News update for Tue 18 March 2025
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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TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
BREAKING NEWS: Israel-Gaza war: IDF strikes have killed at least 200, health ministry says, in biggest attack since start of January ceasefire – live - The Guardian
Adele Ferguson: Private childcare whistleblowers' disturbing experiences inside a sector putting profits before kids - ABC News
The rapid privatisation of Australia's childcare sector has unleashed a wave of neglect and exploitation.
The childcare industry, entrusted with the care of 1.4 million children in Australia, is increasingly prioritising profits over safety.
Parents are paying as much as $220 a day, or more than $1,000 a week, to a $20 billion-a-year sector riddled with systemic failures, a rising number of serious incidents and a troubling culture of secrecy.
Now, in a six-month Four Corners investigation, whistleblowers, workers, parents and experts are revealing the urgent need for reform.
Also > Watch Four Corners's special investigation into the systemic issues plaguing Australia's childcare sector on ABC iview.
Peter Dutton and the caravan of explosives - 7am Podcast
The discovery of an abandoned caravan full of explosives on the outskirts of Sydney earlier this year triggered widespread panic and fear. There were reports of a list of Jewish targets – and right away, NSW Premier Chris Minns and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called it terrorism. In the months that followed, discourse concerning the caravan became increasingly politicised, with Peter Dutton blaming the prime minister for putting Australians at risk. But all the while, police were warning the whole thing could be a hoax. Today, special correspondent for The Saturday Paper, Jason Koutsoukis, on how a criminal con job became a political football – and the implications for our national security.
Trump cuts to have ‘chilling effect’ on climate science and ‘degrade’ Australia’s ability to forecast weather - The Guardian
Staff cuts and a freeze on international collaborations at a leading US science agency will have a “chilling effect” on climate science and may “severely degrade” Australia’s ability to accurately forecast the weather, scientists have warned.
The Trump administration fired 880 workers at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) on 27 February, and reportedly plans to cut 1,000 more staff.
Australian meteorologists and scientists rely on Noaa data and software for both operational weather forecasting and long-term predictions of the climate, with collaborations between the two countries dating back decades.
Liberal supporters launch election ad campaign against Peter Dutton’s plan to build nuclear power plants - The Guardian
A group of Liberal supporters has launched an advertising campaign against the party’s plan to build taxpayer-funded nuclear power plants, arguing it “betrays Liberal values”, divides the party and “hands government back to Labor”.
The new advocacy group Liberals Against Nuclear says it rejects the Coalition’s policy as it would require the government to borrow tens of billions of dollars, swell the bureaucracy and impose “massive taxpayer-backed risk”.
Also read >
How the cost of disasters like ex-Cyclone Alfred are often higher for women - Women’s Agenda
Households brace for power price hikes when Australia is a major energy exporter - ABC News
Trump is surveying Australian academics about gender diversity and China – what does this mean for unis and their research? - The Conversation
Shortly after taking office, US President Donald Trump issued executive orders banning federal funding on so-called “woke” research.
This is part of his broader ban on all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, grants and programs in the US government.
These orders are massive in scope, impacting studies as varied as stroke recovery, computing and ancient languages.
The impact in the United States so far has been dramatic.
Also read > Trump cuts to have ‘chilling effect’ on climate science and ‘degrade’ Australia’s ability to forecast weather - The Guardian
Jack Waterford: ANZUS and NATO are kaput and Trump doesn’t care - Pearls and Irritations
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have proven too gutless, so far, to speak frankly to Australians about the implications of the imposition of new tariffs by the US, the first of many, to be imposed on Australia. They have expressed some ritual regrets and said it was a poor reward for their sycophantic grovelling over the years. They have not said that the coming election is the perfect time for blunt discussions of what it all means.
Canada, next door to America, has not been so reticent. The newly installed prime minister, Mark Carney used fighting words about dark days brought on by a country “we can no longer trust”.
Read more in Pearls and Irritations
Today’s cartoon by Fiona Katsauskas
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian 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.
Tim Dunlop: From the kitchen table to the crossbench - The Future of Everything
An interview with two behind-the-scenes stalwarts of the independents' movement, Denis Ginnivan and Lesley Howard.
The discussion with Lesley and Denis reinforced for me that, as important as the next election is—especially if it does return a minority government—the independents’ movement is about more than electoral success. It is about building the sort of community-level resilience that, I would argue, is the only thing that will keep us from sliding into the anti-democratic, authoritarian abyss so many other democracies are either already in or teetering on the edge of. And that means organising in as many communities as possible, particularly the ones the major parties still see as “safe” and continue to take for granted.
Read more from Tim Dunlop for The Future of Everything
Also read > Labor and the Coalition are demonising a hung parliament but they’ll only have themselves to blame if it happens - The ABC
Sending the wrong Signal. Australia’s disappearing political history - Michael West Media
Are app messages ‘Commonwealth records’? If so, why do Canberra’s elite routinely delete them via Signal and WhatsApp?
Canberra politicians and bureaucrats could be breaking the very law they supposedly strengthened late last year, by auto-deleting app messages transparency advocates say “must be made publicly available”.
Sources close to government confirm this assault on transparency (via the Signal app) yet it barely raises eyebrows at the upper reaches of Federal Government agencies, and is habitual among MPs from all sides of politics.
Read more from Andrew Gardiner in Michael West Media
2025 Australian Media Landscape Report - Media Net
Medianet's annual Australian Media Landscape Report aims to shine a light on the challenges of the media industry, and provide data-backed insights into how PR, communication, corporate affairs and marketing professionals can build better relationships with journalists.
One of the findings in the report show that since #ElonMusk's acquisition, X usage among journalists has declined by 30%. #Bluesky rises quickly and is now being used by 19% of respondents.
“Arts funding is fucked”: Overland 1973 — 1975 - Overland
Nineteen seventy-three was an auspicious year for the arts in Australia. It saw the announcement of a new structure for the Australia Council for the Arts by the newly minted Whitlam Government. And, more importantly, it was the year when Overland revived its regular [sic] editorial column, Swag, absent from the preceding few issues, and intermittent throughout the journal’s history. The tension between governments and artists, and politicians and their public, and any number of permutations of those combinations, is everlasting and in many ways inevitable. While this discussion is almost half a century old, anyone working in the arts will see the contemporary parallels. The specifics are no longer entirely relevant, but the issues raised still hold true, and are, even fifty years later, yet to be resolved, if indeed they can be.
Albo’s attack on wombat influencer reveals hypocrisy on wildlife - Crikey
The PM’s strong words about the American influencer who took a baby wombat from its mother would have you believing he cared about native wildlife. His track record suggests otherwise.
Imagine you’re that US tourist in Australia. You make the mistake of taking a wombat from its mother for a moment, and you post footage of this to your social media accounts. The footage shows wombat mumma and bub in distress — and tens of thousands of Australians rightly condemn you, pointing out that it’s cruel and illegal for unauthorised people to scoop up wild animals, let alone steal a baby from its mother.
Read more in Crikey (paywall)
Time to get real as US destroys the world order - The Politics
The malignant Donald Trump holds the malevolent Vladimir Putin in the highest esteem. Our intelligence agreements need to change.
The perils of dealing with a US president awestruck by Vladimir Putin takes me back to 1992 — a very different time and a very different president. I was among reporters trying to put a question to George Bush snr during his visit to Australia. The press were at a distance as he toured Melbourne’s revered Shrine of Remembrance.
There’s a beautiful sandstone chamber deep in the shrine, bathed in a gentle half-light and silence, where imposing bronze statues of Diggers stand guard, slouch hats, heads bowed, guns at rest — so real they might come back to life from 1916.
Read more from Nicole Chvastek for The Politics
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Quick Links…
Coalition at odds over Peter Dutton’s idea to hold a referendum on deporting criminals - The Guardian
Why build nuclear power in place of old coal, when you could have pumped hydropower instead? - The Conversation
Figuring out China: It’s still complicated - Pearls and Irritations
ASIC puts payday lenders on notice they may be breaching the law - The Conversation
The 200-year-old U.S. law used to deport migrants - The Daily Aus Podcast
Vaccination nations: Can Australia avoid America’s backwards slide, and even become a world leader in vaccines? - Inside Story
Government refuses to articulate ‘frankly terrifying’ security risks - Pearls and Irritations
Independent running against Dutton wants bipartisan focus on home batteries after cyclone outages - Renew Economy
System failure: Nearly half of NSW homicides were domestic-violence related in 2024 - Women’s Agenda
The $19.2bn ‘Big Build’ is a rort. The federal government needs to cut Victoria off - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Most Australians look with horror at the Trump administration’s whirlwind of destruction, but what about the lads? - 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 Tuesday the 18th of 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
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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