News update for Tue 6 May 2025

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

May 06, 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

Margaret Simons: As Australia’s election result reminds us, News Corp no longer has the power to sway voters - The Guardian

It’s old news, but people are only just beginning to believe it.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has, for some time now, been impotent when it comes to affecting the outcomes of elections.

Once, it was widely accepted – though possibly never entirely true – that if a political leader did not have the blessing of Rupert Murdoch, then they could not win power.

That hasn’t been the case for at least 15 years, and yet we have not broken free from the fear, caution and intellectual paralysis that results from the belief.

At every state and federal election in Australia since 2010, the Murdoch press has supported the Coalition, and usually campaigned vigorously against Labor and other opponents. But look at the results in those contests. No discernible impact.

Also read > Australia has jumped the media snark as the coalition of the shrilling collapses - Crikey (paywall)

Inside the battle for the soul of the Liberal Party - 7am Podcast

As Peter Dutton conceded his 24-year hold on the Brisbane seat of Dickson, he said the Liberal Party will “rebuild”. The party’s soul-searching has begun, as it looks to select a new leader and consider its future direction. But a return to the Liberal Party’s traditional values is complicated by Peter Dutton having led the party further to the right and the election having diminished much of its moderate wing. Today, chief political correspondent for The Saturday Paper, Karen Barlow, on what’s next for the Liberal Party.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also >

The ‘bloodletting’ and crisis inside the Liberal party - Full Story Podcast
The post mortem: election special episode with Michelle Grattan and Amanda Dunn - Politics with Michelle Grattan
Labor's stunning landslide with Niki Savva and Laura Tingle - Late Night Live Podcast
‘Cooked membership = cooker candidates.’ What now for Liberal moderates? - Crikey (paywall)
If the answer’s Angus Taylor, it’s a dumb question. Liberals need a builder and unifier like Sussan Ley - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Gina Rinehart urges Liberal Party to follow Trump after election loss - Women’s Agenda
Liberal Party needs to have ‘hard conversations’ on women’s representation, Linda Reynolds says - Women’s Agenda

We’ve heard the promises. Now it’s up to Labor to deliver its housing, wages and other economic policies - The Conversation

With a convincing win for a second term of government, the pressure is now on the new Labor government to deliver the economic policies central to its win.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is wary of breaking promises and now has the opportunity to back this up. So, what are the key economic policies affecting everyday Australians that Labor is now set to deliver?

In his victory speech, Albanese said Labor would govern for every Australian “who deserves the security of a roof over their head or dreams of owning their own home”.

Jack Waterford: Dutton defeated in unexciting and uninspiring battlefield scrap - Pearls and Irritations

As a journalist, I have watched 21 federal elections and several more with a keen personal interest given that they closely affected my status, future or present, as a draft dodger.

I have written about individual contests, the overview and the issues at stake and why or how they mattered. I do not think I have ever seen an election campaign of so little moment or weight as the one that concluded this weekend. We were treated like dummies. The supposed goodies on offer were but diversions from what is happening in the world. The world which includes our world. Only superficial looks at personality and substance, or why either deserved trust. Even less on fundamental philosophical differences between the major parties.

Hannah Ferguson: What will Labor do next? - Dutton is unemployed, and I'm eating a chocolate - Cheek Media

In my adult life, there are two times I can recall feeling truly proud of my country. The first was the cult of the Matildas during the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the second is the night of the 2022 Federal Election.

At the end of last year, I don’t think you could have found an Australian who would confidently say Labor would win the election. It was Peter Dutton’s to lose. Anthony Albanese had been made small, cold, contorted. Disappointment was the defining emotion of his first term.

At the beginning of the year, something changed.

I woke up on Sunday and felt proud of my country for a third time.

Also read > The ‘feminisation’ of Labor is a key reason Australians embraced it – and Anthony Albanese - The Conversation

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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Dr Victoria Fielding: Coalition's problems far greater than a terrible campaign - Independent Australia

The crushing defeat of the Coalition on Saturday stemmed from its inability to let go of hateful, racist and divisive policies, of which Australia has had enough.

AS THE MEDIA rake over the ruins of what has been called the worst Liberal election campaign ever, and the Liberals and Nationals busy themselves repudiating each other’s efforts but never their own, they are all missing the point.

The problem was not the Coalition’s campaign.

Richard Denniss: Nothing stands the way of Labor and ambitious, progressive reform - The New Daily

What the Liberal Party does next is important to them and irrelevant to Australia.

They attracted the lowest ever primary vote for a ‘major party’ since 1943. They have their fewest members of House of Representatives since 1946 (when there were half as many seats to win).

What remains is a party even more dominated by Queensland MPs than it was before the election.

The Liberals hold only a small handful of seats in Sydney and Melbourne – and none in Adelaide or Hobart. Indeed, the Liberals hold no seats in Tasmania at all. The National party seems to have succeeded in its reverse takeover of the Liberals.

But who cares.

Also read >

Will an emboldened Albo play it safe, stick to the middle, or reform? - Michael West Media
Future of the Fair Go - Ben Eltham for Kill Your Darlings

Ketan Joshi: Labor’s next three years – in four key climate and energy numbers - Renew Economy

It is verging on exciting to think about the next three years. As I wrote here and others have covered in RenewEconomy, in terms of climate and energy, Labor’s second term will be nothing like their first.

Their tentpole policies will face implentation phases, growing pains and the need to rapidly accelerate. It will all occur under the eye of a Labor party that feels both emboldened, but likely also somewhat cautious and careful in the face of various global crises that we can be sure will emerge.

Also read >

Australia has backed a rapid shift to renewable energy – and given Labor a chance on climate. How will it act? - Adam Morton for The Guardian
Australia lays out red carpet for rapid green energy transition. Can Labor seize the moment? - Renew Economy
Australians choose batteries over nuclear after election fought on energy - The ABC
Nuclear dead, ambitious energy transformation mandate alive and well - Tim Buckley and Blair Palese for The Canberra Times

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Rachel Withers: The Greens had a shit Saturday. But Labor deluded if it thinks voters rejected the party - Crikey

Should the Greens leave the lower house to the community independents, and focus on pushing for change in the house of review?

There’s no putting lipstick on this particular pig, although Adam Bandt is certainly trying: Saturday night was a shit one for the Greens.

While Labor benefited from an anti-Coalition, anti-Trump surge, the Greens stalled, their ~12% primary falling slightly. The community independents did well, whereas the Greens lost two of their 2022 gains, Brisbane and Griffith, in part due to Liberal voters switching to Labor. Even Bandt’s seat looks shaky, with an unfavourable redistribution and swing to Labor ending Melbourne’s status as a “safe” Greens seat.

Damn Right! Liberals dance with death -The Politics

If Angus Taylor is the answer, the decimated party must ask a different question: will it stick with its male-dominated, attack dog, conservative ideology? If so, its end is nigh.

A bit over 18 months ago, Angus Taylor — an aspiring leader of the opposition — was tucking himself into bed at the posh InterContinental Hotel in London. We can assume his jetlag wasn’t too bad, and his hip pocket was okay too, because he’d enjoyed a freebie business class ticket from Australia.

His generous host was the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, (ARC), a then-new international mobilisation of ultra-conservatives on a self-styled mission to rescue Western civilisation, uphold Christian values, and save fossil fuels. Think of it as a think-tank-heavy, climate-sceptical north star for the ideological right. A culture wars nirvana, long on “correcting” school curriculums and short on “ woke” Indigenous ceremonies, with 1,500 devotees under one roof.

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