News update for Tue 27 May 2025

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

May 27, 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

BREAKING NEWS: Hero Richard Boyle pleads guilty to being a whistleblower - Michael West Media

Adam Morton: ‘The spin has been wrong’: rock art expert raises concerns over critical report ahead of Woodside decision - The Guardian

Unless something remarkable – the federal court, perhaps – intervenes, the Albanese government will this week make a decision that could have ramifications for greenhouse gas emissions and Indigenous heritage that last for decades – or longer. It relates to the future of the North West Shelf, one of the world’s largest liquified natural gas (LNG) projects.

Most discussion about it assumes that it is a done deal – that the environment minister, Murray Watt, will give the green light to an application by Woodside Energy to extend the life of the gas export processing facility on the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

Also read >

How the government is setting everyone up to fail on green claims - Polly Hemming for The New Daily
Glencore Australia's Ulan Coal Mine expansion near Mudgee approved - The ABC
As Australia’s carbon offset industry grapples with integrity concerns, how can companies genuinely tackle climate change? - The Conversation
Australia is about to see a step change in its renewable transition strategy - Renew Economy
Woodside boss says young people ‘ideological’ on fossil fuels while ‘happily ordering from Temu’ - The Guardian
Woodside's CEO and her peers need to fund Australia's climate catastrophe measures - Lucy Hamilton

Will Labor take its chance to act on climate? - Full Story Podcast

It’s often said that the 2020s will be a ‘defining decade’ for the planet and action on the climate crisis. Starting this week, the proposal to extend Woodside gas’s processing plant in Western Australia’s remote north-west by 40 years awaits the new environment minister, Murray Watt – the first of many consequential decisions facing him during Labor’s second term in government. Labor has secured a massive majority, with the possibility of another six years on the government benches. So what are the party’s plans for the climate and environmental reforms? Nour Haydar speaks with Adam Morton about why there will never be a better chance for Labor to deliver on climate

Listen to the Full Story Podcast

Late Night Live farewells Laura Tingle - Late Night Live

After 30 years of appearances on Late Night Live - spanning nine Australian Prime Ministers - Laura Tingle bids farewell to LNL as its political correspondent in Canberra, before commencing her ABC Global Affairs role. In a sprawling conversation, Laura recounts her early beginnings in journalism, the ebbs and flows of Canberra politics through the decades, and what she's come to admire in our representatives.

Listen to Late Night Live

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Actually, Gen Z stand to be the biggest winners from the new $3 million super tax - The Conversation

As debate rages about the federal government’s plan to lift the tax on earnings on superannuation balances over A$3 million, it’s worth revisiting why we offer super tax breaks in the first place, and why they need to be reformed.

These tax breaks boost the retirement savings of super fund members. They also ensure workers don’t pay punitively high long-term tax rates on their super, since the impact of even low tax rates on savings compounds over time.

But they disproportionately flow to older and wealthier Australians.

Ross Gittins: Why we need our economists to try a lot harder - Pearls and Irritations

For most economists, their view of how the world works is virtually unchanged from one decade to the next. They’ve already found the truth, so nothing needs changing.

I noticed in The Psychologist magazine one of that profession’s old hands advising newbies to “think outside the box and question everything”. What? With economists, such heretical advice would be unthinkable.

In their profession, all the advice is to learn the orthodoxy and never question it. Why? Because it’s the revealed truth.

Today’s cartoon by First Dog on the Moon

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

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Ex-PwC boss’s charity on verge of collapse - The Klaxon

The sixteen-year-old charity of former Melbourne power couple Cate Sayers and Luke Sayers — who was ousted as Carlton president over a “dick pic” scandal — is on the verge of collapse.

Auditors of the Inclusion Foundation have warned there is a “material uncertainty” it will be able to continue as a “going concern”, three years after it was embroiled in scandal over spruiking then Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg for re-election.

Cate Sayers founded Inclusion Foundation, which provides dance classes to people with Down syndrome, in 2009, but departed late last year, leaving Luke a director.

'A cancer': How Abbott and Credlin control the Liberals - 7am Podcast

Tony Abbott was on a layover in Dubai when he phoned Natasha Griggs – the president of the Country Liberal Party – and set off a chain reaction inside the Coalition. Hours later, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price defected to the Liberals and a surprise leadership ticket was taking shape. For moderates, it was another sign that the former prime minister and his confidante, Peta Credlin, are still pulling the party’s levers from the outside. Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Paper Jason Koutsoukis, on Tony Abbott, the shadow network steering the Liberals and why insiders say it’s a cancer that’s killing the party.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also >

Not many splashed in the short-lived teacup revolt - Jack Wateford for Pearls and Irritations
Decimated - 4 Corners Replay on iView

Breaking down the informal vote - The Tally Room

The vote count is now getting to a point where pretty much all primary votes have been counted, even if we don’t have all of the preference counts yet. So that means we can now begin to analyse the informal voting trends – where it went up or down, and what some of the causes could be.

I also wanted to look into a story that appeared yesterday in the Sydney Morning Herald which claimed that there had been a surge in informal rates in voting at special hospital booths in 2025, but seemed to be mostly focused on a handful of seats.

Right now the informal rate has increased from 5.2% in 2022 to 5.6%. This would be the second highest rate on record, but only just ahead of the rates at two other elections.

The first thing to check is how the informal rate compares to the size of the ballot paper.

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Australian politics has changed. Media’s old blokes must shift their gaze - Crikey

The press gallery needs to get its head around the gender shift in parliament. So far it’s not off to a great start.

Gradually, now suddenly, Australian politics — its people, policies, behaviours — has changed. Across Canberra, the residual Littleprouds in all parties (and, yes, still in the press gallery) seem as stuck as Bob Dylan described them back when he wrote “Ballad of a Thin Man”: “You know something is happening, but you don’t know what it is.”

We can see a few signs of just what that “something” is: the Liberals (narrowly) selecting Sussan Ley as their first-ever female leader; Labor electing the first gender-equal cabinet out of a majority female caucus; the Greens choosing Larissa Waters as a nod against “shoutiness

Also read > Violence and justice in journalism - Jane Gilmore

R U OK, ABC? You’re not looking all that great - The Politics

The national broadcaster's flagship Four Corners last night didn't dig deep into the Coalition's entrails, scarcely scraping the surface. And its execs need some friendly advice.

A couple of surprising developments emerged from the ABC yesterday, making The Politics wonder if all is well at the national broadcaster.

We also wonder if the Albanese government shouldn’t take this singular moment in history to seriously ramp up the ABC so it can fully perform its role as a guardian of democracy amid a crumbling media landscape.

The election exposed weaknesses in Australian democracy – but the next parliament can fix them - The Australia Institute

Australia has some very strong democratic institutions – like an independent electoral commission, Saturday voting, full preferential voting and compulsory voting. These ensure that elections are free from corruption; that electorate boundaries are not based on partisan bias; and that most Australians turn out to vote. They are evidence of Australia’s proud history as an electoral innovator.

However, there were some sour notes in the election campaign.

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