News update for Tues 20 Feb 2024
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 selected articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.
Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.
Scroll down for today’s news and views…
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here
Factcheck: Peter Dutton says Labor has weakened Australia’s asylum policy. Is he right? - The Guardian
Paul Karp fact checks Dutton's claims.‘Opposition leader says government has cut $600m from border enforcement and reduced surveillance flights. Budget numbers tell a more nuanced story.The arrival of an asylum seeker boat in Western Australia has renewed a war of words over Operation Sovereign Borders, with opposition leader Peter Dutton claiming Labor has weakened Australia’s harsh deterrence policies.’
Read more in The Guardian here…
Humanising war victims - ABC Media Watch
Do the victims of the Israel Gaza war receive equal treatment in the press? Our analysis of three newspapers finds a bias towards Israeli victims over Palestinian.
Watch ABC Media Watch’s analysis here…
Last chance for Julian Assange. It is time for Albanese to put his words into action - Michael West Media
‘Last week, Parliament voted overwhelmingly for a motion to end the Julian Assange case. This week, he is in the High Court of Justice in London seeking leave to appeal his extradition to the US.‘In terms of significant dates and milestones in the long-running pursuit by the US of publisher and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, this coming week ranks highly. On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, a hearing before two judges in the UK’s High Court will hear Assange’s final bid to appeal against extradition’, writes Greg Barns.
Read more in Michael West Media here…
Peter Dutton’s border security offensive takes on water - The New Daily
‘The Richardson Report found that on Dutton’s watch as Home Affairs Minister the department channelled hundreds of millions of dollars to dubious companies running off-shore detention,’ reports Paul Bongiorno.‘The current minister Clare O’Neil told Parliament, “this report exposes the Leader of the Opposition as an absolute fraud, someone who oversaw a system funnelling taxpayer dollars into drugs, guns and human trafficking, while all the while marketing himself as a tough guy on borders”.’
Read more in The New Daily here…
Israel’s propaganda has ceased to convince or persuade even its friends - Pearls & Irritations
‘Israel’s citizens seem either blithely unaware of the world’s horror at the terror raining down on Gaza, or do not care. Whichever, the barbarity has stripped it of the significant moral advantage given by the Hamas atrocities of October 7, and have caused fundamental reappraisal of Israel’s standing among people once disposed to be sympathetic or admiring’, writes Jack Waterford.
Read more in Pearls & Irritations here
Cartoon by Megan Herbert for SMH/Age
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here
New ecosystems, unprecedented climates: more Australian species than ever are struggling to survive - The Conversation
Australia is home to about one in 12 of the world’s species of animals, birds, plants and insects – between 600,000 and 700,000 species. More than 80% of Australian plants and mammals and just under 50% of our birds are found nowhere else.‘But habitat destruction, climate change, and invasive species are wreaking havoc on Earth’s rich biodiversity, and Australia is no exception’, explain Frédérik Saltré and Professor Corey J. A. Bradshaw of Flinders University.
Read more in The Conversation here…
Ten of Australia’s top companies lack clear plans to stop using or supporting fossil fuels, report says - The Guardian
‘Ten of Australia’s best-known corporations – including Coles, Telstra, Woolworths and Qantas – have no clear plans to stop using or supporting fossil fuels despite having targets to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report.‘The companies were also failing to report clearly the impact of their businesses on the climate warming caused directly or indirectly from land clearing’, reports Graham Readfearn.
Read more in The Guardian here…
A Liberal Senator would be ’embarrassed’ being a gender quota - Women’s Agenda
‘Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes would be “embarrassed” to be a gender quota. But the real embarrassment for the Liberal party is their lack of female MPs and the party’s unwillingness to do something significant about it’, writes Angela Priestley.
Read more in Women's Agenda here…
Let's be clear: Australia is not immune to ‘democratic backsliding’ - Independent Australia
An obvious case in point is the resurgence of autocratic world leaders and the increasingly common practice of autocratic leaders either appointing themselves for life or rigging the electoral system in such a way that a leadership challenge becomes impossible.
Living in this wonderful country of ours, we may be inclined to think, "Thank goodness we still have a functioning democracy". But do we?
Read more in Independent Australia
Border Insecurity - Jonathan Green for The Politics
Dutton’s lies on border security are a sign that nothing stands between him and cynical politics – not even stopping the boats
The leader of the Opposition would be aware that his own words have consequences, and when he proclaims that Operation Sovereign Borders is a structure being eroded by the actions of the Albanese government, he must confidently predict that this is a message that will encourage the “sophisticated crime syndicates” that are listening to our north and waiting on opportunity.
Read more in The Politics here
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Quick Links…
Murdoch Media in overdrive creating cost of living problem for Albanese - Dr Victoria Fielding for Independent Australia
Putins biggest critic is dead - The Daily Aus podcast
The devil in Dutton’s details - New Politics
Super Power - ABC’s 4 Corners replay
Labor highlights tax cuts in Dunkley campaign, while Liberals go after Albo - Crikey
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here
Share your views on Australia’s media landscape through TrueNorth’s short survey
You’re up to date for Tuesday 20th February. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here