to wear black for a month.

How this week will shape politics for years to come - Full Story Podcast

The election campaign drama continues, with Labor today swearing in a new cabinet to lead the country and the Coalition also firming up its leaders for a second term in opposition. And on Thursday, the Greens will decide who will fill Adam Bandt’s shoes after he lost his seat. Chief political correspondent Tom McIlroy talks to Nour Haydar about the two very different leadership battles in Australian politics this week – and who’s in and out of Albanese’s new-look cabinet.

Listen to the Full Story Podcast

Also read > Australia chose the nice guy over the tough guy. But Labor is going to need momentum to meet the challenge - The Guardian

To the new environment minister, Murray Watt: it’s time to get reforms right - The Guardian

Long-term reform is not going to be easy, but we have wasted 15 years and everyone has lost, especially the natural world.

Long overdue reform of national environment laws is unfinished business for the 48th parliament and the re-elected Albanese government.

Senator Murray Watt, a Queenslander, is well respected within the government and has a reputation for taking hard decisions and bringing together diverse stakeholders. Both of these attributes will be at a premium if the minister is to succeed where others have not.

Chinese Australians’ rejection of the Liberal Party: Ten moments - Pearls and Irritations

The rejection of the Liberal Party by Chinese Australian communities in the election was comprehensive and unambiguous.

The Liberals not only failed to wrest back those marginal seats with large numbers of Chinese Australian voters, which they had lost to Labor last time, but they have also helped turn some safe Liberal seats marginal. Further, there were much bigger swings against the Liberals than the national average in many seats.

There is a wide range of reasons — economic, social, and cultural — why Australians voted against the Liberals.

Fat cat salaries and the secretive Remuneration Tribunal - Michael West Media

Our top civil servants are being paid exceptionally well by international standards and much more than our Prime Minister, let alone the ministers to whom they are answerable. Time for change, Rex Patrick says.

When I first tweeted about departmental secretaries’ salaries back in late 2023, the tweet had 450,000 views, and it prompted News Corp to run a piece right around the country entitled “Million dollar club”.

Scrutiny of these top cat bureaucrats’ salaries over the past two years, and articles by this and other news outlets, led to a Bill being introduced in the Senate.

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