News update for Tue 29 April 2025
Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...
4 days until the May 3 federal election
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TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
BREAKING NEWS: Canada election 2025 live: Mark Carney’s Liberal party projected to win after running on anti-Trump platform - The Guardian
Exclusive Brethren don’t vote but are secretly campaigning for the Coalition - The SMH/Age
A separatist Christian sect which tells its members to hate the world and which objects to voting is campaigning for the Liberal and National parties ahead of Saturday’s federal election.
The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren, has dispatched hundreds of its members to pre-polling booths in marginal seats while instructing them to keep secret that they are members of the controversial religion.
The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church is a closed global church led by Sydney-based “Man of God” Bruce Hales, who preaches a “hatred” for people outside the church. Women are treated as second-class citizens and homosexuality is not tolerated. Evolution is taught in schools as a theory only.
Read more in The SMH/Age (paywall)
Also read > Who’s behind the mystery billboards urging voters to ‘make Australia happy’ - The SMH/Age (paywall)
'Have you noticed that things are getting a little Trumpian in Australia?' - Damon Gameau looks at Atlas and Advance
Liberal’s “Advance” spread Anzac-eve division - The Klaxon
The Liberal Party-funded disinformation group “Advance” sent an email to tens of thousands of Australians sowing division over ANZAC Day just hours before Friday’s dawn service.
The highly divisive missive was sent by Advance on Thursday night — hours before the Welcome to Country was booed in Melbourne — and followed an earlier mass email from the group attacking the Indigenous ceremony.
The attacks by Advance, and subsequent attacks on the Welcome to Country by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, appear to be part of a tightly choreographed political attack, with the Federal poll just days away.
The biggest funder of Advance last financial year — by a factor of ten — was the Liberal Party.
Read more from Anthony Klan for The Klaxon
Peter Dutton calling the ABC and the Guardian ‘hate media’ rings alarm bells for democracy - The Conversation
In front of a crowd of party faithful last weekend, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton referred to the ABC, Guardian Australia and other news platforms as “hate media”. The language was extreme, the inference being these outlets were not simply doing their jobs, but attacking him and his side of politics because of ideological bias.
Speaking at a Liberal Party campaign rally in the Melbourne western suburb of Melton, Dutton said:
Forget about what you have been told by the ABC, The Guardian and the other hate media. Listen to what you hear [at] doors. Listen to what people say on the pre-polling. Know in your hearts that we are a better future for our country.
The inescapable conclusion is that Dutton equates scrutiny of him by journalists with hate speech.
Read more from Denis Muller for The Conversation
Also >
Why Peter Dutton’s campaign has not gone to plan - Full Story Podcast
Tim Dunlop: The extreme right in Australia is about to have their moment - The Future of Everything
Winter is coming.
One of the stories loading in background of my recent discussion of Australian politics is something that has come to a bit of head in the last week or so. As the Liberal Party has collapsed, the vacuum they are creating is increasingly being filled by the sort of right-wing extremism that has undermined democracy around the world. And we are nothing like ready for what is about to be unleashed.
The recent spate of organised neo-Nazis disrupting welcome-to-country ceremonies is the thin edge of a very large wedge, and of course, the media is falling for it hook, line and sinker.
Read more from Tim Dunlop for The Future of Everything
Also read > The Liberals’ shift to the hard right has alienated voters in the sensible centre - Dr Craig Emerson for The New Daily
Today’s cartoon by Glen Le Lievre
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute 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.
Jo Dyer: Everyone, even The Australian, is over Peter Dutton - The Shot
When you lose the fan club at The Australian, a Coalition leader is in serious trouble. After Andrew Hastie was let out of witness protection last week to stand next to Peter Dutton for the Coalition’s Defence Policy announcement – which, like most of the Coalition’s policy announcements was more a promise to chuck money at something than an explanation of actual priorities – Greg Sheridan described the event as “shrouded in the most cack-handed amateurism in delivery, messaging and substance you could possibly imagine”.
At the Sorrento Writers’ Festival this weekend, Paul Kelly was scathing about both the lack of policy work under Dutton’s leadership and their shallow talent pool. They are at risk of one of the worst results ever, he said, and should the Coalition perform as badly as expected and deserved on Saturday there is no natural or worthy successor in the party room.
Read more from Jo Dyer for The Shot
Pollster Kos Samaras on how voters are leaving the major parties behind - Politics Podcast with Michelle Grattan
Ex-Labor strategist turned pollster Kos Samaras says both major parties have been slow in adapting to this year's huge pre-poll voter turnout.
Listen to the Politics Podcast with Michelle Grattan
Also read >
Australia’s two-party system is in long-term decline: how can we understand the trend? - The Guardian
Half of Climate 200-backed independent candidates declare donations ahead of 2025 election - ABC News
Teal MP launches truth in political ads campaign, with support from adland execs - Mumbrella
Election 2025: How Perth independents are bypassing mainstream media to reach voters - WA Today
Young women are among those who care most about the cost of living. It could be bad for the major parties - Women’s Agenda
Adam Morton: The Coalition denies emissions will be higher if it wins the election. What do the facts say? - The Guardian
The Coalition has disputed claims that greenhouse gas emissions would be higher if it won the election than under a returned Labor government. It points to its record between 2013 and 2022 compared with what has happened under Labor over the past three years.
Speaking to the ABC’s RN Breakfast on Monday, the Coalition climate change and energy spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, said “under the former Coalition government you saw emissions fall” – from 12% to 29% less than 2005 levels. And that in Labor’s three years in office emissions “have flatlined”, showing the ALP has “failed”.
There is a bit going on here so let’s break it down.
Read more from Adam Morton for The Guardian
Also read >
Spain’s blackout has already triggered a firestorm of disinformation - Renew Economy
Our emissions policy is toothless, counterintuitive and confusing. That’s by design - Crikey (paywall)
“We are on a dangerous trajectory:” Global policy settings to trigger multiple climate tipping points - Renew Economy
Celeste Liddle: My grandfather fought to protect this country too. Where’s his respect? - Crikey
Neo-Nazis booing Uncle Mark Brown’s Welcome to Country at an Anzac Day service was not an aberration, but a symptom of a deeper sickness.
It wouldn’t be an Australian election without a culture war erupting in a bid to score votes, or without Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people being used as a political football. Yet, here we are again, days out from the next government being decided, and instead of actual policies being discussed, certain political leaders are grandstanding about Welcome to Country ceremonies.
It was upsetting, not to mention downright distressing, to see the footage of Uncle Mark Brown’s Welcome to Country being booed at the Melbourne ANZAC Day service.
Read more from Celeste Liddle from Crikey (paywall)
Also read >
Indigenous peoples either cannon fodder or unmentionable in a policy-lite campaign - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
How did a culture war over Welcome to Country become a defining point of the election campaign? - Women’s Agenda
Sorry Not Sorry, Welcome Not Welcome - Michael Bradley for The Shot
Amanda Meade: ABC chair Kim Williams says email criticising staff for declining to interview Austen Tayshus was ‘inappropriate’ - The Guardian
Williams says he did ‘not attempt to impose actions or outcomes on any editorial managers’ with emails about comedian.
The ABC chair, Kim Williams, has said an email he sent to radio management which was critical of regional radio staff for declining to interview the comedian Austen Tayshus was “inappropriate” but he denies directing coverage.
ABC’s Media Watch revealed on Monday night that Williams had intervened on behalf of the comedian, whose real name is Sandy Gutman, on no fewer than five occasions.
Also >
ABC Radio chair-bound - ABC Media Watch
I thought Kim Williams was the wrong pick to lead the ABC. Now I’m sure - Jenna Price for The SMH/Age
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Quick Links…
Dithering over local TV content plays into hands of global streamers - Michael West Media
‘Maga Catholics’ are gaining ground in the US. Now their sight is set on the Vatican - The Guardian
Only a third of Australians support increasing defence spending: new research - Pearls and Irritations
The first 100 days of Trump: Why we must mobilize - Robert Reich
Democracy on display or a public eyesore? The case for cracking down on election corflutes - The Conversation
Fossil fuels blamed as 84% of world's coral reefs hit by worst bleaching event ever recorded - Pearls and Irritations
How results play out across election night - The Tally Room
What does it take to start a community newspaper? Passionate, frustrated individuals and a gin distillery - The Guardian
Illegal betting website Polymarket paying TikTokers to promote election gambling - Cam Wilson for Crikey (paywall)
Why are political parties allowed to send spam texts? And how can we make them stop? - The Conversation
Uncertain allies- What history tells Australia about the US alliance - Inside Story
Trump’s big problem - Why the wheels are falling off - Nick Feik
Are voters really dumb? - Pearls and Irritations
Killing and starving Palestinians in Gaza is Israel's key goal - Antony Lowenstein
How do the Coalition and Labor plans on housing differ - and what have they ignored? - The Conversation
Adam Bandt’s plans for the next parliament - 7am Podcast
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
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You’re up to date for Tuesday the 29th of April. See you tomorrow.
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute 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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