News update for Wed 12 Feb 2025

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

Feb 12, 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 | Also follow The Australia Institute's new Live Blog with Amy Remeikis

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Anthony Klan: “Godfather” tied to AEC mass censorship - The Klaxon

Last year’s mass censorship of political “donations” data by the Australian Electoral Commission followed action by the office of Special Minister of State Don Farrell — the architect of the Albanese Government’s electoral reforms.

The Klaxon can exclusively reveal it was Farrell’s office that last year “alerted” the AEC to an historic “data breach” the AEC is using to justify the biggest censorship of donations data in the nation’s history.

A phone call to the AEC about the breach — which occurred in 2019 — was made by either Farrell himself, or someone else in his office, at the time Farrell was writing the proposed new laws.

Dr Victoria Fielding: News media compliance making Trump more dangerous - Independent Australia

IN THE FIRST three weeks of the Trump Presidency, the world’s media has been tasked with chronicling the daily chaos of an unfit President who wields power more like a dictator than a democratically elected leader.

During this horror show unfolding in one of the world’s biggest democracies and its reverberations around the world, too many news outlets are showing they still do not understand how to act in the public interest when reporting about Donald Trump.

Instead, they let him play them like a violin, gifting him a mass-media platform to manipulate the public, to lie, to spread hate and to create an alternative reality where he is a strongman doing important work. It is this alternative reality that Trump has used to twice be elected president.

Also >

How Trump made ‘diversity’ a dirty word - The Full Story Podcast
How do we cover Trump 2.0? - Crikey (paywall)

An unpredictable race? - Democracy Sausage Podcast with Mark Kenny

The Tally Room’s Ben Raue joins Democracy Sausage to talk by-election results, swing seats and what it all means for the federal election. What lessons we take from the most recent by-elections? What do they tell us about long-term shifts in Australian politics? And what are the patterns we should watch for ahead of the federal election? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Ben Raue joins Professor Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga to discuss the long and short-term trends influencing voters.

Listen to The Democracy Sausage Podcast with Mark Kenny

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John Lyons: Two ghosts could be heard when Donald Trump announced his Gaza 'plan' - The ABC

Donald Trump's plan to turn Gaza into "the Riviera of the Middle East" is one of the most radical ideas from the White House for many years.

To understand how it came about, it's worth considering some comments made to a forum at one of the most prestigious universities in the United States in February last year.

It was to academics and students of Harvard's Kennedy School in Massachusetts that Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, took part in a discussion about international events.

‘Biases are supercharged’: Tracey Spicer on what women should know about AI - Women’s Agenda

Many AI devices can be weaponised and used for stalking. Apple AirTags, for instance, can be used to track someone without their consent. In the home, Siri or Alexa can be remotely hijacked by ex-partners, who use them as digital spies. Image generators, such as Canva, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, are more likely to create pictures and videos depicting men as leaders in the workplace, with women either absent or relegated to subordinate roles. It’s incredibly easy to create a nude deep fake of anyone these days. The technology is so sophisticated, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference. And AI voice and facial recognition software finds it harder to understand or recognise women, particularly women of colour. As this technology become ubiquitous, this makes it harder for women to emigrate, obtain credit, or get a job.

Also read > Nobody wants to talk about AI safety. Instead they cling to 5 comforting myths - The Conversation

Bridget McKenzie, Moira Deeming and key News Corp figures to attend Jordan Peterson’s ‘civilisation’ conference - The Guardian

The Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie and the Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming, along with key figures from News Corp, are to attend a UK conference led by Jordan Peterson which aims to “re-lay the foundations of our civilisation”.

A list of attenders seen by Guardian Australia showed more than 50 Australians, including figures from rightwing thinktanks and churches, attending gathering staged by the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc), which is associated with the Canadian psychologist and self-help book author.

A fierce tussle over a Northern Territory river reveals Australia’s stark choice on water justice - The Conversation

Water is now a contested resource around the world. Nowhere is this more evident than in the fight playing out over the Northern Territory’s Roper River – one of the last free-flowing rivers in Australia, nurtured by the enduring presence of First Nations custodians.

The territory government recently doubled water extraction allowances from the aquifer that feeds the Roper River, making billions of litres available to irrigators, for free. The change risks permanent damage not just to the river but to world-famous springs and sacred sites fundamentally important to Traditional Owners.

Who’s your lover now? Trump’s trade war sends Indonesia China’s way - Michael West Media

Donald Trump’s trade war risks changing the Asian power balance, forcing Indonesia to move from its historic stance of neutrality to get closer to China.

Jakarta is not a charmer, but her assets are attractive. Beijing and Washington have long been wooing the Indonesian capital for her strategic power and influence. She’s stayed coy until now, but the time has come to decide. It’s been hastened by discovering that one suitor is coarse, brutal, untrustworthy, and ignorant.

Bernard Keane: Many are guilty of politicising antisemitism. Dutton is the master - Crikey

The opposition leader has gotten up every day since October 2023 and worked hard, and very successfully, to politicise antisemitism.

Peter Dutton’s opposition to antisemitism is of an unusual kind — it makes him want to silence Jews who speak out against it, while also complaining that they don’t speak out against antisemitism.

In December, Dutton complained that Victorian Labor MP Josh Burns, who is Jewish, hadn’t spoken out enough on antisemitism, despite a long list of speeches by Burns on the issue. Burns attended a joint media conference with Coalition Senator James Paterson where Paterson was to read out a joint statement because Burns had lost his voice.

Anti-renewable billboard ad pulled under pressure from industry - Renew Economy

A blatantly false anti-renewable advertisement funded by the right wing ginger group Advance has been pulled from a billboard near Newcastle, but environmental activists are calling for tighter rules governing “out of home” advertising in Australia.

The advertisement that was removed, titled “Renewables cost the earth” and including the words “dollars and destruction” had attracted attention from advertising industry executives and activist groups in a series of LinkedIn posts, prompting the billboard owner oOH!Media to announce that it was being removed.