News update for Tue 4 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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Scroll down for today’s news and views…
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
BREAKING NEWS: US suspends all military aid to Ukraine, reports say, in wake of Trump-Zelenskyy row - The Guardian
Stitch-up "Godfather" caught out over Klaxon expose - The Klaxon
The architect of the biggest censorship of political “donations” data in the nation’s history has been “unable” to answer key questions about his own legislation.
That’s despite Special Minister of State Don Farrell’s electoral reforms being rammed through parliament two weeks ago by the ALP and Coalition, despite fierce objections.
Farrell and the Australian Electoral Commission have been grilled in Senate Estimates over exposes by The Klaxon detailing the mass censorship of pollical “donations” data.
“There was an article published in The Klaxon…which catalogues in some detail the change in what’s disclosed in the transparency register,” Greens Senator Larissa Waters told Senate Estimates.
Read more from Anthony Klan for The Klaxon
Australia’s gender pay gap explorer 2025: where does your workplace rank? - The Guardian
Newly released data shows the the gender pay gap at over 7,800 employers, with the data covering every private company with 100 employees or more in Australia.
In this interactive graphic we have updated our 2024 pay gap explorer to the newly released figures from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
The data has been collated differently in 2025, which makes a yearly comparison difficult – in 2024, if some or all of a corporate group’s subsidiaries had similar gender equality policies and strategies, these employers could report as a “submission group”.
Also >
Australian women earn nearly $30,000 less than men a year, the government’s latest pay gap report finds - The Guardian
Women’s annual salaries are narrowing the gap. But men still out-earn women by an average $547 a week - The Conversation
Yes, most employers still have massive gender pay gaps - The Women's Agenda Podcast
The gender pay gaps of major employers across retail and health, according to new WGEA data - Women’s Agenda
What Russia is promising Trump - 7am Podcast
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance in the Oval Office on Friday, they were there to sign a deal that would give the US access to a significant share of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. Instead, Trump and Vance berated and taunted Zelensky, before asking him to leave. The deal remained unsigned, and relations between the two countries are now in tatters, with military and aid support for Ukraine from the Trump administration in doubt. Meanwhile, Russian officials are working on their own set of deals with Trump. Today, associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University David Szakonyi, on what Vladimir Putin is offering Trump, and the figures behind the Russian deal.
The US we thought we knew is gone – and Australians know it - The Guardian
Donald Trump is upending the world order his country helped to create. He may also upend Australian foreign policy in the process. For 70 years, Australian foreign and security policy has revolved around the mythical security guarantee provided by the US. But as the horrifying spectacle in the White House over the weekend made clear, the America we thought we knew is gone. And we know it.
Read more from Dr Emma Shortis for The Guardian
Also >
Donald Trump is picking fights with leaders around the world. What exactly is his foreign policy approach? - The Conversation
Poll: Trump a greater threat to world peace than Putin or Xi - The Australia Institute
A New Arm of the Kremlin - As Trump’s gaslighting goes global - Dan Rather
Another US funding cut threatens human rights in North Korea - and hands more power to a dictator - The Conversation
Australia needs to join NATO — and its likely post-Trump successor - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Paddy Manning: Jacqui Lambie says salmon industry should get out of Macquarie Harbour | Tasmanian Inquirer
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie has called on Tasmania’s salmon industry to quit farming in Macquarie Harbour on the state’s remote west coast, marking a dramatic intervention into a polarised debate with implications for the looming federal election.
“Macquarie Harbour has been a very hot, hot spud when it comes to the salmon industry for many, many years,” Senator Lambie told Tasmanian Inquirer in an exclusive interview, “and it's getting worse.”
Lambie said the solution was to remove the fish farms entirely. “Get them out of the Macquarie Harbour,” she said. “You've got waterways everywhere. Go and put them somewhere else…put them out further in the sea. They just don't want [to do] it, because it costs those salmon companies more money.”
Read more from Paddy Manning for The Tasmanian Inquirer
Peter Dutton's nuclear plan could blow out household electricity bills by up to $600 a year by 2030 - Renew Economy
A new report has torpedoed Peter Dutton’s claim that the Coalition’s nuclear power plan for Australia would be 44 per cent cheaper than Labor’s plan for renewables, finding instead that it would inflate average consumer electricity bills by up to 41 per cent between now and 2030.
The report, commissioned by the Clean Energy Council, models the outcomes on electricity prices across Australia’s main grid, the NEM, if the build rate of utility scale renewable generation capacity was reduced significantly – as it promises to be under a Coalition government.
Also read > Ballarat environmental grant cut amid alleged antisemitism claims - ABC News
Sara Dowse: Why I signed an ad urging rejection of Trump's Gaza plan - Pearls and Irritations
In the swirl of horrendous news following the US president-elect’s taking his oath of office, there’s been one shining light. On 13 February, an ad boldly declaring “No to Ethnic Cleansing” appeared in the New York Times. More than 350 American rabbis, creatives and activists put their names to it, protesting against the president’s blithe announcement that Gaza could be changed from a pile of rubble to the Middle East’s “Riviera” – that is, if neighbouring countries would agree to accept the remaining Palestinian inhabitants who have managed, miraculously, to stay alive.
It wasn’t long afterwards that the Australian Jewish Women 4 Peace Action Ready Group swung into action.
Read more in Pearls and Irritations
Also read >
ANZ boss Shayne Elliott challenged over Israel lobby, human rights - Michael West Media
Censorship and the ongoing fallout from the Venice Biennale saga - Full Story Podcast
Ballarat environmental grant cut amid alleged antisemitism claims - ABC News
Today’s cartoon by David Rowe
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.
Putting election health commitments under the microscope - Croakey Health Media
The Federal Government continues to roll out pre-election health commitments, with the latest being a pledge to open another 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, with more clinics in every state and territory.
The general locations of the new clinics can be seen here (scroll to end of page), with the specific locations and providers to be determined through independent commissioning processes conducted by Primary Health Networks or state and territory governments.
Health and Aged Care MInister Mark Butler said the Albanese Labor Government went to the last election promising to open 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, and had delivered 87 clinics to date. He said once all of the clinics were open, four in five Australians would live within a 20-minute drive of a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, according to analysis by the Department of Health and Aged Care.
Read more in Croakey Health Media
Exclusive: Prince Harry's lawyer speaks out - The News Agents Podcast
What is it like to take on Rupert Murdoch and win? We have an exclusive interview with David Sherborne - the media barrister who represented Prince Harry last month and has been the go to lawyer for the highest profile celebrity trials ever fought.
But we start in Ukraine where Trump is threatening to stop military aid and the British Ambassador to America, Peter Mandelson, appears to have “wandered off the reservation“ in terms of party lines.
Listen to The News Agents Podcast
Misinformation on refugees and migrants is rife during elections. We found 6 ways it spreads – and how to stop it - The Conversation
Misinformation is a significant threat to our society. It undermines public discussion, erodes social cohesion, leads to bad policy and weakens democracy.
Misinformation on refugee and migrant issues is particularly pervasive – especially in the lead up to elections, as bad-faith actors try to promote fear, distrust and simplistic solutions.
And sometimes, misinformation is specifically targeted at migrant communities themselves, sowing division in an effort to influence elections.
Also read > Democracy’s bad eggs: corruption, pork-barrelling and abuses of power - The Conversation
Parklea to return to public hands as tide turns against private prisons - The Justice Map
A series of privately-run prisons have been returned to public hands across Australia in recent years, with six to be left by next year.
The New South Wales government will take over the operation of the Parklea Correctional Centre from late next year, ending more than 15 years of private management of the prison.
NSW Premier Chris Minns announced over the weekend that MTC Australia’s contract to run Parklea prison, which is worth $1.4 billion from 2018 to March 2026, will not be renewed, and the facility will be brought back into public hands.
Read more from Denham Salter for The Justice Map
What it costs us to have random three year terms (and why it’s all our fault) - Crikey
Why do we have to spend more than half a prime minister’s term speculating when they’ll go to the polls? Crikey gets into the long, long debate around fixed terms.
We have pointed out previously that more than half of Anthony Albanese’s time as prime minister has been dedicated to speculation as to when he might return to the polls. After gaming out any number of theories on when the bloody thing will be called, the general consensus is that Albanese is all but set on an April 12 vote.
However, we are now facing the situation that the possible damage caused by Cyclone Alfred in Queensland combined with the most Australian of barriers…
Also read > Senate estimates is broken due to partisan warfare and a lack of transparency - Crikey (paywall)
Writing wrongs gets a bad press in Trump land - The Politics
Threats, public ridicule and weaponised lawsuits hammer down on journalists (and world leaders) who try to hold the US president to account.
There’s an earthquake kicking the ground out from under journalists and news publishers in the US, fuelled by Donald Trump’s deranged attacks on anyone who holds him to account. Journalists who kiss the ring are admitted to Oval Office press conferences where their role is to bay and snarl like hyenas at international leaders who don’t fawn over the US president or refuse to hand over their beloved countries to his dubious collection of mates.
Read more from Nicole Chvastek for The Politics
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Quick Links…
Company behind ‘Fearless Girl’ statue drops board diversity targets - Women’s Agenda
#53 No majority, no problem? - Blaksiders Podcast
False claims swirl over Aussie citizenships from Gaza - AAP Fact Check
Alex Carey: a century of business taking the risk out of democracy - Pearls and Irritations
The Trump-Vance-Musk-Putin manosphere - Robert Reich
‘Stripped to our bare bones’: three years on from the floods, Lismore’s housing crisis is worse than ever - The Guardian
Cyclone Alfred is expected to hit southeast Queensland – the first in 50 years to strike so far south - The Conversation
Is Manly’s Michael West the most sued person in Oz? - The Tawny Frogmouth
New South Wales public schools to get $5b boost in latest deal to end funding wars - ABC News
Amazon set to be NBN satellite provider - Cam Wilson for Sizzle
Albanese is fighting an election in the attention economy. The deciding votes will come from those least engaged - The Guardian
NSW has finally struck a school funding deal. What does this mean for schools and students? - The Conversation
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 4th 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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